Loved every second of it.
Author Comments
First off, my Brother and I are 38 and 34. As a matter of fact, the picture of me in our logo is me at 10 when I first started computer animation in DOS. I have been animating for two decades and he has been a professional singer/songwriter for nearly as long, so I don't want to hear any B.S. questioning the "legitamacy" of our work. We spent over a year working on this in our spare time when not freelancing for well known brands.
I only regret that the 10Mb size limit on Newgrounds forced us to split the video into three parts and compress the hell out of it. So, yes, it is a bit grainy, but I would hope you can look past that and judge the work based on its artistic merits and not on the limits of the medium. You can see the HD version on youtube if you want to see this in its glory.
The primary animation and elements were created in flash, the shading and 3D compositing were done in AfterEffects. The music was created and performed by my brother with Acid 6.0. No, this music is not his style, it was created and calculated to have mass appeal.
so funny
Hmm, a tricky one.
Theres no denying the animation was solid, so lets just put that to one corner.
The song was extremely repetitive and I get that whats you were going for but in terms of entertainment value it lost its touch as about a minute. I get that your brother doesn't usually make that style or whatever but perhaps you could have tried making it in his style?
As you said it was "was created and calculated to have mass appeal."
Thats totally not Newgrounds style.
You could have got a experimental route that you would have prefered and probably received a better reception from the NG audience, this isn't exactly a place for commercialism.
Regardless It was entertaining to watch, would I watch it again? Probably not but there are a lot worse submissions out there.
Good luck with your future endeavors.
A Difficult Flash to Review
The animation was really good. I found it entertaining, and on the whole I liked it.
But it reeked of the artificial. A flash being well thought out and planned is a beautiful thing, but when calculated it can rapidly lose its individuality. I feel like anyone could have made this flash.
You admit as much in your comment, saying your brother abandoned his personal style in favour of mass appeal. This is not a good thing. There are plenty of people who step outside their usual style without conforming to a trend of catchy and predictable melodies.
This part alone is way better than the whole thing and you should thank NGs 10 mb limit for that. This is because variety in anything is a big deal. The melody is catchy- clearly designed that way- but over 4 minutes it exhausts its momentum. This is why standard song formula includes a chorus.
It's simply not funny. It's just like "Yea I get it, it's supposed to be funny because Dora the Explorer is a children's cartoon character who is by extension really annoying to adults and she's dying brutally". It's simply not edgy, nor is the timing done well enough to surprise, and the humour of the video is predictable.
Overall a general sense of mediocrity pervades the flash. The tune is addictive and catchy, and I had no desire to stop watching the cartoon once I started. It was entertaining from start to finish, but it's more like snack food than any kind of real composition. It's supposed to be addictive, but I give it 6 stars because those other four stars are reserved for flashes that attempted to be memorable and not just addictive.
StringAnime responds:
This is edgy. It's just Killing DORA repeatedly with no jokes, that makes it more funny than if it had Jokes. Artificial? What does that mean? I'm a machine? Uh thanks. I never see people using an airbrush rendered style. I want the DORA people to see this and say while shaking their fists, "WHY DOESN'T OUR ACTUAL SHOW LOOK THIS GOOD?" If being too polished is my crime, as I have been accused by others, I plead guilty as charged.
I found this really cryptic!
Yeah you can see that its quality isnt' nearly as good as it should be due to Newgrounds restraints.
what made you even make something like this?! its as I said...Cryptic and so eerie! haha loved it!