Bricks in Motion
We are a friendly filmmaking community devoted to the art of stop-motion animation using LEGO® and similar construction toys. Here, you can share your work, join our community of other brickfilmers, and participate in periodic animation contests!
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What was the meaning of the parrots in Chapter Two?
Don't worry, that isn't a spoiler.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ajrtmp9Fc1k
It's kind of weird to hear my voice acting from, what, 2 years ago again. I feel like I sound better as a voice actor now, so it just felt strange. Also, I laughed quite a bit when Smeagol took over my narration job. It was quite clever.
All along it had been my plan for him to take over, but I was careful that you were not cognizant of the fact that narrator 2 even existed because I wanted you to still be able to watch the film and see something unexpected.
You originally recorded the lines almost two years ago before Sharks and Clowns, but at one point I did have you re-do them because your voice and recording abilities had started to change. I think that was about one year ago. As a joke you put a tiny bit of audio from the popular humans yelling like goats video, which wasn't uploaded until February 6th last year, so it couldn't have been before then.
I did briefly consider having you re-do them during the time I was filming, but I didn't think in necessary since your voice hasn't changed as much in that time as it did between the first and second recordings.
It still sounds basically prefect to me. I created the role entirely for you after watching BIRDFaCE because I wanted your voice in a film (though, before this was finally released, you already had narrated four of my films).
Also, as of now, more than half or your voice credits on your BiM profile are your narrations.
For me, the star of this film is, without question, the visuals.
Animation, by its very nature, is a visual medium. This film absolutely delivers in that aspect.
The set is wonderful; rich colors and exquisite detail. The animation is fluid. The animated effects, i.e. the fire extinguisher and 'insta-freeze' and the rainbow mushrooms, are inventive and inspiring. The lighting effect during the close-up of the leprechaun's face is perfectly executed.
Although I personally enjoyed it, the quirky story may not be for everyone. However, I feel the strength of the visuals will be enough to win over those who don't necessarily 'get' the story.
Excellent job; you have created a fun and engaging film. I think your animated effects will inspire people to push themselves to try more intricate animations. Congratulations!
Squid, you must learn to stop making excuses for your films! If someone makes a comment, you should accept it rather than try to explain it away.
I'll side with BrickStory here, in that I felt many of the jokes fell a bit flat. It was more a collection of random moments, with only one actual punchline at the very very end. It was charming, but not really funny and to be honest, I didn't really laugh.
The set-building and technical aspects were all on point, of course. Although I did feel some of the framing was a bit off, with the characters positioned too low. I always animate with a grid on, which I shall utilise to demonstrate my point:
^Here, his eyes are almost half way down, leaving a massive empty space for the whole top third. It feels very imbalanced and unnatural.
^Here, I cropped it so his eyes are a third of the way down the frame. This leaves us with a lot less empty space, and we can focus on the character's face more easily without being distracted. I should clarify that I'm not suggesting cropping your videos in future, just reposition the camera a bit lower for shots like these.
So overall, oozing in style but perhaps lacking in substance. Enjoyable, but not riotous. Maybe you need to take a leaf out of Biff & Mario's book?
Felt like I had a bit to add on to my last post.
As I mentioned, as good technically as your films are, and as charming as they can be, you seem to be following a very similar structure recently of a short quip between some whacky people in a childish fantasy land, which is fine and all, but some of your other works such as Pirates Rule, for example, are so great because they have an overarching story with funny and whacky jokes in the mix.
I guess my main point here is: this stuff doesn't work as well in a vacuum. I feel that this might have worked better if say, there was an overarching story about a man travelling to/through France, and along the way he came across this whacky Leprechaun and the story progressed from there. The people in LiF don't really have any motives or goals we can relate to, the story just consists of 'people doing things' which makes it hard to be engaged with as much as the easily identifiable goal of 'Pirates wanting treasure' or whatever.
In relation to this talk of comedy in a vacuum, I feel what you might need is more contrast. With all your films being a constant slew of [admittedly charming] whacky and silly characters and settings it's easy to get a bit fatigued. Variety is the spice of life, and I think that if you opted to go for a film with a more large story, you'd have the opportunity to have your characters/audience relax for a bit to slow down the pace, because if you do this, all the crazy/silly moments will stand out even more, and will be even more memorable in the long run.
Sorry if this all sounds a bit negative, I still very much enjoy your films, I just feel that with these taken into consideration, mixed with your amazing technical skills and charming style you could make something truly spectacular, it just seems that you figured how people recognised you for your whacky/silly-shaped niche, and seem to be trying too hard to maintain it, without taking into consideration that by mixing things up a bit more, your films will be even more memorable for their charming sillyness.
A lot of what Hazzat said is valid, but I don't think it makes THAT much of a difference.
I thought that this film was incredible!! Basically everything was perfect. I do wish that you would step out of your usual style for a time. Many of your films have the same "magical fairy world" feel to them.
im agreeing with jstudios and hazzat here . i feel like your on your way to becoming a really good storyteller, but theres a lot of stuff gettin in the way
i especially want to make a point on your use of the whacked out child's fantasy kind of deal
you keep puttin these stories in either Ringo Faloo or whatever or puttin them in this whacked out version of the real world with sonjira as the narrator and while both of those are fun you never seem to really. expand upon it
here's my deal: you keep puttin us in this world that you've made up in your own head, but you never really expand upon it. you keep throwin us into these bizarre worlds of your mind but never givin us exposition. exposition can be annoying but i feel like some is necessary at this point
its kinda like. YO. CHECK OUT THIS ZANY WHACKED UP WORLD. LOOK AT THESE WEIRD-ASS CHARACTERS. ACCEPT IT ALL AND JUST GO ALONG WITH IT WITH NO EXPLANATION, which is kinda how a lot of your brickfilms work . you introduce these characters n whatever in this world that we know NOTHIn about. you introduce some weird history about it , but never really expand on the actual world. where are we ! whats goin on ! its super confusing
basically what i wanna say is: you've gotten your technical aspects to a point where its like. YO. REALLY PRETTY N GOOD. and your stories are like. almost really good. but it's like. yeah. you need to work on gettin a grasp on what your world actually IS and what the history of it is and wHAT THE HELL iS HAPPENIN, and then find out an interesting and non-confusing way to explain it to your audience
you've gotten to the point where you've become a really good animator and storyteller, but you're not all the way there yet. id love to see you expand on a lot of things
ya feel me
I agree with Just Kidden. Riigo-Faloo needs more fleshing out to make the stories stand up better, especially now that you've made so many brickfilms in this style.
That said, I still love this brickfilm a ton. Not just a ton, a ton ton.
I guess I should tone down my random levels maybe.
But what exactly do you mean JK? More back story and history before going into the story? Or more story after the history? Like what would Sharks and Clowns need?
I actually have no trouble with thinking up back story for Riigo-Faloo, though I get afraid that explaining too much back story too fast might get a little bit too confusing because most of it is rather detailed and complicated.
Like there's this one delightful story I'd love to tell about some heroes fighting the evil Shade of Slumber, but in order to do that I would have to first explain the troll wars and the fundamental elements of ancient troll politics as well as the Outlander war and the history of Vampires as so that that the story can be told in the correct historical context, without which the significance of the adventure is lost.
But you guys should be pleased to know that this is the last insane fairy-tale I have planned for a very long time. All of those films were based off of this one, actually, as it was imagined first, but I've got some other things planned which are different.
I get what you guys mean by it just being a jumble of insane stuff that makes sense. There really should probably be at least one sane character as so one can relate to them. Being mad was my entire intention when creating this, but that probably wasn't the best idea.
For my next film, I'm going to still go for a really insane approach, but instead in a very creepy and spooky way rather than delightful lighthearted way, and with a perfectly sane main character, also it's be long enough to have an actual story. I'm hoping that perhaps that will turn out better.
I'll try to keep that cinematography suggestion in mind.
I missed Batman and multiple comedic Clonetroopers with overly done special FX.
0/6.5
Everything here has already been touched upon. So, I won't add anything more to the table. But, I feel like taking Hazzat and BrickStory's side on this. The writing wasn't the best, and I still do believe that The Lost Invention was better. The way I see it, this film was more of a showcase of the awesome set you built (I was a bit disappointed, though, as the waterfall never even moved). Yes, I do believe your set was the highlight of this film. But, keep at it, Squid, and don't stop doing what you're doing!
But what exactly do you mean JK? More back story and history before going into the story? Or more story after the history? Like what would Sharks and Clowns need?
in sharks and clown's case, i would say explain and show us what ringo-faloo is. like, you go into the world and start goin on about it's history, but we don't know where we are. i'd want to know where we are and why the characters are significant, rather than HERE'S THIS WEIRD-ASS WORLD AND HERES ALL THESE WEIRD-ASS CHARACTERS. explain to us why this world is significant and what the rules of the universe are, why the characters are important and where they come from. this will make our understanding of it so much better and it will make us be able to follow your story.
basically, expand on your ideas! don't just throw them at us and assume that we'll understand it, we want to know what you're thinking when you're making this! who ARE these people? WHERE are they? where does rigo-faloo exist? what's their culture and how is it significant to the story? etc.
i really like the vibe your films give, and i really like that you're trying to make an interesting world and characters. i would just love to see you expand upon it.
But you guys should be pleased to know that this is the last insane fairy-tale I have planned for a very long time.
You read us all wrong, that's not what we were asking for at all. We like this universe, but it could just be so much more. Maybe JK's exposition idea is the answer, or maybe it's jstudio's suggestion to include more of a plot - the overall feeling is that these films just need a bit more meat on their bones. By all means move on if you want to make something else, but don't drop it just because you think that's what people want.
basically, expand on your ideas! don't just throw them at us and assume that we'll understand it, we want to know what you're thinking when you're making this! who ARE these people? WHERE are they? where does rigo-faloo exist? what's their culture and how is it significant to the story? etc.
i really like the vibe your films give, and i really like that you're trying to make an interesting world and characters. i would just love to see you expand upon it.
I can see it now! The words, Rigo-Faloo: Origins, flash upon the screen...and then, in comes Sonjira's narrator voice "By Harrison Allen".
Ah, terribly sorry for the misunderstanding. I guess I see what you mean. More story, more plot, more history, more explanation.
Just Kidden wrote:basically, expand on your ideas! don't just throw them at us and assume that we'll understand it, we want to know what you're thinking when you're making this! who ARE these people? WHERE are they? where does rigo-faloo exist? what's their culture and how is it significant to the story? etc.
i really like the vibe your films give, and i really like that you're trying to make an interesting world and characters. i would just love to see you expand upon it.
I can see it now! The words, Rigo-Faloo: Origins, flash upon the screen...and then, in comes Sonjira's narrator voice "By Harrison Allen".
I'd really love to animate my brief overview of Faloovian history, but it's a shame I only have one shark and no cats.
Hazzat, JK, and jstudios have all touched on some of the issues I have with this film. However, I would also challenge you to really think about showing vs. telling in your films. Unlike JK, I feel like you rely very heavily on exposition, both from narration and characters. It has a certain storybook charm, but it keeps the viewer at arm's length from the characters as they continually explain the wacky world of Riigo-Faloo. In short: show us this world you've invented and allow us to draw our own conclusions rather than telling us all about it.
Great job, one of the best sets you have ever made in my opinion, and some amazing lighting. Your camera movement was some of the best I have seen and your animation was top notch.
The humor was really good, maybe not the best you have ever done, but still made me laugh. I loved the last joke, totally did not see it coming.
You once again established the fact that you are one of the best and one of my favorite animators.
I think you should write a book; I'm pretty sure there's at least one in Rigo-Faloo, if not a few. I agree with the others, but story stuff aside, I think it's brilliant. I'm in love with two moments: the animation of the rainbow falling away, and the delivery of the final punchline, which made me laugh harder than I have in a very long time. You've really nailed down your style and technical ability as an animator, so I think from here on out you'll really be able to take off with the story stuff. From what you've shown of your works in progress it seems like the stories have a bit of meat to them, and you're an incredibly creative person, so I'm really looking forward your future work. 
Very cute, loved the punchline.
You've established a distinctive stylistic structure throughout all your work; a niche that has predominantly proven itself to be successful and entertaining. Yet after watching Leprechauns in France, I really do think it's come to the point where your employment of the prescriptive nonsensical storybook formula doesn't particularly hold itself up. Your animation, lighting and techniques are as delightful as ever; the problem lies, as others have said, in your stories.
I really believe you need to mull over the phrase show, don't tell. The state of your stories is akin to a double-edged sword. You ply the viewer with information on the immediate happenings, yet the plot itself is vacant and occurs in a complete vacuum (as jstudios said very well). The same applies to your characters, they have no real tangible backstory or actual reason for being. I feel there is a need for less prescriptive sermoning, and yet there is also a need for actual overarching and substantial plots. You utilise exposition on the immediate tense far too often, yet you lack it severely in the overreaching, or lack thereof, story department. You need to somehow strike a balance between these two conflicting elements. Reduce the narrating dialogue yet implement the backstory; primarily show the annoying man's journey to France, his past, why he's here - don't just tell it as if it occurred within a bubble.
Honestly, I'd like to see you deviate from the set mould of flimsy lol-wut storybook narrated films (I do look forward to Welcome to Darkmoor). You need not shed any of your wackiness or humour, you just really need to reassess some crucial areas of your work and add some freshness and variation. You certainly have the animation skills, you just need to hone the stories and style.
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