http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/tv/angrykid.shtml
Comedy & Animation:
Angry Kid
Look out for Angry Kid - he's between some shows from 9pm. Don't miss the half-hour special on Christmas Eve.
Relentless, idiotic and frequently stubborn, Angry Kid is a snot-nosed reprobate with a serious attitude problem. He is childish, arrogant and a real pain to his Dad, not to mention his unfortunate friend ?Speccy? and his strange, hyper-intelligent little sister.
Angry Kid is the creation of director Darren Walsh of Aardman. It uses an animation process called ?pixellation?, in which a human actor is used as a 3D puppet, literally moving a fraction at a time for each frame of film. Darren also uses 400 face masks to create Angry Kid?s individual and repugnant expressions.
Angry Kid Special: Who Do I Think I Am?
Snot-nosed teen tyrant Angry Kid is set an essay by his teacher - 10 pages on 'Who Do I think I Am?' As he struggles to get the essay finished, or started for that matter, he press-gangs friends and family into helping him, including his gormless dad, super-bright sister and hapless friend Speccy.
Along the way he is given a bizarre and twisted version of his family history, the history of the universe and the meaning of life which, if he bothered to listen to any of it, would end up leaving him more confused than when he first set out on his meandering voyage of self-discovery.
Darren Walsh
Darren pioneered the combination of ?pixellation? technique with mask animation. Inspired by the work of Norman McLaren while studying Art & Design in 1989, Darren went on to take a degree in Animation at Farnham. His graduation film, Oozat, won Best European Short Film at the Cork international Film Festival, and the Jury Prize at Hiroshima. On the back of this success Darren went on to direct for two years at the Bolex Brothers studio, where he made The Biz for BBC2?s 10x10 series and directed commercials.
Darren's pilot for Angry Kid sparked interest at Aardman, who offered to develop it into a series and he has also directed several commercials for the company. Darren received the Best New Director Award from Shots Magazine at the 2001 International Advertising Festival of Ireland. He also created the Happiness Bear and directed the animation segments for Paul Whitehouse?s BBC2 sitcom Happiness. With 50 one-minute episodes of Angry Kid now under his belt, Darren is expanding into longer form work.