This independently made low budget American film was never widely released but it slowly gained fame over time. To say that it’s odd would be an understatement. It’s in black and white and has almost no dialogue but does have sound. It uses crude costumes and graphics instead of expensive special effects. It’s basically a modern Looney Tunes cartoon except in real life and with gore. As usual, I’m a sucker for anything unique and original and this does have plenty of charm. But it could stand to be edited down for length as it starts to get boring once you understand what it’s going for.

Jean is the proud owner of an apple orchard and makes applejack from his produce, until a drunken mishap leads to the destruction of his house and everything else he owns. To survive in the depths of winter, he attempts to reinvent himself as a trapper. He is awful at it however as the rabbits escape his repeated attempts to trap them and he is beaten up by beavers. His only success is using his own bleeding fingers as bait to catch fish. While trading his fish to the local merchant, he notices the highly experienced and successful Master Fur Trapper. The older man brings so many furs that the merchant offers him the hand of his daughter in marriage but is refused. When Jean is accidently caught in one of the Master Fur Trapper’s pit traps, he is rescued and taken in as an apprentice. He is taught the large variety of traps and locations used and shown the map that keeps track of it all. This goes on until wolves begin stalking the trapper’s pack of dogs and the trapper himself is killed fighting them off.

Jean’s backstory about his applejack making days is conveyed in a cartoon-heavy sequence that makes it difficult to decide how seriously to take it. The thing is, as silly and over the top as it is, this actually is a real movie with a coherent plot from the beginning to the end. It has a fixed cast of characters, story arcs and even its wacky logic is consistent. So when Jean discovers that his spinning trap creates a powerful fan-like effect, he takes advantage of it to create some truly ridiculous Rube Goldberg-style contraptions. Also part of the fun for me is that while the film affects the style of an old-timey silent film complete with on-screen captions, it operates according to modern video game logic. The merchant has a signboard listing out the items on offer for different numbers of pelts. Jean methodically works through them and actually manages to find a use for each item. The final prize is of course to win the hand of the girl, in this case the merchant’s daughter. It’s crass, dumb and utterly unsubtle but it is entertaining, occasionally funny and just the sort of thing you can turn your brain off for.

Production values are bottom of the barrel cheap with graphical effects made using Adobe After Effects and a handful of extras wearing fur suits sourced from a Chinese website to stand in for the many, many animals. The performers all overact with exaggerated expressions and body language. Yet it all works because Looney Tunes cartoon in film form is exactly what director Mike Cheslik is going for. Towards the end, the action escalates to a ridiculous scale that cartoons can pull off easily but would be out of the budget of most live action productions. But since this film isn’t afraid of looking cheap and fake, it goes for it anyway and oozes with charm as it does so. My main complaint is that it takes too much time to work itself through its plot. It stays too long on the early moments when Jean is struggling and repeatedly resorts to the same gags of him suffering as his plans fail. As everything is too obvious and telegraphed, it gets boring when the pacing is too slow.

I like it enough to recommend it to anyone who wants a fun, easy to watch film. Occasionally I hear people talk fondly about memories of old childhood cartoons who wonder why these aren’t being made any longer. Well, this is just the thing for them but be warned that the nostalgia and novelty effects may wear off quickly and you’ll be reminded of why you don’t actually watch those old cartoons any more.