This nicely programmed compilation of shorts – some directed by Mark Baker and some by Neville Astley and a bunch they made together – is a treat for two distinct constituencies. Animation buffs who know their early, slightly dark and adult-skewed shorts, such as Baker’s The Hill Farm and The Village and Astley’s Mobile Home, will be thrilled at the chance to catch these in proper cinemas for a change. Meanwhile, parents who are secretly sad their sprogs have outgrown Peppa Pig and Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom, the series the duo created, can have a sly wallow with a few well-chosen episodes.
A couple of rarer shorts are thrown in for good measure, including Jolly Roger, which features a parrot that looks remarkably like the one owned by Grandpa in Peppa. The character design, rigorous in its simplicity but rich with expressiveness, is divine throughout.
With bits of cartoon nudity and the odd stab of stylised violence, the package is not for younger kids.
