JazLyte's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Dovahbear 3]

I can't say Skyrim's ever been able to keep my attention for more than a few minutes, but this cartoon is really fun on its own, which really says something. The concept of a bear roaming a medieval nordic fantasy landscape in a helmet chasing honey ale is fucking great. The art direction's beautiful and the animation's economic but not right where it needs to be. Look forward to more. Like this short more than the game it's based on.

[The Reward]

Don't even need to watch it again. I've seen it dozens of times, it's my favorite indie cartoon. Ever. This film is incredible. 9 minutes is absurd for a web toon, and the first time I saw it I watched it 3 times in a row. The character designs, the world you guys wove, and especially the storytelling and the theme are all sublime in my book. I mean, just the way you guys handled everything... The animation's kind of economic for a lot of it, but it's still handled very well, the art direction and thought behind it trumps everything. Fuck me. Please. <3

TalesofAlethrion responds:

You are a great human being ;) THANKS! and for the last part of your message... its awn! Share or support the Kickstarter for the series everyone! We have 3 days left so if it is only a little bit spamming it's okay ;) http://kck.st/ZsMKBW

[-The Explorer-]

Good intentions, but some major storytelling issues, mostly with how you presented it. This isn't a self-contained story, and even though you said you need the prequel to understand in the comments, there's nowhere in the movie where this is apparent. Either this needed an "Episode 2" in the title, or there should have been some effort into making it so that newcomers can understand. Even that could have been forgiven, but unfortunately nothing is really accomplished here as a story even still. Guy finds rock, guy turns orange, guy runs toward a light, theoretically speaking there's not really a story happening here at all. Just food for thought, the graphics/style are nice, and some great ambiance going on here, but I didn't get anything out of it as a story, which is bad even in an episode from a series. There needs to be a degree of closure in every iteration, even if the story is meant to be told in parts, otherwise you're robbing each episode of its re-watch value. Would be glad to see more though.

NeroGeist responds:

That was the main concern I had with this when I finished. It's hard to convey a story to an audience when you have it in mind, you sometimes forget that people don't know whats going on and they can't assume the story like you do. There were many problems with the storytelling and I agree with you on that, this I guess was really a starting point for the series. And now that Step is willing to compose music for this series, I won't be limited music wise which can let focus more on the story. Thanks again for the review though! I'll be sure to work on it harder next time! :)

[Psycat (english sub)]

Psycat is the fucking ultimate. I can't even.

[Starbarians - Episode 1.5]

I'm really having a hard time with these. The graphics and quality are amazing as usual, but once again everything unique and fun about your writing style is just completely absent in these shorts... I don't care about these characters; they're extremely bland, and not comedically so. Somehow I'm starting to get the impression that you're so attached to them you may be holding back. I'm not one to bark at anyone about how to handle characters, but one thing I have learned is that it shows when you're too protective, especially with comedy. Just food for thought. Your one-shots are still much more satisfying.

[Dandy: No Evil 006]

You've made it to the top of my "First things I click" list, and I never regret it. These are great, they aren't obnoxious or trying too hard, just simple light-hearted shorts with fur and country accents. Love as always, and great character designs/drawing style. What baffles me is how you manage to finish so many of these in such short periods of time, do you just go straight for storyboards to final drawings? What's your process? So I can blatantly copy you. I never have time to finish shit these days.

Warlord-of-Noodles responds:

It isn't really that quick if you come to think of it. There are just big spaces of time in the year I'm given no work so I work on these to expose my art and keep from going crazy. SO they all tend to be a whole crap lode within fortnights of one another.... then some months of nothing because I'll actually get work. and I tend to work on several at the same time rather than one at a time... so I don't get sick of one and get lazy.

[A Simple Melody: No Evil 004]

Haha, just some fur bitches sitting around singing and being classy, I like. I like watching your stuff improve, and you get alot finished. Your toons never fail to satisfy me; I've probably said this on your stuff a million times, things like this(of quality) are almost extinct on NG. Keep up the good work.

[And TheRaven Brought Fire: No Evil 002]

That was pretty sweet, you're definitely never lacking in great character design. The furries and the little world in this are great. The song didn't do much for me, but it is different for this sort of thing. Your animation's still kind of bland and straighforward though... Could use some work making it a little smoother and more dynamic; needs more breakdowns. A cool short though.

[Epexsus Episode 1]

Hey, now here's something I'm always happy to see. Ambitious Flash Americanime? That's what I'm fuckin' talking about. There's some great presentation going on here, and I appreciate the time you gave to showing us the characters living rather than just having them be marionettes being dragged along by the overarching plot. Ideas first since that's where's the soul's at. The characters aren't bad, as in they don't inspire face-palms; but they aren't exactly interesting either. Generic pseudo-medieval worldâEU¦ once again not terrible, just flavorless. The idea of the tribes doesn't bother me, but the way you presented it does. It wasn't necessary for you to tell us about that, because it didn't have anything to do with the events in this episode, at least to us as viewers who are oblivious to the story at large. The exposition at the beginning did nothing to enhance this short whatsoever, but it did place a lot of future obligations on you to involve all of these tribes and the war into the plot, which you might regret later.

Execution. Here's where you shined at. You have good taste and great director sense brewing in you. The audio is well-handled, and you have no idea what volumes of good adding those instrument strokes and riffs during yelling, certain fast actions and fluctuations in the mood of the dialogue added. Or maybe you doâEU¦ Your actors aren't bad. They didn't make me cry, but they did their job. You're clearly inspired by anime, and they definitely sounded like animeâEU¦ Wouldn't go for that in my toons, but it's neutral in my book. Your heart's in the right place with the action scenes, there's some cool flips and acrobatics, but I would try practicing your animation more before embarking on another one of these. Learn more about the classic process, then start breaking rules. For long, story-driven toons like these, you have the right idea, the anime route is a smart choice (simple shots for dialogue and scene-building, save the intense frame-by-frame for the action sequences). Just make sure you're giving us something as jizztastic as possible with the action sequences. Do me a favor, go to YouTube, type in the word "sakuga". Study it, as much as possible. Find Yutaka Nakamura, Norio Matsumoto, and Hiroyuki Imaishi's scenes in even the cheapest anime and ABSORB IT ALL. Comedy's nice, quick, well timed.

Other than that, there's some points where the image doesn't cover the entire canvas and there's distracting blocks of white, and the copyrighted music isn't necessary. Use the music of musicians you can talk to, because if you saturate your baby with copyrighted material, you don't particularly own it, and you won't be able to do much more with it than just smalltime internet expositions, and I'd hate to watch all this budding talent and work not be lucrative for you in other ways. Speaking of that, I don't know how I feel about the fact that you spent 3 years on this. That's a little much, and projects that huge tend to cause artistic/director skill to stagnate. I hope the next one won't take so long for your sake, because I tell your heart's in it, not that I won't be excited for Episode 2. Just consider cutting the episode lengths to under 5 while it's still early, trust me on this, I've done what you're doing before thrice and it doesn't end well. You're going to grow as an artist while you're working and it will be very difficult to be satisfied with your work after a while. Like what I'm seeing though, keep it up man.

[Devil Hunter: Episode 3]

blah.