AFK Pl@yers over at Myndflame have created Wrath of a Couch Potato, inspired by Seth Green's acclaimed "Robot Chicken" series. The movie runs a little over 8 minutes in its entirety, and the experience is kind of intense. I suggest watching it somewhere you can really pay attention.

I hate to gush, but I really loved this movie. It's packed with laugh-out-loud moments, and each segment lasts only long enough to deliver a solid joke. The production values are through the roof. Each scene is well framed, and put together with an eye for detail. There's more than a few quotes in here that you can expect to permeat the Trade channel's zeitgeist for the next few months. So, to be fair, if you get annoyed by people endlessly quoting good machinima films, you might get annoyed from what comes out of "Wrath of a Couch Potato."

Click here now to check out Wrath of a Couch Potato.

[via Myndflame]

If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.

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Pinkhair submits Candy Comes Out as part of Machinima.com's Candy Corn and Crackheads Contest. It's a pretty short video, with a lot of nice subtle touches. Machinima.com lists it as a comedy, but I thought it was more of a horror theme. It sure as heck is one of the creepiest bits I've seen for a little while.

The story is quick. It opens with a gnomish couple watching a horror flick in a movie theatre. After the movie is over, the couple has a little chat that reveals the dangerous premise of the machinima's action -- if you open someone's head, candy comes out! I want to make sure to point out that, when the gnomes are chatting it up after the theatre, the gnome man is wearing an outfit incredibly reminscent to Michael Jackson's trademark red leather jacket. It really helps underline the homage of the opening sequence.

Ultimately, I really enjoyed the piece. Its ambiance and theme is strong, and the video is incredibly well made. Good luck to Pinkhair! Click here to see it yourself!

[Via Machinima.com]

If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.

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Today, Moviewatch would like to give a shout out to its old keeper Moo Money. Moo is working over at Machinima.com now, and posted up a video last week about a new contest they're running called the Christmas in Northrend.

Submit a holiday video featuring Northrend by December 20th to Machinima.com and you could be a winner! The video that Moo posted is, of course, well put together and has a simplistic version of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" playing in the background. Gnomes are represented too, so all you gnome lovers out there should be happy.

The content itself has a pretty nice grand prize: a Frostmourne Sword replica. I want one of those. And if you do too, head over to machinima.com for the full rules and enter. Good luck!

The Dude, Where's My Mount? series is one that has regrettably not been on Moviewatch often enough. Any kind of episodic series that puts this level of effort and consistency into its work should definitely be noted. We've covered one episode before, but hopefully we'll do a better job keeping up in the future.

Episode 7 of DWMM has a kind of classic fantasy vs. real-life trope, wherein the authors of the series get confronted by their characters. I think it works for the laughs, though it'd probably help your appreciation if you were familiar with the series. The production values are spot on for this episode -- anything less would leave the interaction feeling like a waste of time, while more special effects would make the scenes feel forced and overworked.

Also? The episode features a Dalek. That means it wins.

If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.

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There's a lot going on in Darkness II by Erunno. It's a longer, story driven piece. According to the author, this installment is a continuation of the first Darkness. (Thus, "II".)

The animation is ample and sufficient for the story-driven purpose of the machinima. While one can always look for more graphic enhancements, sometimes that flash and funk can actually detract from the story that's being told. I think Erunno hit a pretty sweet spot with "Darkness II," by providing a little embellishment (via Model Viewer), but without spending all of his time and energy and on the special effects.

I could have used a slightly faster pacing, personally, but that's entirely a matter of my own preference. Some of the dialogue felt a little forced to me, but that was rare. Overall, "Darkness II" is just a fairly high end piece, which I'd recommend checking out.

If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.

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According to the tip from Sinnead, I'm Too Pally is Teagen's freshman effort in the wild, wonderful world of machinima. I'm glad Sinnead mentioned that, because I wouldn't have been able to tell. "I'm Too Pally" is a brief homage music video to that most legendary of 90s songs "I'm too sexy."

The direction for the video was pretty spot on. It had the right mix of humor and antics to mimic the style of the original work, and the singer did a good job of singing with a Draenei accent. And, yannno, any music video in which Murky can make an appearance gets an extra few points for humor. All of the animation seemed crisp and controlled, without any of the over-the-shoulder work that can sometimes plague first timers. I feel like there was an in joke at the end I missed ("I'm looking for work!"), but it had the same thematic appeal as the rest of the video, so I didn't feel like I was missing much. Overall, it was darn good video.

If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.

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The author says up front that he considered this movie to be an experiment. Nef vs. Rai was intended to help explore the animation possibilities in World of Warcraft. It is a very short animation example, that pretty much can be summed up as "A dragon steps foot in Darnassus, an anime hero charges his lasers, and kills the dragon." The story wasn't complex, but probably wasn't meant to be. While the opening shot of a dragon landing is created using modified WoW graphics, the rest seems to be hand drawn.

The opening credit with the animated cat-form druid (Night Elf) was pretty neat. I liked the hand-drawn overlay in Darnassus, and what it did for the environment there. I'm not sure the animation of "Rai" did much for me. Something about the way Rai's face was drawn kind of put me off, and made it very difficult for me to understand what emotion the character was experiencing. But, I guess, the anime style can be kind of like that, with a lot of it being an acquired taste.

"Nef vs. Rai" isn't the worst freshman effort we've ever seen, but any follow-up would definitely need some story embellishment.

Soosdon. With a name like that and the skills he has, any machinima or even a sneak peek at his machinima deserves mention. Today on WoW Moviewatch we'll take a look at a trailer for his new work No Point: Stretching Time.

I'm going to put on my fanbois hat for a minute and say that everything this man does is golden. I really only started following machinima when I began writing for WoW Insider, and at that Soosdon's The Device Has Been Modified really got me into it.

So with this trailer we see a gnome fighting some bad guys. Adal is in there, along with some spirits of resurrection. A brief kiss between some gnomes and more epicness. The quality of the trailer is what you'd expect from Soosdon – professional quality that is nearly as good as what you'd see on the big screen.

Take a look at the trailer, and keep your eyes out on Moviewatch for when the full length machinima hits.

If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.

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Howl: A Tauren story was a solid attempt. It's the story of a Tauren leaving home, growing, seeing the world, and learning to wage war. (And, then, of course, learning the effects of waging that war.) The author is Howl, so he is probably somewhat the namesake of the story.

There's a lot I can get behind in the movie. It's a fairly involved story, that attempts to share a real narrative and growth. In Campbellian language, Howl's a relatively archetypical hero story. But the movie itself had some flaws that could use a new cut. The animation was basic, which is all right, except that the movie involved a lot of action scenes. Given that the audience is familiar with WoW itself, action scenese really need intense cuts and interesting angles to not just view as "Ah, Tauren parry. Tauren attack. Tauren dodge." The pacing was also slow, to me, which can be a problem with a very long film.

Ultimately, I hope Howl comes out with a Redux or a part two. It needs to be much faster and maybe less emphasis on the fight scenes.

This is the Chronicle of the Annoying Quest: Ep. 30. Something about the Chronicle of the Annoying Quest is starting remind me of that line from Spaceballs. Next up, Pongo reviews "Rocky Five...thousand." I wouldn't hate seeing Baka Savant get that far, if the episodes keep being so amusing.

There's different takes on whether or not you have to see all the episodes to "get" the humor. Some say you do, others say you don't. I say, "Why wouldn't you want to watch them all?" I had plenty of fun with my first episode, and I had plenty of fun with this episode as a stand-alone. But, the series is entertaining and worth the time to check it all out. Do yourself the favor and get caught up on the series.

Trying to avoid spoilers, I'll simply point out that this is the last episode before the season finale. I'm excited to see that finale, and felt like there's appropriate moments of buildup in this episode to get us there. Thanks to Baka Savant Productions for another awesome installment.

[Via WarcraftMovies]

If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.

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I don't usually do a lot of WoW music videos, because I tend to be more of a story-buff. But Polystyrene Dream by Yume caught my attention. I'm not sure if it was the ethereal quality of the video, which lined up very well with "Fake Plastic Trees" by Radiohead, or maybe the hints of narrative that persisted through the piece.

I could probably drive myself crazy projecting motivations on the two central characters, and trying define relationships, reasoning, and results of their actions. In summary, two blood elves repetitively walk up to an increasing variety of critters, stab them, and take their stuff. It could just be meant to be pretty, and it definitively is pretty.

I don't have much to say about the audio track, since it is essentially a nice song by a widely known band. It's possible that if I knew the song or band better, I might see more relevance in the imagery. Still, if you're talking about "Fake Plastic Trees," I guess it's fair to use a pair of Blood Elves as protagonists.

[Via WarcraftMovies]

If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.

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Things You Need is a submission to the machinima category of the 48 Hour Film Project by Stone Falcon Productions, Oblivious Films, and Slashdance. It's a little raucous, and a little rowdy, so your mileage on this film is going to vary according to your taste. It's the story of a down-trodden gnome who encounters a magic shop, gets a tub of magic paint, and hijinks ensue.

I really enjoyed the first part of the film. It was cute, amusing, and the musical portions were pretty darn funny. I loved the shop owner, and the dialogue and play between the two characters. It was lighthearted, fast paced, and totally worth the time. I'm not as sold on the gnome's female companion, created using the magical bucket. She's stereotypically vacuous and unsatisfying for the gnome, who decides to erase her.

There's two schools of thought on this. The first is the obvious concern about the misogyny, the creation of a "perfect" woman, the exploitation of her, and the immediate use of her for base purposes. The other side to that discussion, of course, is that you can interpret the piece as a criticism of that kind of behavior, questioning the motives and character of a man who would do such a thing. Ultimately, though, I don't know if there's a lot to be read into it except a joke, and whether or not you find the joke funny. Like I said, your mileage is going to vary.

[Via WarcraftMovies]

If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.

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Fal Bulon has a new, upcoming series called The Scourge. In case you don't recognize the name, Fal Bulon is the same German author who brought us Revenge of Akama. Like his previous work, "The Scourge" is spoken in German, and subtitled in English. We only have a trailer to look at right now, but we can be hopeful for the upcoming movie.

"The Scourge" has the same high-end production values we saw in "Revenge of Akama." The action is distinct and effective. Fal Bulon uses the lighting in his scenery to lend urgency and intensity to his characters. Overall, it was definitely fun to watch.

The trailer doesn't have a lot of plot indications, which is probably fine for a trailer. We know that the Scourge are attacking, and the orcs and humans are both caught up in it. We have epic indications of leaders making hard choices, and we have a whole bunch of fighting. (Knowing is half the battle, but the other half always comes down to fighting.)

Ultimately, this is a great trailer, and I can't wait to see the movie.

[Via WarcraftMovies]

If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.

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This is a tough review. I'm a fan of music, especially ballad-like songs. I've never felt we see enough original fan-made music about WoW, and I'm still known to hum the tune to Big Blue Dress from time to time. Yellow Grows the Grass is a great song with good lyrics. I really enjoy the subject matter, and I appreciate what Boreas was trying to do.

Unfortunately, the production values fell short in this video. The animation itself is a relatively unmodified over-the-shoulder view of the game. The music track itself popped and cracked, sometimes even obscuring the words to the song. This kind of pained me, because I was really behind what the author was trying to do here.

I hate to see a great effort plagued by production issues. I hope he can get some help with a better audio track, especially, because I thought the song was strong enough to carry the video if not for that issue. And though the animation, as I said, was relatively plain, the chosen imagery itself wasn't bad. It seemed to me like there was a very strong script, but the "camera-work" itself is what let the piece down. And like "Big Blue Dress," if the audio were clear and crisp, the video itself wouldn't really matter.

[Via WarcraftMovies]

If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.

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As a good friend of mine says, "Oh my god, the cute! It burns!" That might not be the most professional opening to my blurb on today's WoW Moviewatch, but it certainly was what I was thinking the entire time I was watching The Lonely Monster by Ollgabopi.

The animation is smooth and simple; there's no doubt about what each character is feeling. The music is absolutely appropriate, though I don't know if the creator meant for it to be quite that melancholy. The story and presentation is a little bit of a trope, but the overall effect is that much stronger since it draws on what we already know and feel about this situation. A lonely, friendly monster just wants to be accepted. It's not rocket science, and Ollgabopi lets the music and animation support the emotions of the sequence.

I was a little bit disappointed not to have more catharsis at the end, but I think as a piece of stand-alone art "The Lonely Monster" is very strong.

[Via Myndflame]

If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.

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