The first episode of this series made for television, A Grand Day Out, is where Indian, who doesn’t know how to use his bow and arrows, appears for the very first time, along with Cowboy, who’s a bit of a coward and not very handy, and Horse, a surprising father figure who watches over the other two. Portrayed by small toy figurines animated at a frenetic pace, these three characters are joined in later episodes by an array of others – some human and some animal – who are just as quirky and delightful.
The success of this conceit brought to the screen by the directorial duo of Vincent Patar and Stéphane Aubier is down to the hilarious and full-on mixture of all kinds of humour from slapstick to cartoons and the absurdism. So there are plenty of car chases, falls and cream pies - classic trappings of slapstick cinema –and also lots of objects with strange shapes and sizes along with characters who look like they’ve been run over by a steamroller, like Tex Avery used to draw.
And then there’s the character of Horse watching over Cowboy and Indian, a fish chased by a bison (Fox Hunt), or the farmer couple Janine and Steven going on an excursion to their own estate (A Grand Day Out). We are also charmed to see a fine taste for surrealism and the absurd, which may have something to do with the fact that the directors are Belgian. Each episode is a special moment to enjoy with the family!
