Bezman's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Evolution -BmK]

Lovely

The opening was beautiful and the dandelion seeds are all wonderfully drawn.

The way in which the text disappears works well in mirroring the dandelion seeds and keeping to the mood.

Graphics are very simple, but each stroke, each fade, each motion tween seems well considered.

Though the story was simple and rather slow, there was a nice sense of timing and a fair bit of visual interest throughout. The feathers during the transformation, the sparkes on the tear...

Furthermore, it seems to be open to so much interpretation. Personally, I see it as as metaphor for death.

The title seems a little obscure.

The font used is great and goes well with the general tone of the piece.

Lovely music.

Really, really lovely.

BlackmarketKraig responds:

First of all, I really appricaiate thoughtful, considerate reviews such as this.

Now, Mr. Bezman, I just have to say that getting the title text to blow away like that and for me to feel satisfied with the way it looked, took me longer than any other other part of the animation.

Although you seem comfortable with the way the piece unfolded, pacing is the single most commonly pointed out shortcoming of all of my flash submissions to Newgrounds so far. I'm not very good at changing my habits, so it's unlikely that I will be submitting any whiz-bang storytelling in the near future.

It's my opinion that all things are open to individual interpretation, as everyone views the world in a different way, and though many things beat you over the head with whatever the creator wishes you the hear/see/think/feel, I'm more interested gentle nudging. ^_^

I'm done rambling...

Thanks for reviewing and for the great score! :D

[Fireworks are Fun!]

Not bad.

The ending was a bit predictable and when the boy grips an object, it doesn't really look as if he's holding it.

In a similar vein, the firework falls a bit slowly.

The whole thing takes a little bit longer to pan out than I'd have liked for such a simple one-joke thing.

Lastly, you need an end screen.

However, it is nice to have a little bit of anticipation and the song choice for the end was almost witty.

[Doofie]

Some amusement, but generally too obvious.

Over half of them were predicted before the death revealed itself and with something like this, the amusement for me is in the surprise factor.

#10 was rather amusing after all the other ones, and the text in #9 was pretty funny too.

Some animation was rather nice, like the toad burping, but I'm not a big fan of the style you've chosen for Doobie himself.

Sound was decent, with some really nice sfx, but the little drumbeat got a bit tiring.

The presentation and the navigation system was pretty sound though.

[Disgaea: Episode 3]

Not as funny as #2.

To be honest, Kagome's voice sort of irritated me at points, particularly with Flonne.

You are both incredible voice actors and I find it impressive how you can perform in so many ways, but the voice of Flonne in particular irritated me thanks to the overly cheery American accent.

That's something which is pretty subjective though.

I'll be able to tolerate it.

I don't like the way you use the word 'anyways' either. But again, that's personal opinion.

The white edges are now totally gone, which is nice.

If you're willing to continue improving the character sprites, I suggest you remove the jagged edges, specially on Vaharl when he's angry.

I don't like the way you sometimes have the Lemingtan's servant open his mouth, sometimes not. It's needlessly inconsistent.

La la la laaaaa lalala (I love that interlude tune.)

I was amused by the green dude in the bar, but it wasn't quite as entertaining as the previous one for some reason.

I'm interested to see the whole thing pan out though.

Had graphics and everything been yours, I would have probably given it an 8 overall. Instead, I give it a 6.

Graphics - I think you did a nice job cleaning up those characters. But you can still improve it by taking away jaggies and changing the font I think.

Sound - would have been an 8. Taking your involvement into consideration, I give you a 7.

[Disgaea: Episode 2]

Awesome. Better than the first.

I'm pleased to see you've made some improvements.

The white edges on the characters seems to be all but gone. I spotted it when the angel with the strange hat (who keeps saying 'Master Lamington') opened his mouth, even though that frame only flashed up. Nowhere else.

The plot and dialogue remains entertaining and amusing. I laughed out loud at the renaming and there seems to be some intrigue afoot, with possible backstabbing... intriguing...

There's still a lot of spelling mistakes. 'who's' should be 'whose'.,'visators' should be 'visitors', 'kowabunga' is normally spelt 'cowabunga', 'effect' should be 'affect', 'master' is once not capitalised, though it usually is.

'Nobody said ganging up on eachother' may be better phrased 'nobody said anything about ganging up on each other'.

The battleground is overly pixellated.

Master Lamington's voice seems a bit quiet in comparison to the volume of the rest of the game.

Though I've cited so many flaws, I really enjoyed this, thanks to the sumptuous sprites and engaging plot and dialogue.

I really like the way characters slide in during the fight. You use the various character models well and the presentation is rather nice now.

You've done well to bring this story to more people and I hope my comments encourage you to improve it further.

Had the graphics been made by you, they would have gotten a 9. Maybe even a 10. Instead, I give them an 8 again.

Had everything been yours, I would have given this a 9 overall I think. Instead, I give it a 6.

I look forward to hearing female voices as that's my biggest complaint with this one atm.

Also, remove the traces of white edges, maybe use a different font and have a replay button.

Also, maybe have someone check over your spelling for you. It really spoiled my enjoyment here.

[Disgaea: Episode 1]

Great story and dialogue! Sumptuous sprites!

Nice work.

The graphics could have been cut better (they all have some unsightly white bits around them) and it would have been more enjoyable had you gotten someone to do the female voice, but it was still fairly enjoyable.

So that's where the 'doood, dood' penguins from that 'Punk-maker' or whatever it's called, came from? (You know, the one which allows you to place guitars and such to make music.) Ah.

First off, the opening scene looks lovely, but the font used (comic sans?) doesn't fit in well at all I feel.

In the intro, 'guards' is mispelt.

The narrator's castle comment about the castle amused.

From the moment the characters come on-screen, the white surrounding the character sprites do make it look rather sloppy.

All the voices are nicely acted and though the plot and dialogue seems rather nice and energetic. Some ideas are a little corny, but there's enough half-jokes to make it all really entertaining.

The ending should have a replay button, but apart from that, the lack of a female voice, the white parts round the characters and the font you use, this is nigh on perfect.

Had the plot been totally original, I would have given it a 7, an 8 if the voices had been all acted and the white bits removed.

As it is, I'll give you a 5. Everything else, I ignored the question of who created it.

I just can't tell how much of the story is yours. Was the dialogue taken word for word? How much is totally new? I know not these things.

I also find myself wondering - if I do watch this series (I watched this episode just to vote fairly on #3 btw) then would I enjoy the game less were I to ever play it?

Well, I suppose if it's good enough, I'll enjoy it anyway.

You're not going to reveal any surprises like characters dying and such, are you?

I hope not... :-/

[Lemmings!]

Nice movie, but maybe a bit slow.

The sound and voices were nice and though graphics were nothing special, you got your message and the ending emotions across nicely.

The main problem I have is that it should probably be a lot faster.

The punchline comes at the end and from the stuff sliding on-screen (which happens slower than necessary) to the time taken to cross the first 2 obstacles, it does seem it could be slightly faster, just to get to the 'actual' joke a bit faster.

I suppose the first 2 obstacles are necessary and aren't paced /too/ badly, but this really could be a bit shorter and sweeter.

The other beef I have is that bizarrely some of the lemmings seem to survive whilst others die. Not like in the game, but it's hardly the end of the world.

Well, it was mildly amusing in the end.

Just seemed to have a fair bit of faff.