Belgian animators Aubier and Patar, previously only known in the UK for a series of adverts, take their beloved characters from television to the big screen with overwhelming success.
Securing a spot in the Cannes competition is no mean feat. To do this with a children’s animation, which has adults and their offspring equally rapt with joy at the sheer unbridled imagination and brio on display here is cause for celebration.
Who would have guessed that crudely fashioned plastic figures of a cowboy, Indian, taciturn farmer, and a very long suffering horse could be so utterly captivating – and all for a budget which would barely keep the average studio animation crew in frappuccinos.
This is a hugely inventive, visually bizarre tale of well-meaning ineptitude, as the horse, cowboy and Indian set out to discover just who in their tiny rural village is stealing their house as fast as they can build it.
Gloriously silly and surreal, the rather ugly looking heroes embark on a fantastic voyage for justice and truth which takes them to the North Pole via the centre of the earth, where they must battle a giant penguin robot, renegade scientists and navigate an underwater world of slippery aquatic house thieves. A real treat.
