| "Corporate Puppet" | |
| Author: | T. Bailey |
|---|---|
| Audio used: | T. Bailey |
| Origin: | 12/05/2000 |
| Size: | 927 KB |
| Score (As of 22 May, 2011): | 4.20/5.00 |
| Awards: |  Daily Feature
|
| Author's comments: | |
| None. | |
| Note | This information only refers to the official release on the Flash Portal. |
Corporate Puppet is one of the earliest dramatic movies on Newgrounds.
Plot
It is the story of a man depicted as a puppet who works for a corporation. He goes to work in a large tower for thirty years, literally kissing the behind of his loud-mouthed boss. Eventually, he is driven to suicide out of despair. In the end, the puppet disappears, a dead human appearing in its place.
Presentation
Note the use of narrow black lines to suggest that an outside force is in control.
Corporate Puppets's most noticeable aspect is its unique art style. The movie mimics a shadow puppet show, where only the silhouettes of puppets are easily visible, complete with lines to suggest the sticks of shadow puppets which appear to move the seperate parts of the bodies. This simultaneously simplifies the characters and objects to recognizable, almost elemental, forms while creating the illusion of outside control. This is reinforced in the final scene, where as the protagonist puppet falls the sticks are seen to break away, apparently symbolising the release from control. When the man hits the ground, the puppet is replaced by an illustration of a human in the last seconds before death, when he looks up at the building he has jumped and escaped from. The music and sound effects are fairly simple, serving to illustrate the action on screen.
Reception
Corporate Puppet was one of the first popular dramatic movies on Newgrounds. Although it still hasn't reached a quarter million views after over a decade in the Flash Portal, it won both the Daily Feature and the Weekly Users' Choice awards. As of May 2011, it has an average review of 8.7/10. Corporate Puppet is also in three collections: Flash Portal History, Music Videos, and Serious Shorts. Tom Fulp called it a "great artistic work."