www.animatecommunicate.com

Star rating: 3/5.

What a fabulous idea – an animated film company run by people with learning difficulties. Animate Communicate, a business based in Wiltshire, revolves around 10 service users and goes into schools and colleges to help students make films using plasticine models brought to life through “claymation”, writes Graham Hopkins.

The short films on the website show the group to have acute senses of the surreal and humour – statutory requirements, one assumes, for animators. Although violence is used as a humorous weapon – Aliens v Arnold landed for me, and War with its rampaging tank is crushingly amusing – tender moments do raise their heads above the parapet: Heart 2 and Melting are as sweet as an autumnal kiss. While the pictures and films dance, sadly the accompanying text stumbles and falls. You just know the technicians and supporters have taken over. For but one example: “This opportunity enables students to address their perceptions of the skills and values inherent with our group of animation artists.”

Animation is, I’m sure, incredibly complex but can be made to look so simple. Language, however, should be simple but is made to look complex. It really doesn’t need to: the pictures do all the talking.