As kids, my neighbor Scott and I would pass snow days making stop-motion films with our toys. Most of the toys weren't malleable, so we'd inevitably sacrifice the cheapest heroes — the rigid green army men — to a pair of scissors and glue. With a few hours and a surplus of patience, we'd finish the day with a viewing of a two-minute short. It typically involved those green soldiers playing kickball with one unlucky figure's disembodied head. Godard we were not.

Nothing we made, obviously, compares to the stop-motion Transformers shorts made by Harris Loureiro. The YouTube filmmaker mixes stop-motion animation with computer-animated effects, never letting the latter overpower the former. The new story is as silly as a Saturday morning cartoon, never rising to the level of absurdity or cynicism of the blockbuster film franchise. While 15 minutes is long for a YouTube video, I prefer the lunch break dosage to three hours in a crowded movie theater.

Loureiro's work comes our way via Mike Fahey at Kotaku. I encourage you to read his detailed play-by-play of the film. And if you enjoy the video, be sure to watch Loureiro's other shorts on YouTube.