Reviews for Brackenwood Christmas

[Zuberi13]

I didn't really get it

There just wasn't anything entertaining about it to me. I respect adam philips and i suppose if he thinks it is funny then thats his opinion, but really it just bored me. I would comment on length but you take the time to mention the e-card nature and the contest so i suppose thats ok. I gave a 3 for animation because it was moderately well drawn but the entertainment aspect was just really lacking for me.
~Zuberi13

P.S. you are getting way to critical when responding to bad reviews. I mean insulting reviewers isn't going to change their review and it seems childish. If you need to respond to defend yourself then thats something but most of the time your response is like 4 times the length of the review itself and really just is insults....

SecretAgentRege responds:

Hi Zuberi13. Yes, at times in the past my responses to reviews may have been taken as "insulting" and perhaps at times written to be insulting. However, since I've joined NG I've actually grown up a little, and in my mind haven't written an insulting response in quite a while. I can only assume that you are referring to the response to Archaos' review, since it is right before yours and, admittedly, is quite long. However, I would not be to hasty to call it offensive. The gentleman had accused me of "not following the contest rules," which is a false accusation coming from someone who obviously hasn't a clue what he is referring to and I felt deserved an in-depth explanation as to why the e-card absolutely did follow contest rules. At no time did I outright insult him.

As for the length, if someone deserves an adequate response, explanation, or retort to their review--be it positive or negative--then I feel it is fine to take as much space as may be needed to do so. Certainly, no one is forced to read anything--this isn't a home work assignment. If we weren't expected to take as much space as we needed, NG would have a less than 4,096 character limit!

Truth be told, a bad review doesn't have to negative. "That's awesome!" and "This sucks!" tells me absolutely nothing about my creation and what was done well or could be done better; it's just more tempting to respond negatively to a poorly done negative review than a poorly done positive. Contrary to what you may believe, good reviews are actually negative reviews that explain why the viewer disliked the cartoon, and the best reviews are negative reviews that explain what could have been done better. This is exactly why I've chosen to respond to your review, since it was a good review in that it tells me not that you hated the cartoon, but why you didn't enjoy it as much as you could.

On that note, thanks for your review!

[Archaos]

This didn't follow the contest rules

The contest rules were to use characters or themes from Brackenwood, and add in some new element that fits the world. You didn't do any of that. You took an original, compelling world (Brackenwood) and simply added christianity to it. I have seen the christian joke you used in many other things. I am disappointed that adam phillips actually approved of this. There are so many creatures and things you could've pulled from your imagination, that would better fit the world of brackenwood. Next time make something original up.

SecretAgentRege responds:

Actually, you are completely and utterly incorrect; but I suppose ignorance is bliss. Let me clarify for your benefit: The contest--which was held over three years ago--was to create a humorous holiday ecard that included some aspect of the Brackenwood series. It did NOT have to "add in some new element that fits the world," as you have seemed to incorrectly discern. In fact, it did not even have to include the Brackenwood "world" at all! It only needed the tiniest Brackenwood artifact within the cartoon. Some examples given by Adam at the time, was perhaps having Santa hum the Brackenwood tune as he delivers presents, or to simply have a poster of Bitey on a bedroom wall. This flash went above and beyond the guidelines for incorporating Brackenwood within it.

As for the joke; it was a completely original idea and execution thought up from my own mind within the six hours I had to make the contest submition deadline. By no means was it even conceptually based off another work. Of course I cannot express that it has never been told before or used elsewhere though I can say for certain that I have never seen or heard it in any creative work before and find it quite hard to believe that you "have seen [it] in many other things."

Finally, not only did Adam Phillips "actually approve" this flash, but it tied for Runner-Up (that means second place) and received a small prize from Adam himself, which I took as a great compliment as there were many great submissions.

You certainly do not need to leave positive reviews nor must you enjoy my cartoons but I would suggest that the next time you feel that you need to leave a review for someone, perhaps you should double-check simple things such as the contest rules found here in this example.

In response to what you seemed to think had to be done: Had there been a requirement to create new characters and put them into the Brackenwood world, I would have enjoyed the attempt at reaching as deep into my imagination to pull out some of the great and compelling ideas Adam puts into his work. Unfortunately, and as I have explained, that's just not what the contest was for.

Thanks for your review.

[god-monkey-pickle]

clever

quite good

[BBBK123]

loved it

very funny and clever i admire your work and i can only hope you continue

SecretAgentRege responds:

Thank you!

[reverenmusic12]

pretty good, but 2 flaws.

1, it didn't really have much of any brackenwood content in it, and 2, if the earth was shooken that severely , or even at all, the world would end almost instantaneously.

SecretAgentRege responds:

Hi,
1. For the contest, it didn't really have to have too much Brackenwood in it.. this entry actually had more than others..
2. It's a good thing it's a cartoon then :)

Thanks for the review!