SomeOtherStranger's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Catching Up (Pilot)]

The overall production quality is impressive, but the story itself comes off as pretty jaded.

Aside from just the overall tone, the one thing that keeps coming to mind specifically is the conflict resolution with the two girls. Sticking up for yourself is great. Being an ass about it isn't. I'm not even asking for moralisms, but at this point I'm not sure why I should like the protagonists any more than their antagonizers, aside from the fact they're the ones getting pushed around.
Because it became less them lashing out when pushed to their limit, and more them taking satisfaction in stepping on other people's toes, which is the same kind of malice that their own bullies show to them.

On a different note, I related a fair bit to the cat guy so, he's definitely my favorite of the two. The scene where he's on the verge of panic by being overwhelmed by the crowd and noise around him felt real man.

But, on the topic of the characters, I guess what you'd want to be asking yourself is... why should we be rooting for these two at all? What makes them interesting as people that we'd want to follow their story? Is there anything to really like about them at all?
Because I liked the cat the most due to simply relating, but that was in comparison to just plain not liking or flat-out disliking everyone else. At best I pitied the protags for getting bullied, but there wasn't much else for me to be interested in.

[Briarwood House: No Evil 050]

OKAY.
The earlier half of the murals are a little tougher to figure out. It seems the lion and deer are two yet unintroduced characters.
It seems the orange people were having an issue with spiders (six-legged spiders). The Deer attempted to oppose the spiders on behalf of the people, but was torn apart.
The Lion put the Deer back together. The Lion also managed to come up with the Golden Spike... perhaps giving up his life in the process (note the purple lines nearby in that mural).
The Deer uses the golden spike to conquer the spiders.
However, the Deer is seemingly hurt by the spike itself. Perhaps its power is too much??
In either case, Wrip and Vinkle arrive, and for some reason take the spike and vanish with the orange people in pursuit.

Basically, that golden spike we saw in that earlier episode is... actually important, and was specifically taken away from these people by Wrip and Vinkle and hidden. Why? Dunno, but it's neat that these two have more to them than meets the eye.

As for the significance of the Golden Spike, it's likely based off the last spike of the first US transcontinental railroad, famously made of gold to commemorate the completion of the railroad.
Notably, Salem has trains, and I believe this is the first time we've seen trains in No Evil.
Perhaps this weird spider guy needs the Golden Spike to... complete something? Probably magical.

But Wrip and Vinkle took and hid it for a reason.
And considering that "pacifist McCoy girl" didn't seem too comfortable mentioning that she was from Salem...
Something smells fishy.

Either way, that movement through the whole scene was really cool.

[Stable Needed: No Evil 047]

Corn's use of wording is worrying. "Would you take care of ANYTHING water related for my corn fields" and then following up with "Done" sounds like he's binding Amaroq into a contract of, well, doing all of Corn's work for him for comparatively little in return. The ominous music cue seems to indicate that his intentions are manipulative, even malicious.

It seems that, due to to the Mercy Bow, the manipulative human Corn gained a snake form, while the crying axolotl Corn gained a human form. The Mercy Bow may, presumably, be a source of healing(???), so is it possibly trying to heal the turmoil of Corn's dual nature?

Looking forward to wherever this is going.

[Humble: No Evil 038]

It's funny how tension works. From the heroes' perspective, the crisis is almost over... but there's something else lurking in the shadows, and Corn is... different. Maybe Charles was just the beginning of something bigger.

Also is that spider next to Mama Spider the same one from Tlaloc's Test? Do spiders report back to Mama Spider so she can keep tabs on things? I'm suddenly rethinking the significance of past spider appearances.

Anyway, this is great. Looking forward to what happens next!