Syn-Starr's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[O.J. and Friends - Pilot Episode]

Uhh. Hmmm. Okay so, first off, the line art is...acceptable. The characters look right, albeit basic and occasionally not anatomically correct. The voice acting is disjointed, having characters talk over each other making it difficult to keep track of where we are in the conversation. In terms of animation...there is none. Just still frames of characters with a voice actors talking in place of them. This wouldn't be a problem except it's frustrating trying to understand what characters are doing when movement is so limited. When OJ Simpson is crying, his character doesn't move from that prayer position.

The sequence of events for the plot doesn't make any sense. Why is it that when we start out with some...guy who is narrating what is going on, he shows OJ posing in football gear but then it immediately cuts to him back in his prison attire praying. Why does the narrator read out the instructions to make this cake like as if I don't know how to read? Why does the officer hand the cake over to another officer and they look exactly alike? Overall, I understood what was going on in the story, but everything is just a cluster of nonsense.

Voice Acting for Simpson is pretty good. However, when it came to Satan, I don't understand why he says "What the F" and later says "no one is free, motherfucker." Maybe it's a nitpick, but it's still inconsistent. I don't know what the direction for the Devil was. He's like Rick from Rick and Morty, but the voice actor will redo their lines and the messed-up line will STAY in the video. It's not edited out. And for some parts, scenes drag on for WAY too long such as the preview of the next episode at the end.

There is no transition between musical choices. Also, and I could be wrong, but the instrumentals from Spongebob starting at 0:26 and at 6:51 are copyrighted music.

I can tell you want to make something big here...but you have got to put forth more effort than this. The best thing about this was the shadow of the Devil that's in the background for the court case at 6:55. It was a neat easter egg, but you need to focus more on the substance in your animation. Good Luck on Episode 2.

OJandFriends responds:

Than you for watching and writing such detailed review. I'm guessing you are not looking for a response to your unanswered questions regarding Episode1, if you are please let me know and I will do my best to answer. To some it up I can tell you this. This was made on an iPad with very limited software. It may very well be a fully animated series soon. Thanks again for your support. Good eye finding the devil shadow in the courtroom 😋. Respect.

[Project Zomboid: Desperate Escape]

Nice trailer. The transitions at the beginning were pretty alright, albeit basic, but the transitions where you switched from one character to the next with each one performing different actions was seamless! As for the model/sprite quality shown off in the trailer...my god. This is a GOOD LOOKING GAME. I'm not sure how I feel about the character models. I'm personally a fan of HD 2D sprites, BUT beggars can't be choosers. Lol! I will note that at the 10 second mark, you show off a part where the car clearly clips through a zombie. Might wanna get that fixed.
As a whole the trailer was well made in teasing gameplay and makes me interested to see the final product. gg, man!

Clerkius responds:

I appreciate your feedback, thankyou! I'm glad it looked like a solid trailer for you! Working on this was an interesting experience, and I'm definitely looking to polish, refine, and try new styles of editing down the line.

The car clipping bit couldn't be helped for the moment since the game is in the process of a major animation & graphical overhaul involving player models / zombies amongst other things in the coming months / year for which the zombie squishing carnage would be better transitioned to. Great spotting nonetheless! :D

I'm looking forward to working on a 2nd trailer that's longer and more comprehensive once those implementations are polished up in the next year.

[MARCH- Austin vs the Football]

This was charming to watch. At first, I was put off by the thickness of the lineart, but my worries were quickly cast aside when I saw how fluid and energetic the animation was. I've never watched your content before, so I don't know if these are pre-established characters, but considering the effort I saw you put forth, I understood the premise almost immediately. I will say that the audio quality for Austin sounded a little grainy, but everyone else sounded great. I really hope this gets verified because you have really put forth the effort! ^__^