Rose reviews: Indie animation!: Claw and compass [Pilot]
Post #10, Hope everyone is doing well, and I just wanna say happy Black History Month! As a treat, the next poll will feature animations created primarily or solely by Black animators!!! If you know any good ones, let me know!
Rose Reviews: Claw and compass [Pilot]
Natromations is an animator, not much can be found about them online so there's not much to say in this segment.
They're a fan of Amphibia, Hollow knight, Gravity Falls, and Murder Drones
The art style of claw and compass is very basic. I genuinely don't know what to expect. The characters on the front seem to be pirates at the very least, so I suspect this will be an adventure. Other than that though, I'm not sure where this will go, hopefully it will be a hidden gem I've found!
With that out of the way, let’s get to the review!
The plot was very reminiscent of One Piece: a ragtag crew bands together to find a legendary treasure (or, in this case, treasures) while fighting off rival groups. Natromations did a wonderful job of setting up the plot. I immediately knew what the goal of the main characters was and what was stopping them from achieving it within the first few minutes. A lot of indie animations struggle with that; they're so focused on trying to make it flashy and eye-catching, the audience has no story to follow, and just watch the characters run around before eventually getting bored and dropping it. Where it differentiates from one piece and other popular media is that it was too predictable, the lobsters were unique and unexpected but if it wasn't for the unusual skin tones then I'd be none the wiser. The writer never builds off of it- do they only eat lobster food? Are their other sentient animals out there as well? Along with other lobsters does the crew need to watch out for predators? None of these questions get answered.
If I had to pick one key feature of the Claw and Compass animation, it would definitely be the plot, though it was cliche.
Before I get into the characters, I just want to appreciate the visual aspect of each of them. Even though they're lobsters, they each have several unique designs. Let's be honest here, can you tell normal lobsters apart? I don't think so.
Dagger is the classic adventure protagonist targeted towards teenage boys: cheerful, extroverted, has a crush on the girl of the group, and a hidden secret. If you're looking for a simple main character you can relate to- Dagger's your Lobster.
Rust bucket is the mechanic of the group as well as the only girl. She grew up with Dagger in their small town and without her the group would be in serious trouble, the brains of the group clearly.
Captain Clawthorne is like the drunk uncle at thanksgiving- a horrible influence, doesn't know what to do with kids, but he can be fun to hang out with. He's captain because Clawthorne is the only one who has ANY experience out at see. He was my favorite out of the crew, the voice acting here was well done.
I didn't like riptide that much, his whole thing is that he's the "mysterious grumpy guy" of the group who has a "dark and traumatic past" But we don't need to be reminded of that every time he opens his mouth. So far he's contributed virtually nothing to the group and is reminding us of his mysterious past so much young Sasuke Uchiha is jealous. It's probably going to be revealed that he's either a traitor or he used to be a bad guy,
If I'm being honest, I'm not too impressed with the animation. It seems like the animator put too much focus on trying to make it look fancy and full colored than actually being finished. The heart is there, but overall, it looks low quality and something a child would do. It's not all bad, but what I recommend is for the majority of the next one to do a very simple art style, and then for one or two big moments, put all your effort into that.
I was recommended this animation by the creator @natromations so I added it to the poll. Thank you for reaching out and letting me review your animatic! This animatic was full of cliches, humor that gave "10 year old boy trying to be mature" energy, and just overall not that enjoyable though I recognize the effort that went into this. Taking into consideration everything I'd give this review a 5/10
