Empire Square

In the modern world of chavs, scum, loser and "work for nothing but want everything" kids this group are the worst – the residents and underachievers of Empire Square in London. The animation here is pretty basic because it isn't meant to be a very professional piece of work but, if you like South Park etc then this may appeal to you. The comedy is very much mocking modern culture while at the same time the swearing and subject matter will appeal to the same people it targets. I liked the way it did this and, while it is too crude to be consistently clever, it did have a nice edge to it.

The characters are fairly basic and the voice work matches this – never really feeling like the actors knew who their characters were and were only really delivering rough, general characters. It won't appeal to everyone of course, because it is so rough and crude but if you can get passed that then it has enough going for it to be worth a look although it is unlikely that it will be pushing South Park out of its prime-time slot anytime soon.

Rented by accident, I meant to get Empire Records (as it turns out they don't actually have this film, go figure). It's based on three characters and the Chav-scum lifestyle and environment. Characters and graphics are all basic and amateurish but the humour is top-quality although a little crass and gory at times. It finds the funny and ludicrous in today's life, media and society and is filled with irony, puns and delivered with wit. I was opposed to the idea of this cartoon series, when the first episode on the DVD I rented started (I have a bias against Chav-esquire anythings)… but appearances can be deceiving, I am glad I gave it half a chance. I did enjoy watching Empire Sq!