A Town Called Panic (Panique Au Village)
Dir: Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar
2009
*****
Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar's A Town Called Panic is one of the most bonkers films I've ever seen. It's also rather wonderful, very silly and totally original (although it is similar to the early work of Adam & Joe and Robot Chicken, it's also very different). I do wish they'd have dubbed it into English though (or I should say I wish I could understand French a little better) as it goes at breakneck speed all the way. You blink, you miss! The stop-motion animation is fairly crude but then that is where the film's beauty lies, its simplicity matches the raw humour, making it somewhat universally appealing. It is essentially adult animators playing at being kids, making it a kids film for adult that kids could also enjoy (if that makes any sense at all?). Watching Cowboy, Horse and Indian doing every day things is actually far more funny than watching them do anything fantastical but that said, when the story takes a bizarre direction, the film just gets better. A one of a kind treasure of a film and one of the best of 2009.