Square Eyes

Part 2 of Julia McLean's animated Little Life continues the story of Jack, the boy with an exceptional talent for picking his nose and eating it.

Using claymation for Jack's virtual reality - fingering nasal passages, sticking face into TV screen, etc - and crayon animation for his dream life, Maclean plays with the concept that you become what you imagine, which is only too true for children before the rational voice of adulthood puts a lid on it.

The weakness of Square Eyes is that it repeats a single gag without improving on it. Jack's mother will say, "Cat got your tongue?" and Jack looks confused, followed by a drawn sequence of a cat playing with something red and tongue-shaped.

"Swallow a pip and it will grow inside you" and "Don't make faces or the wind will change and you'll be stuck like that forever" are given the same treatment. The square eyes bit is more inventive, because Jack actually wants them so that he can walk about, watching telly in his head.

The message is clear: careful what you say, Mum. Kids take metaphors literally, which mean that a frog in your throat will be slimey, living and likely to hop out onto the kitchen floor.