A little thing happened to me while I sat down to write the previous review, I had in my head the idea that I would review a bunch of relatively modern films that I enjoyed but because they’re recent they wouldn’t fit in my normal review schedule. And the one I was going to review last week was, Godzilla Minus One. But while writing the first actual paragraph I was getting struck by Déjà vu. Looking it up I found, yeah I’d reviewed it already during a previous special set of reviews. I was a bit bummed out, while I had other things I could review (namely Transformers One) that meant I was down one overall. Telling this to a friend they made a suggestion. You see they had been told to see a strange movie, and decided we could watch that together….. It took me a while to process what I just saw.

Indeed I’m not sure how to describe the movie I watched. For one it’s basically a silent movie outside of a musical number at the start – as in there is no actual talking outside of cards on text. It’s also black and white, and no this is not an old film, it came out in 2022. But most importantly it’s very, very, VERY, weird. There are only around 4 human characters in the movie with the vast majority of the rest of the cast being people in cartoonish animal outfits. And a lot of them are Beavers. 

The film stars Jean Kayak played by Ryland Brickson Cole Tews. Jean is an Applejack seller as told during our opening musical number…. and then one of the big apple barrels rolls down and explodes burning down the entire orchard. We then spend a decent amount of time with a barely  alive Jean trying to hunt a rabbit… Till he eventually becomes a hunter to win the heart of the merchant’s daughter.. which eventually leads into… look it’s really hard to describe what I saw but I also don’t want to really ruin the absolute insanity of what happened. There’s a beaver Holms and Watson, a beaver tower of Babel and what appears to be the most accurate depiction of a video game level in live action I’ve ever seen… yes it also involves a lot of beavers.

The whole 108 minute long film has a very Looney Tunes in live action feel to it, and in all the right ways. I can’t really say there is some grand narrative or emotional storytelling going on, a lot of the film has more of a “things happen” energy to it all. But in the best possible way. For all the insanity thrown at you, you will be laughing your head off as it gets more and more absurd in the madness all the way to the end. Just look at the trailer! How am I meant to explain all this? I still am on some level, well over a week after watching it, trying to process all this.

Just, if you can find a way, go see this movie. You will not be bored. You may be eternally confused, but not bored.

Rating: 🦫🦫🦫🦫🦫