"...And I'm Awesome! Let's Go Get the Front Page!"
I remember watching "Trying to Make Music" a while back. It's still hilarious. After watching this and reviewing Dave Pagurek's site page, there it was. Should have been obvious about whose minds are behind this happy-go-lucky piece. For a young kid, Dave's animation skills are pretty good, even though the art direction is very simple. What kills me is that this is a fair-length cartoon with a lot going for it, even though the author(s) consider it a test of classical animating techniques. It's also very family-friendly, which is something that most cartoonists in Newgrounds cannot do and not just in a deliberate fashion--people here just don't know how to make a squeaky clean cartoon and make it funny and engaging. You could probably count the ones who can on a single hand, and at least one finger goes to Pahgawk.
In "Let's Go Fly a Kite", the young girl cons her big brother into some outside playtime, which is something he needs given that he's in front of a computer more often than not. While their father goes to the store, they try to have fun with a kite, but the classic anathema of kites, a tree, throws them into a series of attempts at recovering their little red vessel. However, their efforts soon turn to infighting, which escalates through an all-consuming water fight. Post-Script: their father is a weirdo in and out of public.
Being that this was developed by a brother-and-sister team (Dave's sister Sari co-wrote this as part of an unofficial apprenticeship), the actual coherence of a narrative very close to real and even closer to home is exemplary. Most collaborations between siblings fall flat on their faces or never see the light of day. When these kids take the stage, however, sparks fly.
The simple, simple art direction resembles Egoraptor's Awesome series, such as pupil-less eyes when really wide and general facial expressions, even the Easter Egg: how it's found and its content. Egoraptor kept his animation simple to stay ahead of deadlines when he worked for MTV--his art improved after his tenure with them ended, even though he submits Awesome and Girlchan sporadically--while Dave's emphasis on simplicity is to avoid becoming overwhelmed. Thus, he is judicious about what to work on, what to leave in, what to emphasize, and what not to include, a necessary talent for any animator. Whatever the result, he's learning. At a geometric rate, probably....
It's obvious that Dave gets cues from the raptor but remains distinct from him. For one thing, this is G-rated. It's all very tongue-in-cheek and solid humor, especially since every character manages to have a quirk about them that makes you smile at the very least. As an animation experiment, it's obvious that there are flaws, but none are glaring, and even though not every frame is used, that's what you're meant to do, considering not every frame changes. It's also fun to note that he changed the right-click menu in an inventive fashion, explaining how he tried hard to work around audio synchronization issues in a (large) project. Even though you would never see this on, say a DVD release of material, it adds another nice human touch. Of course, nothing would click without a public domain score of the William Tell Overture (Lone Ranger Theme) used in a fashion reminiscent of "Ren & Stimpy" and a stellar voice-over direction. Even though I haven't mentioned that a whole lot, without sibling rivalry and chemistry, there wouldn't be a "Let's Go Fly a Kite", period.
Not only is this family-friendly, the development was family fare, so God help me if I strongly advise getting your loved ones involved with authoring a submission. The results may surprise you. Anyway, if you want to find something of Newgrounds that isn't quite Newgrounds, look no further than "Let's Go Fly a Kite". This not getting Front Page is like Cardinal Sin.