JazLyte's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Hummus]

CHANGE NOTHING. WINNER. <=3

[ZTV News Episode 2]

No thanks. The visuals were well-handled, but nothing here was even remotely funny. Stamper's appearance was refreshing, but Zone-tan is an unbearable character to watch. She's a snarky bitch in that precise way that's not even remotely funny or entertaining, as seen in your typical shitty anime tsundere girl. The writing nor the graphics made anything she did or said more amusing, the cartoon's just really polished... Which didn't help much...

[Corporate Zombies]

Cool. I really enjoyed the idea and the drawing style, and the slow pace worked great for it, but my issue is that it ended really abruptly and the ending wasn't all that funny. It was a big buildup for something really anti-climactic. I feel like you would have gotten the same effect if you had started the short with him lying in bed at 5am the last time before telling off his boss and becoming a zombie, probably would've been more meaningful too.

[A.E. Chronics BETA | Ch.0 - Pt.4]

I've really enjoyed this series, I was extatic when I saw you had made two more since last I had checked. I haven't seen the live action version, but even since the first animated one you did 4 years ago, I've always loved the concept and the world. I think it's the best horror thing to hit NG. You're doing a great job with the eeriness, the feel and the timing and I was completely sucked in. The graphics have improved since you started, and so has the sound quality.

But it's not without it's problems, for one, you have issues with cinematic compositions that haven't changed at all since Zelda UO 1. Almost every shot in your movies are either a close-up, a bust shot, or a background shot, and as a result, it's extremely difficult to read where your characters are in their surroundings. The lack of variety in the angles and shots constantly reminds me that I'm watching a Flash cartoon, and that shouldn't be when the timing and feel are pulled off so well. Another major thing is that you have to step out of this paradigm you have with animation itself, I'd like to see you take more risks with the action, because there's way too much tweening and too many symbols bouncing rather than characters actually walking on the ground and interacting with their surroundings. The action scenes REALLY need more frame-by-frame, there's just no getting around it, the fight at the end looked really cheap and completely took me out of the movie. Take a crack at frame-by-frame, even if it's just keys and breakdowns; try the animator's survival guide and study live action film when storyboarding and blocking scenes, trust me, it helps.

Keep it up, though. Can't wait to see more. I'd love to animate a fight scene or two for this if you wanna save some work.

[LUCKY DAY FOREVER]

Utterly. Fucking. Beautiful. Totally worth the wait. The story, the colors, the art direction, the backgrounds, the themes. Best thing this site's seen in years. The character animation was a little rushed sometimes with the poor characters, but not enough to be distracting. Keep up the great work, fiending for more.

["The Worst"]

I'm pretty sure that was the best thing ever. Complete and utter indulgence in filth such as this will save animation one day.

Sherbalex responds:

lets hope so

[STARBARIANS - Episode 1]

Wow! Look at those graphics. If there's one thing you know how to do, it's push Flash to it's limits. All these people making shitty TV Flash toons could learn alot from you. Everything about it visually was really strong, great colors, great backdrops. But other than that, it didn't really do anything for me. This flick just has nothing I usually enjoy about your work. The comedy really fell flat because it had... jokes. Jokes aren't something you do well; usually just letting the horrible, demented things loose from your imagination is enough to make your cartoons entertaining. I wanted to assume that the sloppy way you handled the comedy in this one was intentional to reflect the way comedy was handled in a lot of 80's stuff, but if that was the case, it didn't work... It didn't feel like a perfectly tuned spoof of 80's entertainment like Bo-Starr, it felt like "Seth McFarlane presents a Happy Harry Cartoon." Here's to hoping the next one's different.

[Fenada 001]

Graphics and sound quality are great, but they're only a means to an end; what's under the hood is something grossly overdone and gut-wrenching to watch. I could almost understand your choice to pursue this idea if it was poking fun at this grotesquely unfunny gag that's so liberally used in lowest-common-denominator Japanese cartoons, but it was literally just a soulless reproduction of it. Pretty to look at, but this horrible cliche wasn't funny when that 87% of anime cartoons did it, and it wasn't funny here.

nalem responds:

Soulless? Ouch!

[Contemplate Life]

No.

While there was an improvement in the graphics from your previous work (implementing lines was a good choice), and the colors were nice, there was still a pretty harsh lack of variety in the animation here. There were alot of tweens, stillframes and loops that took me out of the movie. Your style's nice, but it's REALLY fucking rigid. Try doing more with the animation, it really just looks like the animation is an afterthought here. I enjoyed the instrumental song, but the words over it were poorly recorded and probably just would have been better left out. But that wouldn't have been an option (which leads me the third and most important point, the main reason for the low score) because it's just propaganda. There's no plot here, no subtlety, no entertainment value... It's really just Flash-based proselytism... Cartoons aren't really shit without ideas are they? Truly the crudest art with the most heart, brains and effort are worthy of high praise. You have nice presentational skills, but your cartoons are weak underneath the hood. Personally I like Spud better, at least you packaged the religious dickery under a nice little plot.

Now here's me proselytizing back even though this is posing as a review :D. Your "corruption" is not only your fault, but it's what makes you YOU. If you choose to change anything your life, do it for real, empirical reasons instead of trying to kiss the ass of ancient Middle Eastern mythical beings. And even if anything Christian mythology says was even mildly true about humans being so horrible for objectively moral reasons, it would be "god's" fault. If a programmer creates a game and it's full of bugs, it's moronic to say it's the game's fault. If an artist draws a picture and it's shitty, then it's the artist's fault.

Look in the mirror, not at mythological gods there's nothing looking back at you.
Because cold blooded honesty and awareness are our only real foundations in this life.
You will end up dead one day in your own strength, whether you believe in gods or not. Kick ass and enjoy what little life you have.

Please, forget ancient mythology and love yourself and others,
despite all your differences
and understanding and knowledge, change you.

nahtanojmal responds:

God created us, we hold our own remotes.
Real Christians see what God has done (or what people say He has done) for us and so willingly chose to follow Him. Not to gain for self but to die to following our sinfulness.
And in their willingness to follow God they do good.

Good works are sugar in the fruit, but sugar alone is no good for eternity.

Thanks for the 6 despite all your disagreements ;)

[Memories.]

WHAT!?

Everything was so warm and endearing, great graphics and music choice, very pro looking; loved the character design. That umm... caught me completely off guard. I responded to it very loudly.