I was delightfully surprised when I came across Dave Made a Maze. It’s a film that is so quirky, charming and off-beat while remembering to keep characters you care about at is heart. Featuring some fantastic puppetry, animation, and just a sense of fun, I was completely taken in by this one.

Dave (Nich Thune) has a hard time finishing things. When his partner, Annie (Meera Rohit Kumbhani) goes away for the weekend, he has a short list of things to do, including fixing the front door. Instead, he starts and stops a number of creative projects, none of which leave him fulfilled in any way.

He gets distracted by other things and has a tough time following through. But when Annie comes home, she is shocked to discover a giant cardboard fort in the middle of their living room, and Dave’s voice from within tells her he can’t come out because he’s lost and it’s bigger on the inside.

Annie’s not sure she believes that and after a few phonecalls all their friends, and sundry, show up in the apartment, including Dave’s best friend, Gordon (Adam Busch) and a would-be filmmaker, Harry (James Urbaniak).

Ignoring Dave’s warnings the entire group eventually climbs inside and is shocked to discover that it is much bigger on the inside, huge in fact.

A labyrinth of this size is packed with dangerous booby traps and a minotaur that stalks the cardboard halls, rooms, and dead-ends. With a number of amusing deaths, brilliant paper and cardboard creations, and a sense of almost childlike wonder as the viewer recalls their own forts of their youth and how imagination imbued them with all the things we see here.

There’s a real sense of chemistry between Thune, Kumbhani, and Busch, and they are very much the heart of the film as other characters weave in and out along the narrative to great amusement and the occasional rough ending.

I love the creativity and the idea behind the film, the fact that Dave and Annie realize they have to move forward together, that they have to support one another, it’s not one or the other, it’s both, an idea played out so well in one lovely scene.

Belief in your partner is essential, you need to provide, but you need to receive it as well, and that’s a great message. But it certainly doesn’t distract you from all the amazing fun to be had, the origami swans, the lunch bag puppets, the ribbons of blood, the fluttering fans of fire, all realized incredibly creatively and enjoyably.

Damn, this was a fun film (the forced perspective room is brilliant). If you’re looking for something unique, something fun, something quirky, this may be up your alley.