Hello everyone! Welcome to another classy critique! I’ve been critiquing different methods and subjects of animation during this series, but I’ve recently decided to do something different! Why not look at a real-world animation example and critique that? I’ve heard a ton about a particular animation called “The StickNodes Movie” and I decided to make this movie my next critique/review. The StickNodes Movie is hailed as a good cinematic StickNodes animation with great story and characters, so let’s dive right in and see if that’s true!

Just a couple notes before we start.
FIRST, I’m qualified to make this critique lol. I’ve studied and participated in animation for about 10 years now, and I’m also excelling in my studies of Cinematography and Composition. Not only can I critique animations, but I can also critique and review every aspect of the movie itself. (Storyline, Design, Character Development and Personality, Etc.)
SECOND, Due to the episode nature of this series, I’ll be dividing critiques up into parts. (Ex. Parts 1-3, 4-6, 7-9, 10, 11) As the show goes on, there’s more to talk about and more to explain, so each episode critique will get longer. It’s gonna be quite a bit of reading, but if you want to see the results of this and figure out the quality of the movie, it’s well worth it!
THIRD, Cinematography critiquing does not necessarily mean critiquing of animation quality and movement (Though that is definitely involved). Cinematography critiquing means analyzing the different techniques, delving into character personalities and plot structure, etc. Essentially, everything that shows up in the movie is subject to review.
FOURTH, it can be rather confusing to simply read these without seeing the movie itself. It’s recommended to watch the episodes before reading their critiques.

Now, let’s get started with episodes 1-3!

Episode 1:
Starts off actually decent. Introduces the world in a normal way, explains the role of Ralph well. However, things go downhill as soon as Roux is introduced. Generic sinister laughing and whatnot, somewhat cringe-inducing “eyes up here” joke. Literally the conflict escalates from a 1 to 11 in a flash. Meteors come, and suddenly the entire place is covered in fire. And we only see one rejected figure as well, even though that’s supposed to be the main part of the conflict. We don’t see any infestation, but just a random meteor storm engulfing literally everything in flames. Roux says the line, “Yes, and your conqueror.” That just doesn’t sound right at all lol. Could be worked out better. Immediately goes to the “you’ve lost” shtick. It’s only been thirty seconds, and only five more seconds with the meteors; there’s been no buildup or introduction to character personalities. No reason is described for Sean traveling to utopia. Epitaph is introduced actually pretty well, highlighting him as a comedic character but also a semi-serious one. However, it doesn’t explain any history or lore behind him. Kaiju is just known as a name until he randomly shows up; he isn’t introduced well as a character at all. There is no real buildup for the creation of Cyan Claw, and it happens too fast to be striking.

Conclusion: Mediocre at best. Has some good parts about it and some interesting-looking characters, but doesn’t really explain most of them. Instead of the story introducing the characters, it already expects you to read about them and know their stories, which is lazy and pretty bad storytelling. Pacing is a problem, as the conflict is introduced way too fast. All in all, the movie starts off less than mediocre, but definitely has potential for something really good.

Episode 2:
Cyan Claw is now introduced. The character of Cyan Claw is pretty much confusing in general. The audience sees that Sean is turned into Cyan Claw, but there are many questions left unanswered. These are not story-based questions, but simple ones. Is Cyan Claw’s personality the same as Sean’s or has Cyan Claw become different? Is Sean in control, or has his mind changed to a point of where he knows he is Sean but is different than he used to be mentally? Is this a new entity in its entirety that used to be Sean but is now something else? All of these questions are basic and keep the lore hidden, but all remain unanswered. This causes confusion for the viewers. Cyan Claw exhibits Mary Sue behavior when he doesn’t even know he can fly but tries it out and speeds away with ease. There was lots of potential for a flying segment, but all of it was quickly wasted. Transition of flying is way too quick. Guards playing Rock Paper Scissors are too easily dealt with. They could have been used as dummies to show off Cyan Claw’s new abilities and powers, but instead disintegrate as soon as he touches them lol. The fighter scene is actually pretty cool, and it was fun to see Cyan Claw take care of the first fighter. However, the other two weren’t dealt with, and there’s more wasted potential in that. Instead of Cyan Claw hacking into the ship or something, he just completely opens the hangar door and jumps inside. This is odd since there should be a lot of soldiers in the hangar due to the attack, and how would Cyan actually have that much strength suddenly. Cyan Claw opens a vent that is moving to the right, but jumps down out of the vents a second later. That doesn’t quite make sense. The transformation of Pinguino is very badly made. It could be more emotional, but is instead rushed and made fun of by a “boi” joke earlier. Not every aspect of this animation needs to be serious, but when a tyrant is making her army by turning normal users into soldiers, there should at least be a little drama to it. All the drama we get from that scene is Cyan Claw saying “This is terrible.” The mutation isn’t even shown, the screen just fades to black and a scream plays. The green dude’s name isn’t even introduced, and we learn basically nothing about him, so his death is relatively meaningless. The prisoner escape scene is badly made. The pacing is frantic as hell, and the audience has to decipher what is happening. The prisoners running and falling into the water is poorly animated. Explosive Bullet says he is surprised Cyan Claw doesn’t recognize him, even though Cyan Claw says literally nothing to indicate he doesn’t know who the figure is.

Conclusion: Loads of potential that have been squandered. Poor writing and animating, scenes are way too frantic. Characters are dull and there is no emotional attachment to any of them. It appears that detail seems to be emphasized way more than actual good story and character qualities. The movie isn’t starting off that well.

Episode 3:
The episode starts with Cyan Claw asking EB (Explosive Bullet) “How could you?” This is once again the movie assuming the audience already knows the entire story of these characters. This is very lazily made in that regard. A character plot twist has literally no effect if you just met the character. It’s just the character being evil. EB is pretty cool though, and I hope to see him use more weaponry and tricks with his jet pack in the future. Sadly, the fight between Cyan and EB only lasts 10 seconds. We don’t get to see any more of EB and his skills, which is a huge loss of potential for the character. The only actual reason he is cemented as a tough guy is because he beat Cyan Claw. That’s about it. There’s no explanation for Epitaph suddenly talking to Cyan Claw via hologram. The fleet scene is somewhat cool, but the movement of the characters makes the scene feel weird. The “No Yes” bit during the interrogation is unnecessary as hell and doesn’t contribute to the characters besides making them look silly. The “secret reveal” part is pretty funny, but the escape is stupid as hell. Cyan Claw literally runs away from the baddies while in their custody and jumps out a window as they shoot at him. He lands in a pool of water and suddenly goes down a waterfall. This is not only random as hell, but incredibly fast, so it’s hard for the audience to understand. The node reconfigurator is explained as simply a powerful weapon. At least it is explained. The new baddie at the end, General Shirokaze, is introduced, but way too quickly to make it dramatic.

Conclusion: Once again, untapped potential that doesn’t seem like it will ever be tapped on. Pacing of the story is utterly abysmal. No connection to any of the characters, and immature jokes don’t help. In general, the story and the animation itself just moves too fast for it to be impactful. It needs to take more time to introduce concepts and characters instead of just throwing them at the audience.

Well, this series isn’t starting off too well. It’s got potential, but it’s not pulling it off very well. It’s too early to determine the quality of the series as a whole, but we can definitely confirm that the first three episodes aren’t good. There’s a lot of pacing and dialogue problems that seem to be prevalent. Perhaps the series will fix this issue as it continues.

And that’s all of this Classy Critique! Tune in next time, where we review episodes 4-6! I’ll be happy to answer any additional questions, and I encourage discussion in the comments! Thanks everyone! Stay Classy!