Angry Kid

In the course of 25 animation shorts, each a minute or so long, we meet Angry Kid. He is a snotty little oik, with ginger hair, obnoxious and preoccupied with bodily functions, who thinks that saying, "Bum bum bum bum bum", is big and clever. A younger version of Harry Enfield's Kevin The Teenager, if you will, although Angry Kid is far funnier, cruder and more telling.

The animation process, used to create this creature, is called pixillation, which involves placing a series of masks on a real person and shooting one frame at a time. Pixillation, coupled with the use of real and semi-real backgrounds, takes Angry Kid beyond the typical Aardman look. It suits admirably.

It would be easy for animation of this nature to rely on cheap slapstick and bogies, but Angry Kid is better than that. Such attention to detail has gone into getting his facial expressions and vocal mannerisms spot on, that the funniest moments aren't when a dog gnaws on his compound fracture, or he accidentally wees on his little sister, but when he feels a bit queasy, or apologises to his father in hope of getting his own way.

Angry Kid is immature - hilariously so - but he's so much more than this. The target audience is wider than teenage boys. Adults, with a hankering for childish humour, will delight in his misadventures. Any younger children, who can sneak a peak when no-one's looking, or have parents who won't mind a couple of appropriate F words, will laugh harder than they've ever laughed before.

Absolute brilliance. It's just a shame that it's only half an hour long.