Squad 42 IV - No Alternative (The Remastered Edition)

Meh. I wouldn't say the brilliance I was expecting from you. Sure, the special effects were amazing and I liked the original soundtrack, but Big Monkey? I just don't think he was really the greatest role to fit the clones. He's bland and just on the whole brought it down.

I'm not usually amused by any of these stop motion Lego movies I see...

But this one... I am impressed, very impressed. The sound and digital effects were outstanding, and the voices are much better, but felt a bit tacky (but your not actors...). An excellent video, even though it's just an improvement on an original movie.

What I didn't like was that the digital lego models, particularly the Venator, were too small scaled (in terms of bricks) and you could have gone for greater detail with them.

I hope that Alone in the Dark stands out just as well.

I enjoyed it so much. I mean, plot wise, they don't actully do much, but the effects were fantastic, and the music added a lot! The opeening take over I enjoyed sso much more this time around, and the voices deeper work much better!

If you ever need aan extra voice, you know who to call

Ham701 wrote:Meh. I wouldn't say the brilliance I was expecting from you. Sure, the special effects were amazing and I liked the original soundtrack, but Big Monkey? I just don't think he was really the greatest role to fit the clones. He's bland and just on the whole brought it down.

So, you didn't like it because of one voice actor? That's pretty shallow.

Thank you Mike and Zeph though! I take your criticism onboard Mike.

This is very good, Garet! I quite liked the models and the way you added them in to the video!

Are you going to give us any tips on how to make something like that?

Troopa Daisy wrote:This is very good, Garet! I quite liked the models and the way you added them in to the video!

Are you going to give us any tips on how to make something like that?

Thank you! I would, but unfortunately i'm far too lazy.

I agree, I didn't love him as the clones. His voice was decent, not bad in anyway of course, it just didn't really have too much feeling to it.

I am in agreement with everybody about this large simian fellow. He's closer to a clone trooper than yourself with the pitch turned up, but he's also very bland, like cardboard Ready-Brek with no sugar*. A good example is the "This way [...] This way" schtick - you got the tone and stress right in your original and it work as a bit of humour, but he just sort of steamrollers through it without any indication that it's a witticism rather than a straightforward order. Obviously, that's not the only part I feel he got a bit wonky, or there wouldn't be a problem, but I'm not going to sit here and pick apart all the dialogue he did right now. Obviously, if you feel he's the right man for the job, then that's fine - it's not our movie, after all. However (last thing on the voice acting, promise), I will say that I personally would not buy a DVD of Squad 42 if this guy was doing the voices. Just putting that out there.

The rest of the film is fairly praiseworthy. The original stop-motion is, naturally, still great, especially considering the length of the film compared to some of the 'shorts' you see that have far poorer animation. The CGI on top of that, too, is wonderful, giving the whole thing a larger scale than before as well as looking pretty stunning to boot. However, the two look very distinct from one another and don't quite mesh, as if they're oil and water and they're gonna keep seperating unless you put an emulsifier in there. Now, I don't know what the stop motion/CGI equivalent of an emulsifier is, but you need one. Maybe get really advanced and combine the two in some shots, so it doesn't look so drastic when you change from one to the other. I dunno.

On the soundtrack... well, your music guy is no John Williams, but he did a pretty good job. Less repetition and more variation within a piece would be nice, and perhapd try and develop some leitmotifs; they're always nice.

On the whole, a good job but with a few bumps that need ironing out. I'm looking forward to the remastered AitD and the sixth S42.


*I always preferred Ready-Brek with jam, actually. Or golden syrup. Honey was nasty, though...

I love the new voices. This movie is great.

I enjoyed watching this alot Garet. Though the clones voices were a bit dull, I can see the work you put into this.

It was good, but the clones were bland and it lacking any real action like clone to droid fights.

Better, but very bland. Not a lot of action. But other than that it was very good!

Oh, look, it appears we have another outbreak of blandbonic plague in the comments. Guys, FIND ANOTHER ADJECTIVE.

That took some time and effort. But really that was great! Loved the effects, loved the story. But as the others said the clones were a tad boring, the voices are fine but there could have been a little more action. But none the less it was epic! Are you gonna keep the same tune at the start of 'alone in the dark'? I really like that 'intro' music.

The music was alright, there was too much of it though, and what happened to the high pitched voices of the Clones?

The CGI was amazing though! It really enhanced the story!

I love the effects. The mini of the city and the other minis are very nice as well. Overall the remastered edition is amazing. I can't wait to see the 5th remastered.

It was pretty good, but I liked the first voices better the new ones were good but I actually liked the old ones better.

Nocturne wrote:It was pretty good, but I liked the first voices better the new ones were good but I actually liked the old ones better.

The old high pitched ones wanted me to rip my ears out and eat them.

Anyways I really enjoyed this, I really liked all the minis. Good job.

That was epic. The speacial effects were amazing, the voices were great, I loved it!

Funky Cow wrote:

Nocturne wrote:It was pretty good, but I liked the first voices better the new ones were good but I actually liked the old ones better.

The old high pitched ones wanted me to rip my ears out and eat them.

That was my thinking behind it too.

Excellent example of why we have you on the council. Can't imagine how many hours that took. Can't wait to see you hit the big time and join Lucas for some 2011 Clone Wars Episodes.

Rook wrote:Excellent example of why we have you on the council. Can't imagine how many hours that took.

I'm not sure whether to be honoured...

Rook wrote:...and join Lucas for some 2011 Clone Wars Episodes.

...or offended!

Quite a fascinating achievement on the video scene. The voices, in my opinion, are a huge improvement over the previous voices. I really must admit I neither know anything nor care anything about who did the voices, whether he be a big monkey or a little one, but a Concord Dawn accent is hard enough to nail down, and I'm sure you did your best.

Moving on, I was amused to see that the video is approximately six minutes and 42 seconds long.

80-0 wrote:Quite a fascinating achievement on the video scene. The voices, in my opinion, are a huge improvement over the previous voices. I really must admit I neither know anything nor care anything about who did the voices, whether he be a big monkey or a little one, but a Concord Dawn accent is hard enough to nail down, and I'm sure you did your best.

Thank you, you're the first person to describe it as 'fascinating'!

Moving on, I was amused to see that the video is approximately six minutes and 42 seconds long.

Possibly because, technically speaking, it's also my 6th (completed) Squad 42 episode!