JazLyte's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Al the Xmas Velociraptor]

Could have been really funny at half the length.

Why was that so long? You really fucked up a lot of your comedic timing by having it go so slow, I think this cartoon could have been really funny with about half of the banter taken out of it. The idea was really funny and the graphics, though lazy on the animation side, were easy on the eyes. But the first scenes, the scene with the cops with the Johnny Utah voice, the friend making the snowman, were really unfunny and threw the cartoon off balance. Others could have been shortened, because the awkwardness wasn't well-handled, but other than that everything else worked. Trim the fat and you have some great toonage here, velociraptors never fail to be fucking hilarious to me.

[Villainy - The New Toys]

I can't believe you're actually doing this.

Funny as hell, AND frame-by-frame? I don't even know what to say, this series caught me off guard... Normally I can pick apart a cartoon to death, but I haven't seen anything bad come from this series yet. Weird, evil characters that actually ARE evil and not just Cartoon Network evil, great comedic timing and hilarious acting. You're doing an awesome job, you're already defeating commercial television. Keep up the great work :3

DonkeysBazooka responds:

wow thanks! that really means a lot coming from you.

[Santa Travel]

You are fucking demented.

And that's why I love you. That was 2 minutes of pure eye sex.

Hulalaoo responds:

Hey Jazz : )

[TOME Short: Hackers]

Where's the improvement?

"I just realized what my sexual orientation is." A pillar falls on the character. Now we'll never know what his sexual orientation iiiiissss! Wa wa wa waaaaah.

So we have a short of your newly reborn TOME series with recycled graphics, jokes that are just as sluggish, and best of all, you picked the most unfunny, difficult characters to look at and listen to and focussed all the attention on them. Mmkay. Well I can't really comment on the graphics, since 90% of them are the same ones from the episode you released not too long ago. You didn't use the visuals to enhance the "comedy" at all (which, if I'm not mistaken is the whole purpose of animated comedy in the first place), and probably what makes me cringe the most is your ability to make voice actors like D-Mac and Omahdon that I know are really good, SOUND like awful amateurs with your... umm... unique... writing style style.

I'm not going to challenge you on your decision to do this bland idea, you've already admitted that you've chosen quantity over quality, but I would have thought that making something this short would have alleviated some of the issues you had from the pilot. Maybe faster humor (you do know what laughing is right? It's rapid gasping caused by SURPRISE or excitement), or better animation quality. But you persevered, hanging onto the slow-as-molasses joke delivery, the "placeholder-style" animation (that's really only there as something to look at, since the audio is where all the 'effort' is), and the unbearable banter between these two awful characters made this 2 minutes seem like another 17.

Try using the graphics to actually enhance the comedy. Speed things up and get to the point; your buildups are extremely ineffective at this point and your jokes aren't clever enough for the slow, dry delivery style you use. And seriously, DRAW MORE. Enough with the "homemade sprite" thing, it's painful to look at. You've chosen your target audience I suppose, and they follow your loyally, but these are a few of many things I think you could do to get other animators/writers off your back, since we seem to be the only ones not enjoying this stuff. I just question the staying power of your execution style applied to something that doesn't have familiar licensed characters, even with the younger 10-14 internet audience you go for. Try redirecting your effort to more potent material.

[24in24 Twenty Eleven]

Interesting for it's novelty

I think this was a cool idea, making 24 animations in 24 hours. I imagine that was complete hell. But other than the thought behind it, I didn't get much from the actual animations themselves. Some were failry entertaining, like the sick Nyan cat, but really other than that I feel like I was watching it more for the fact that you did it in a day rather than because it was actually entertaining or interesting; most of it was really just that overused wet toast gag you carried over from the last one. I feel like it presumed a lot about the person watching it instead of giving us something different to look at. I feel like if half of the shorts were going to be about the toast saving his daughter, you probably would have done better just making a one-day toon about that with higher quality/better pace. Still, a fun, novel idea though.

[Sean and Such Ep. 9]

Still underrated.

It never ceases to amaze me people's lack of reaction to this series, I've watched every episode and I think it's great. Nice, dry humor, amusingly human characters, I think the ideas are TV-ready. I can tell you've made good use of your time with this series, as each episode is long and satisfying, but he execution may be hindering you though.

I know people hate hearing this, but have you considered shortening the episodes to 4-4:30 each? People on the net have short attention spans, I've found that anything over 5 minutes takes a huge chunk out of your replay value. Also, if I were you, I'd stop numbering the episodes to the public too, people are terrified of numbers when it comes to web toons. The bigger the number, the less likely people are to watch it, maybe try giving each episode a unique name? You can still have it as part of the series IN CARTOON, just not in the way you present it. Just my two cents, I'd love to see this series get more play, I think it deserves it.

[Swingers Episode 2]

Still enjoying this.

Nice, clean art, great character design and great color choices, has all it needs for presentation. The animation could use a little bit more time and energy, it seems like alot of it is just drawn straight into final form (there's a lot of morphing and shape-changing), but it's not bad at all. Sound could be a little clearer, and there could be better atmosphere than just dead silence and music. But other than that, I'm really enjoying this series. Great concept, and it was cool finding out what the bar really is. I'd just watch the speed at which you tell the story, after the first watch, some things are pretty hard to follow, like why they were getting the necklace, and why someone was after it. Still, nice work, great ideas, I don't see it going anywhere but up.

[SPUD - Part 3]

Yup, suddenly it all starts making sense.

As with last time, great execution. As far as having what you need to tell a story without being taken out of it by amateurish graphical flaws or messy finishing, solid job. Still lacking in the animation department, there's no frame-by-frame, and the sound design could definitely use some work, there's little to no ambiance anywhere in the movie; no room tones, no wind. But for what it's worth, it did what it was supposed to.

The story is something completely different though. While I don't want to knock it for being obnoxious Christian propaganda... It's kind of obnoxious Christian propaganda lol. With this, you're slowly starting to rob the characters and the plot of its humanity by showing that the company who hired the heroes was lying to them (good, fascinating), then following up with 3 minutes of "hey, humans lie, so your life is a lie and you're evil, so go get religion, or suffer in hell after you dieeee!". I feel like I could ask you to be more subtle with the way you handle the unraveling of your metaphors, but clearly that isn't the point here. The point is to scare people into imaginary servitude, as with my little series it's very difficult for me to be subtle about my disgust with your cult, so why ask? But I cannot ignore that you have skill, and on a boring school night, it was something to watch. Keep at this, the Bible's the world's greatest horror/comedy, I'll watch anything based on it :3

nahtanojmal responds:

Thanks, I think. :D

[SHRINK Trailer]

Didn't pull me in.

I have no doubt that the final project could be something awesome, but this trailer did nothing but show that there's going to be planes and a guy. That's it. Nothing on the story except war. Nothing on the characters except that the main guy has a back, and possibly a helmet. Next time, if you're going to bother to make a trailer (which I think is pointless unless the project is HUGE, I'm talking a 20-minute short film or you have multiple episodes of this series completed to a passable cutoff point in the plot), make sure to give us a taste of what you want people to be impressed by in the final product. If it's the characters, show us what's interesting about the characters, if it's the action, show us some of the action, if it's the drama, give us a taste of that. But planes are not interesting by themselves, neither are guys with helmets. The vagueness of this trailer lets me know that you haven't done much with the final product itself. I haven't lost faith in this project though, I'm sure it'll be good, but this trailer wasn't what told me that.

Katokun responds:

yup, you're right, i have about 50% of the work done already, it's not completed yet :b, I guess I just wanted to show some of the stuff, to make something to raise the morale and create expectation.
I think I messed up with the word "trailer", now that I see that is more like a teaser hehehe, however i appreciate your review and you can rest assured that the final product will be awesome :)

[Madness Heist]

NG needs more of this.

I am thoroughly impressed. I overlooked this movie initially because I didn't think something with characters that were created for body counts could keep me interested through something so dialogue-driven, but I loved every minute of it. I can't say the graphics wow'ed me, but the plot, the characters and the FANTASTIC casting kept me cheesing through the whole thing and lured all my roommates over too. Great shit, I really wish more people on NG would pick up plot-driven Flash again, but I guess that's asking too much. Things like this, even with something as popular as Madness, is hard to sell on the internet. Keep up the good work, this was truly satisfying sir.