Bunny and the Bull

Following his success directing The Mighty Boosh, Paul King drew on his own experiences of childhood holidays abroad and Simon Farnaby's disclosures about his grandfather to come up with this surreal comedy/drama which is, to put it as simply as possible, a road trip that takes place entirely in someone's apartment.

Stephen Turnbull is a reclusive shut in with pattern behaviour verging on OCD and is terrified of the outside world. His house is full of clocks, old newspapers and various other items that he fastidiously collects and catalogues whilst he lives on a diet of freeze dried vegetarian lasagne and tries desperately to win his ex-girlfriend back. There is clearly a tragedy in Stephen's past which accounts for his fear of the outside world and why he hasn't ventured out in over a year. Looking through his old photographs and other memorabilia reminds him of happier times when he went on a trip around Europe with his best friend Bunny.

Bunny is the total opposite of Stephen, a man who lives life to the full with a carefree attitude which results in unpredictable behaviour, alcoholism and compulsive gambling. The latter pays off when his method of picking horses based on how angry the jockey looks actually works for once and they win £2,500 on a long shot. As the stake was Stephen's, Bunny allows him to decide what to do with the money and the settle on a road trip around Europe. Unfortunately, they have very different ideas of what to do and, whilst Stephen wants to visit a whole host of museums, Bunny wants to get drunk, gamble and sleep with as many women as possible.

Stranded in a branch of Captain Crab's seafood restaurant in Poland, Bunny wins an unlikely bet that earns them a car and the companionship of a former waitress, the beautiful and fiery Spanish woman, Eloisa, with whom Stephen falls hopelessly in love. Too timid to do anything about his feelings, it isn't long before Bunny completely ignores his best friend's feelings and starts a relationship with her.

The trip is nothing but eventful and they decide to go to Eloisa's home town where Bunny is keen to meet her brother, a matador, and learn the ropes before bullfighting. Nothing goes to plan and they steal a stuffed bear, crash the car and have a strange encounter with a Hungarian tramp before finally arriving at their destination.


As the whole thing takes place in Stephen's head, the design is suitably strange, with everything comprised of things from his apartment and plenty of back projection and stop motion animation is used to create the imaginative and surreal look which draws on Everything is Illuminated, The Science of Sleep and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind in both aesthetic and thematic aspects.

As a debut screenplay goes, Paul King's work is exceptional and it shows the benefit of working for so long on The Mighty Boosh and collaborating with the likes of Richard Ayoade (The IT Crowd, Garth Marenghi's Darkplace) during the writing process. The direction is inspired and the look really helps to remind you that events are probably exaggerated or otherwise warped by the passage of time.


Ed Hogg and Simon Farnaby look like real friends on screen and their characters are terrific with Bunny just on the right side of 'annoying and selfish bastard', to be someone that you almost like and appreciate the ludicrous things he says. They really have a chemistry which helps in the love triangle situation. Veronica Echegui apparently spoke almost no English and had to be coached to say her lines phonetically but proves to be a memorable screen presence and unsurprisingly the object of the two men's desires. There are some great cameos, Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt appearing was a given but the way that they embrace their roles (as a mad Hungarian tramp and an alcoholic matador) lends to the quirky humour and Richard Ayoade shows what a great comedic actor he is as a tour guide in an obscure shoe museum.

Bunny and the Bull will certainly not be to everyone's taste and is just about as far from a mainstream comedy as you can get. People who 'get' The Mighty Boosh will probably be the most likely to enjoy this and I thought it was a wonderful film with real heart, charm and good laughs.

The Disc

Extra Features
The commentary shouldn't work, but it does (a little like the film I suppose) with many speakers: Paul King, the two leads and producer Mary Burke who provide an informative revealing and funny chat through the film, saying how much was done on so little money, how the shots were set up and how the actors managed to keep straight faces.

The 13 minute behind the scenes featurette is a brief look at the filming process that doesn't go into enough depth but does explain some of the themes and background to the project, some of which is covered in the commentary. Complementing this is the Get the Picture piece where Paul King talks over about 4 minutes of film and making of footage, describing how back projection and stop motion was used and created.

There is a selection of deleted scenes, none of which cry out for reinsertion.

There are interviews with Ed Hogg, Simon Farnaby (together) and Paul King which are really EPK material but are quite amusing and add a bit of information.


The bloopers are just a few occasions where actors have problems keeping a straight face or Veronica Echegui, struggling with the English lines, having to be repeatedly told exactly what to say. They're not that funny and there are much better 'blooper reels'.

Paul King did a piece for the Empire website where he talks you through a diagram of the whole film process - beginning with his birth - which was designed to fit in with a piece which was included with the magazine but it manages to make sense without the print out in front of you. It is a lengthy featurette that occasionally tests the patience, running at 20 minutes.

At some point there must have been a competition somewhere run by someone and the winning entry, the very accomplished short animated feature, Up, Up and Away, is here for your perusal. It's doesn't have anything to do with the film, other than animation, but I really liked it.

Finally, there is a gallery (that has to be manually navigated) of photos from some of the weird and wonderful European museums that they took in during the weeks filming on the continent.


The Picture
Bunny and the Bull is one of the most visually interesting and imaginative films I've seen in a long time and echoes the work of Michel Gondry, Spike Jonze and Terry Gilliam so the picture quality is important. It is therefore pleasing that you have a crisp and very highly detailed HD picture which you can freeze frame to read some of the small details - this is particularly the case with the newspaper snow when, if you catch it right, you can read the print.

The Sound
There is little to choose between the LPCM 2.0 stereo and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 tracks as the film is dialoge driven with the rear channels rarely used. I flicked between them and really couldn't split them in terms of quality and which suits the film best.

It is a very well scored picture and the music is very evocative and suits the mood perfectly. Should you require them, there is an audio descriptive track and English HoH subtitles available.


Final Thoughts
Bunny and the Bull is probably a Marmite film with as many people shaking their heads in utter bemusement at what they are watching as those who love every minute, adore the characters and laugh in all the right places. I had a great time watching it and it probably helps that I'm a Boosh fan. The package is good, but not great, but the picture quality and soundtracks are top notch.

Though The Mighty Boosh episodes often have a filmic quality, the extra runtime here allows for deeper characterisation and there is a wonderful mix of drama, comedy and tragedy. As this is not written by Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt, it is not a spin-off of The Mighty Boosh and, whilst it may share some of the same surrealism and aesthetic elements, disliking the TV show will not automatically mean that you shouldn't watch Bunny and the Bull. I can understand why some critics hated it but, if you 'get it', you'll love it - I did.