Score: 10

"As JL as you can get."

submission: The Ugly Duck

date: August 7, 2006

Now before I start reviewing I want to adress all the people who I've read leaving reviews saying how horrible this is and that it made them sick. The point is showing the reality of the situation at hand, you feel bad for the "ugly duckling" you're made to understand his plight. The reason behind what he did was clear, his anger at his father made him into a cyclone of rage laying waste to all targets in his path.

He saves the child. But then what?

How is he supposed to care for a child? What is he going to do?Bring it back to the mother claiming that he had just found it and there was no husband attached? Maybe he could just mumble "Sorry for killing your husband." and run off, hell chances are the mother could be just as bad. Bring it to an orphanage? I think not, this is a stunted man, emotionally stunted by the hand life has delt him. He couldn't raise it, nor could he let it be subjected to anymore of, what he considers to be "this horrible life." So he does what he sees is right in his eyes, he ends the child's life.

And that's what makes him the ugly duck, not being able to see past his own issues and not being able to grasp the full scope of what is happening.

The whole character in this piece makes it shine alone for rasing moral and ethical issues while watching it. It's another gem in JL's pocket.

As normal the almost story book graphics are great, colorful and discriptive. Everything, as odd as it appears is the same style which is quite a hard task to pull off. You also managed to keep everything in a real world setting which is another added bonus. Nothing was gritty, to dark or harsh, it is as life looks everyday. Normal. I also have always liked the way you manage to keep your animation nice and simple yet have it as deep as it can get. Instead of having to sift through squiggly lines and over dramatic styles I'm given a nice plain toon. Artsy and yet not as quite.

It's just another short on top of the already huge stack of amazing shorts done by Jeremy. I hope to see another one soon.

Score: 9

"I can't find the "Auto-Win" button."

submission: Geeks In Love

date: August 6, 2006

So it's taken me a bit to actually get around to reviewing this submission. Quite truthfully the first time I listened to it, and saw it I wasn't all impessed or taken by the wonderful lyrics. I probably "X"'d out halfway through gave it a three and went on my merry way.

I can't even explain why. Maybe the tune wasn't right for me at that moment in time, maybe I just didn't need to hear a love song just then. Whatever it was it's gone now.

This is without a doubt one of the best music videos on NG.

Firstly we have the music. The song is on LD par being catchy and easily "singalongable" just about all of their songs have this infecious beat and tune that seems to linger in your head for the next week and a half. This one probably stuck more to the majority of the NG audience. I mean there's a little bit of geek in all of us but NG seems to have more that the daily amount. Since I'm not much of a music critic and know next to nothing about it there's no real nit picking. All I can say is it was another fantastic song by these guys.

TMST is one of those great animators drifting around the web. His cartoonish style and easy on the eyes animation makes watching anything he works on a joy. As in "When Robots Attack" he's managed to take the song and make it even greater. What gets me is the new and fun ways he finds to introduce us to the different aspects of the geeks within the song. The pictures on the wall were a great way not only to allow great, and unexpected scene changes but to also keep the piece running on the same track, keeping the video complete in a nice little package instead of just having a ton of different cutscenes.

Both Lemon Demon and TMST seem only to be getting better with time and I can only wait until the next video to come from the pair.

Score: 10

"A high score, all around."

submission: Weed Harmless 3

date: April 23, 2006

Well, let me first start off to saying what a fantastic piece of work this is. Putting all of my views aside, this was probably one of the best put together flashes I've seen in one hell of a long time. The menu was interactive and easy to navigate, your intro was just short enough to not get annoying, and the mini-navi bar at the bottom was nice and simple. It's rare beautiful thing to see a flash with such great navigation.

The shorts were all hilarious. Each one making me at least crack a grin as I watched it. You even managed to put some of that good ol' propaganda charm in some of them, which made it quite fun to laugh at. They were all clean and consistant, and the facts that you did provide are very true. Great work. The only real complaint (if you can call it one) was some choppy sound bites at the beginning, but it's so stupid and miniscule that you really shouldn't give it any attention.

Now a little aside for all of those claiming "weed causes schizophrenia" I will not deny that it does, because there is medical proof of this. However the major tests that have been done have proved nothing conclusive other than "don't smoke before age 21." Plus on top of that the tests subjects may have had the psychotic and schizophrenia disorders to begin with, just extreme (and I do mean extreme) cannabis consumtion during their youth cause their disorder to occur sooner. The sample that even somked at age 15 (of which were only 29) only three of them had schizophrenia/ schizophrenic symptoms by the age of 26. Which if you know anything about numbers proves nothing conclusive. So don't cling to this false notion that the moment you smoke you'll immediately become a schizophrenic cause there's such a minute chance of it ever happening to you it's barely a reason to not smoke.

How about just saying "I don't feel like smoking" instead of coming up with far-out notions and claiming that it's so harmful to your health.

10/10 - Keep up the very impressive work.

Score: 6

"It's about time someone used this song."

submission: Frontier Psychiatrist.

date: February 8, 2006

This was my favorite song a few years back, in fact it was one of the only songs by The Avalanches that i thought diserved recognition. So as far as sound goes it's obvious where my 10 came from.

Your drawings are a bit crude but still unquiely yours, hence you've got some style going for you, I wish there was a bit more detail at some points. The greyscale seems like the right way to go for the song you've chose, and you made some pretty interesting ways to incorperate the scratching into some logical action on screen. I know I would've been stuck on that little problem for a long time so i commend you for finding a way around it.

My one real problem with this is that it isn' finished. I just think it's almost a waste of time to not complete your work before you submit it. Sure, it may have taken you a while and you want to show it off, but I find it's best to use friends and family for that.

Then again I'm extremely anal about my flash and what qualifies as a finished product (Hence my -none-) so I may sound more harsh than I mean to.

It's a solid flash, and in my book you made up not finishing it by picking one hell of a song. However the fact that it wasn't took a nice hunk out of your score.

6/10

Score: 9

"Great video, great song."

submission: When Robots Attack

date: January 9, 2006

My first time viewing this video I found I really couldn't get into the music (which is odd because I really like everything I've heard from Lemon Demon so far), in fact the only thing that kept me watching (and eventually returning) was the wonderfully executed video by TMST.

However, now well into my fifth time watching this video I've found that the music has grown surprisingly fast on me. Now I find myself returning more for the song than the animation and hum the tune as it's being played. It reminds me a lot of The Might Be Giants, which too have had tons of songs that at first I scowled at, and then a week later found myself humming in the car or at work. It's a great piece of music, and worthy of the hype some of the other Lemon Demon songs are getting.

Which brings me to the animation. TMST proves his name again by bringing this simple concept to life. It looks like it'd take an extremely organized mind to put together what he did here. I know that if it had been myself trying to make this flash I would be pulling my hair out and spewing exploitives from my mouth. The concept is great the execution is fantastic, another A+ for TMST.

What else can say? Thanks for making this guys. It's going straight to my favorites. I look forward to more. :)

Score: 10

"Brillant."

submission: The Touchtone Genius

date: November 18, 2005

I've browsed through songstowearpantsto before, but never really tried enough out to actually get a feel for the guy's musical genius. I realized now that I had probably chosen the short request fills that he just wanted to get out of the way.

When I first heard this I was blown away. I mean I have a friend who can play the touchtones, but only to the extent of "Mary has a Little Lamb." This just floored me. When it got to the last part of the short where he's going crazy on the pad I was speechless.

I really hope you can presuade Pants to team up to make either more musical shorts, or more touchtone genius, because I simply need more. >:D

Even putting the music aside this had me cracking up. The first time I watched this was on a laptop with really crappy speakers. I have since gotten home and was able to put on my headphones, and to my surprise I could actually hear what the guy on the left was saying. Even now i crack a smile when I hear "This is probably the best phone call I've ever recieved."

The other thing I liked about it was it was short and sweet. It didn't needlessly drag on or build up, instead it stuck you right in and started.

Great job on all parts. I hope to see more.

Score: 9

"Fantastic song."

submission: eBaums world dot com

date: November 8, 2005

I've never been a fan oe EBaums and had some recollection of them stealing content a while back but it didn't seem that many people knew of it. I'm glad that this flash can bring this news to the people who only use the internet lightly.

But as this is a review, there is little room for my stance on the subject, I should say more about the flash.

Your drawing were mediocre at best but at the same time hilariously so. They came off well and served their point, which I'm guess is just to aid the song. The simple graphics did pay off. I think if you had more complex drawings or more action that it would've taken something away from the song.

The music is what makes this the gem it is. Even if I had no clue of EBaums or SA I would still play this song over and over. Ingenious lyrics put to a catchy tune has paid off ten fold. It sget the job done, by making such a catchy song you were able to get the message out and keep it out.

Excellent job.

Score: 10

"Superb."

submission: Xin Session 16

date: October 27, 2005

You guys are simply amazing.

Firstly, this plot you have devised is simply amazing. It's well thought-out and has excellent twists. Secondly, you've made distinctive characters. Thirdly your voice acting and music is top notch. Then last but not least you guys haven't given up on this series. Most flash artists quit on a series around 7 or 8 at most. Myself, I haven't even gotten one done., but you guys keep on trucking with 17 out and each new episode contiues to get better than the last one.

Keep it up, and I look forward to even more from the folks at Life.1.

Score: 9

"It's about damn time."

submission: Mutant Ninja Turtles EP03

date: August 20, 2005

Thank you.

You brought something to the turtles that no pervious cartoon has yet. You made them completely kick ass.

When the new cartoon came out a while back I was dissapointed by their lack of kickassery. I was very dishearted also to see that Shredder was a little pussy. This cartoon, even in the few short minutes it was on, made Shredder and all the Turtles cool again.

I really wish you got a huge team together and made some exteremely high quality long episodes of this. You animation was a bit rough in spots, and was even repeated in a spot, but I can definately let it slide as the complexity of the characters you were moving was quite high. Your color was nice too, managing to fit in shadows in almost every scene. The sound could use some improvement, but it was still pretty nice.

Make more of this because I honestly think you're the shining hope to make the TMNT badass again.

Score: 9

"Superb."

submission: Noodles on my Back

date: July 13, 2005

When I first watched this little short, I thought is was a nice, cute, and funny music video. The song was very nicely done and the animation was good. It's also a refreshing break from the random violence and crappy movies.

So cut to an hour after had first watched it. I'm sitting at my computer, playing a game when all of a sudden I start singing "I'm a hippopotamus who likes noodles on my back. Noodles of my back, noodles on my back." I was surprised, it was the last song I expected to be coming out of my mouth.I couldn't get it out of my head for the rest of the day.

This song you made is insanely catchy my friend.

Well done.

9/10