Uugh, I hate cliffhangers. And yes, pun intended
Reviews for "-The Explorer-"
Beautiful work, man. It's so refreshing to see this kind of quality on Newgrounds and I'm absolutely elated that it uses my music too. There are a few flashes out there that are kinda low-quality that use my music but occasionally a fantastic one like this uses it and it makes me feel incredibly warm and fuzzy inside. I'm truly honoured!
What I'm most impressed with would be your character design. Even in The Guardian, it's impossible not to appreciate the fluid character gestures and excellent character design. Everything's nailed; the hair, the clothes, the facial features, all of it. The character looked exactly like what I'd imagine if I thought of a curious young cartoon explorer.
The animation in general is very solid, and the art works quite well. I do have a few issues here though; while your characters are fantastic, your backgrounds create as much of an atmosphere. You nail the shading but the backgrounds seem to be there just to give insight on where the character is, without offering that much detail and intricacy. It'd be a great idea to get a dedicated artist to work on some backgrounds for your work so that you can focus more on delivering your smooth animation and awesome character design.
The story isn't that direct and leaves a lot of questions to be answered. This is significantly less eventful than The Guardian, making the sequel a lot more anticipated. While you've done a great job of delivering a subtle story that leaves the viewer wanting more, I would've liked some more stuff happening!
But honestly, your story is very well delivered. So far I'm gathering that young people passing by are chosen to turn into some entity with a distinguishable colour and extraordinary powers, each one with his/her own little sub-story. I love how subtly you imply that there are more of them, by making those beacons light the skies. It's all well-thought out and with more plot-building you could end up with a very solid story.
And man, you synced it so well with the music! I might be biased over here of course but you were extremely creative at making a whole interpretive animation out of some music. Certain parts in this, and even in The Guardian, go so well with the music that they end up giving you goosebumps, which is one of the best things about this series.
Overall, I absolutely love what you've done here. My advice? Keep it up; keep building the plot and either focus more on giving detail to the backgrounds or get someone else to help you with it. Again, I'm ecstatic and grateful that you used my music and I am TOTALLY interested in providing more music for your future animations like scoring an animation so you won't have to time it with the music yourself, if you're up for it. Up to you!
9/10
5/5
I admit that this really seemed to come out of nowhere, but it was still a really freaking awesome cartoon. I've already said how I've reviewed so many things, I don't remember the original. I loved how you used orange, which happens to be my favorite color. I thought that it might just end halfway when the screen went black. I have seen things that had half of it being credits. I am glad you didn't take the easy way out.
I just wish I could understand this more. I don't know if there was supposed to be some deeper meaning or something. I just appreciate it for being really well done. The music was wonderful as well and seemed quite appropriate. I can see why this won Daily Feature.
Loved it!
Fwew! Okay, I think I'm good now. At the end I had to read the Author Comments, then frantically scroll back to the video to see the "To be continued..."
Because this MUST be continued.
I'll have to revisit The Guardian, but I think I remember seeing it and it was wickedly good!
As was this! Your style is so good, simple and involved at the same time. You have the "human-ness" down pat, and those little gestures that bring characters to life.
Do continue, please. I can't wait for your next new thing. :D