A 12-year-old York boy has created a stop-motion animation to make those stuck indoors self-isolating smile.
Aaron Rich is now hoping to create more movies, with the proceeds going to his local hospital.
He created the minute-long video, entitled The Sweet Thief, as part of his IT homework for Fulford School.
The clip was shared by his dad on Twitter and quickly took off – amassing more than 638,000 views in less than 24 hours.
The movie features a sneaky pink hamster who keeps stealing sweets from a monkey.
Oscar winner loves it
Among those to praise the video was award-winning animator Peter Lord, co-founder of Aardman Animations, best known for its clay-animated films including Wallace and Gromit, and Chicken Run.
Lord wrote: “That’s really great. And it works too.”
Aaron’s dad, Ben Rich, said:
This was a piece of homework from his wonderful IT teacher Mr Dring, who asked his class to make a video to cheer up anyone who was stuck at home.
My wife has done a brilliant job of working with the kids, working out timetables and planning their days, and this was his first task.
He has made lots of animations in the past using iMovie and Animator, normally with his little rubber animals or Comic Relief red noses.
He sat down and did it completely on his own in about an hour and a half.
We particularly loved the credits which include: ‘Carpet: Set Design’