Animation: Young talent Joe Sparkes' wonderfully poignant boxing tale

Ronan Keating is a wise man. Sometimes people really do say it best when they say nothing all. Take this wordless animation about a boxer by recent Kingston graduate Joe Sparkes. It’s one of the most beautiful, affecting, quietly sad little pieces I have ever seen – the simple tale of a man at odds with the world’s expectations of him. It looks great, there’s a tautness to the storytelling and Joe steers just the right course between poignancy and sentimentality. The shoulder drop near the end absolutely did for me. I’m excited to see more from Joe in the future.