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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The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County
Based on the 1865 short story by Mark Twain, this story was his first great success as a writer and brought him national attention. We hope we accurately represented Twain's narrative and humor while attempting to shorten the story and make it more entertaining for the audience.
Last edited by BuilderBrothers (July 17, 2011 (10:43am))
THAT WAS SO GOOD!!! 
Usually, your films have a bit much dialog and not very much interesting stuff happening and people repeating stuff that's already been said and done, for this, you did a wonderful job, and your talking animation has more than tripled in excellence. Now for a long well thought out comment...
The Film
It was very good, the story was enjoyable, funny, and lighthearted. All the characters enjoyable and very nicely acted. The simplicity of this is brilliant, and the execution is spot on. The comedy is fantastic.
Sets and Bricks
I generally enjoyed the sets in this, though, sometimes coming off as a bit blank, especially some of the walls. I really liked how you had some tiny mini houses which with the focus not on them, gave a very convincing look of broadness to your landscape. Though the raising levels of ground should have been more smooth. The minifigures were very nice and well fitting for the time period. I especially love Mr. Twain, he seemed very convincing, and the one guy's black clothes were well fitting for his dark trickster character.
Sound Design
Seemed perfect to me. However, I do prefer it when a brickfilmer makes all sounds themselves. No one really does that besides me though.
Animation
As I've said before, talking animation was a huge improvement. I also enjoyed the moving camera stuff, and the pile of junk coming out of the frog. All other movements were pretty much spot on. Frog jumping was particularly good.
Historical Elements
I've never actually read this tale, and though it is ridiculous, it works nicely for nicely for historical fiction. The appearance of a real historical character was also pretty nice. But you definitely did best on setting the mood with the music, sets, and minifigures. I'm glad to see a ToY Film which combines that along with genuine comedy.
Other Notes
The stuff in pile of junk was well selected. I dislike how their hats were crooked at times. I see one of the minifigures has some scribble on it. I understand why you did, but it was a rather poor job.
Thanks for a good film. Despite the few negative things I mentioned, it's great, it was captivating, and entertaining. 
I expect it to get a very high ranking in ToY, possibly even the top three. 
I'm thinking of giving it a Youtube favorite, which is very rare for me.
Still can't decide if I like this of Film Fire's more.
That was a good entry! I liked the sound the most I think, the animation was good too. I also liked how the story was told. The only thing that I have to criticise is that I, personally thought there was too much talking. But it was still a good film, so well done guys.
4/5.
That was terrific. I loved it, you guys just keep improving like crazy. I loved all the cartoon-like gags in there.
Good work.
-JK
I really liked this. I couldn't avoid, while watching this, remember another version made with clay, and that's terrific. Anyway, I really enjoyed it, I like the story a lot. Good job.
This brickfilm should win TOY just for the TCOTY reference alone.
Very enjoyable. Good luck in the contest!
That was brilliant; one of the best entries so far. I thought I was going to be bored by the length, but then I watched and I was blown away. The animation, though it could have been better, was great for this style of film (Normally I don't like slapstic animation, but this was an exception). The voice acting was fantastic, the cinematography was stupendus, and the sets and effects were amazing as well, not to mention that it fit the guidelines very well. Great work!
4.5/5.
Best entry I've seen yet!
Well, this film deserves a full review, so I'm gonna give it one:
Quality
Your camera quality is amazing, as all of your recent films has had. The lighting complements the quality beautifully, and gives the perfect mood the film needs. You pulled it off perfectly!
Animation
Your animation skills keeps improving film after film. This was very smooth animation with nice gags here and there. The story was great (I'll get to that in a second), and you make it better with your visuals. Great job
Audio
The quality was great. There was little to no fuzz with the audio, and the score that was used was great. It really fit with the story, and added to the mood. The acting was very well done. I commend both the actors and directors for working together well and doing such a good job voicing.
Sets
The sets were very well built, as were the props. It really added to the old southern style of the film. They varried a lot in design, which is also very nice.
Editing
The editing was great, the titles were not bland at all, and you guys paced it very well. It wasn't too fast, or too slow.
Cimematography
The cinematograpy was great, it was just bland in just a few scenes, but nothing too serious. You had some beautiful shots here and there, and everything attributed to the mood of the film. Everything about this film is eye candy for me. It's fun to watch just for the technical aspects alone!
Story
The story was funny and enjoyable. As mentioned before, the reference to TCOTY is a big plus, IMO. I thing the endng could have been a little better, but it's not a big deal. I love Twain's work, and love seeing one put to bricks by such a great team as you guys!
Overall, this is a great film, and deserves to be put in at least the top 5, even the top 3! It's fun to see you guys evolve in your skills in animation, scripting, and overall filmmaking. This is beautifully done, and I want to show it off to the world. Apart from just some minor hiccups, this is amazing.
9.8/10
Very good. I love Smiley's voice and body. I like the Mark Twain bit too. Great job!
Wow, thanks for all the positive comments guys! We've really been trying to take past critiques seriously and improve. It's also nice to know that most of you guys noticed our TCOTY reference. 
General
The film in general was really good. It never was boring and kept the audience clinging the entire time.
Animation
Great, as always. Very smooth.
Audio
No fizzling in any of the audio, it was easy to tell what everyone was saying, too. I think you chose great voice actors for the parts, too.
Sets/Props
The sets were well built and believable as sets from that period instead of having a skate shop or something in the background. I did laugh when a character held a "How-to for Dummies" book.
Editing
The video went at a nice pace to tell the story instead of rushing it or making it so slow, the audience would just get up and leave out of bordem.
Story
The story you chose was fun and one people could laugh to instead of a dark and serious film. I don't really know how historically accurate it was but it seems you put your own spin on it which I liked.
Overall
→ → 5/5 ← ←
We've really been trying to take past critiques seriously and improve.
More people need to do that. xD
I know I do.
I've got a question: how did you do most of the moving camera stuff, like moving with them when they jumped? Were they in shot, or just added in post-production?
I'd like to know more about stuff you did in this film.
I've got a question: how did you do most of the moving camera stuff, like moving with them when they jumped? Were they in shot, or just added in post-production?
The moving shots were all added in post-production using After Effects, except the first pan across Twain's room, which was done with a special rig we designed.
Fabulously done!
5/5
Twas quite good. The only thing that bugged me was that he was telling a story as he was writing that story about another guy telling the story to him in the past. That bit seemed a tad to extreme. Everything else was quite well done, though occasionally the story seemed to drag, that is the trick of taking writing into film.
4/5
If they had left out Twain relating his own experience of having the story told to him, they would have had to remove Twain completely, and it would not have remained as true to the original story (which is an aspect that I REALLY liked about the film). We would have also missed out on Jargon's great voice-acting.
Great job guys! I loved everything about it. I hope you place very high in this competition.
By the way, did anyone notice that KG had the same TCOTY joke, and Tony Hawk's dad is Mark Twain (teehee). I thought the coincidence very entertaining.
This turned out pretty well. The dialogue and action were pretty well balanced, and the music kept it moving all the time. The ending song was pretty good 
. I like how you add something extra to your films like that. I'm glad I could be a small part of this. Good luck on the contest!
Nice job, guys. Looks like you've got another fun and amusing brickfilm under your belt.
It was well-produced, with good sets and animation and I definitely enjoyed hearing everyone else's voice-acting.
My biggest critique would be that it moved a bit too slowly - the multiple frame stories at the beginning and end are, I think, an example of this. Remember that when adapting a piece of literature to film, things sometimes need to be cut or streamlined to make it work. One way to do this might have been to simply join Mark Twain in the second scene (where he's told the story) and have him explain things as time goes along.
All in all, though, you guys did a good job here.
Thanks, Jargon! We appreciate your great voice acting as Twain, too!
We decided to include the opening/ending sequences with Twain because of the ToY theme. Had the theme been "comedy," "short story," etc. we would have cut right to the actual tale about Smiley. However, with the ToY theme we wanted to remain somewhat true to the original story while establishing its historic context as a Mark Twain short story (as well as teach the audience a little about him, since he is such a big part of American literature/history).
Thanks again for the comments everyone!
Last edited by BuilderBrothers (July 27, 2011 (08:15am))
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