Panique au village
Tags: whimsical, absurd, psychedelic

Plot synopsis:
Cowboy and Indian, long-standing best friends and rivals, decide to celebrate the birthday of Horse, their faithful and loyal friend. They want to organize a surprise party for him and build him a wonderful hand-made barbecue. Unfortunately, when ordering the bricks for their construction, a typing error multiplies the number ordered by a billion. At first, they manage to hide away the excess bricks by stashing them on top of their roof. Later in the night though, as the party is in full swing and Horse finally plucks up his courage to approach his beloved Madame Longrée, the bricks suddenly collapse and cause a cataclysm throughout the village. Horse, Indian and Cowboy's house is destroyed. The following day, the three heroes get busy rebuilding but their new walls disappear mysteriously overnight. Horse, Indian and Cowboy start all over again and decide to keep the rebuilt walls under close surveillance. As night falls, the walls start moving and slowly disappear into the distance. The trio start chasing these strange submarine creatures, the Atlanteans, mischievous traitors and wall thieves. During their chase, they encounter an angry bear, three crazy scientists whose ambition is to cover the world in snow, and a disturbed psychopathic matriarch determined to protect her Atlantean offspring thanks to a school of bloodthirsty barracudas. At last, Horse, Indian and Cowboy win their walls back and return home only to discover that the Atlanteans have followed them and are ready to start off the final and most explosive confrontation yet.

Review: The gloriously cheap stop motion animation is a world away, however - Cowboy and Indian, for instance, even have the little flat stand to hold them up like regular children's toys.Don't take that as a criticism, however- it just makes the whole thing more endearing.
This isn't Avatar - this is more like Morph: forget the budget, it's all in the skill of the film maker to tell a great story that's a laugh a minute and keeps you watching.
It starts out with a cowboy and an Indian accidentally ordering 50 million bricks for the birthday of their roommate, Horse, and goes from there to a visit with the Atlanteans, the centre of the earth, and giant robotic penguins.The animation in the film is just as entertaining.
The only thing I thought a bit strange was that it seems to go on for a little longer than it felt the natural ending point of the story should be.This film is in the running for the animated feature Oscar this year, but probably won't be nominated; it's too low-profile and somehow I think that the animation style could offend some of the Academy professionals.
An adventure/comedy/romance/drama with simple yet detailed & inspired stop-motion animation much like Gumby, Pingu or Henry Selick's work for Burton.
In an age where comedy is declared funny by how much a person yells or acts like a petulant child; and the idea of a solid script and story are thrown out in favor of improvisation, it's refreshing to see a movie that's crafted with care from beginning to end.
The crudely animated adventures of Horse, Cowboy, Indian and the rest of the town of Panic are full of life and excitement, much more than many of the so called animated masterworks that come out of the USA.
cartoons, the Marx Brothers, and a little Three Stooges thrown in for good measure, A Town Called Panic should be viewed and enjoyed by the whole family.
Imagine a world not unlike Terry Gilliam's Monty Python animations mixed with a dash of Robot Chicken, The Mighty Boosh and finish with the wonder of the mind of a child at its most innocent imaginative play and you are close to the beauty that is 'A Town Called Panic'.
The main story centres on the characters Indian, Cowboy and Horse who share not just a house but adventure and after a simple present buying goes bizarrely wrong they embark on a multicoloured toy road trip that will see them visit the centre of the earth, the depths of the ocean and the icy cold of the tundra.
An animated classic that's bold, different and magical 'A Town Called Panic' is one crazy place to visit just remember to leave the serious you at the door..
(In French, 75 min.) This feature-length stop-motion animation that appeared at Cannes is based on the Belgian TV series by Stephane Auber and Vincent Patar.
Auber and Patar have collaborated ( and voice two main characters) in a film that's not only simpler and more primitive in effect (figures even have little stands on the bottom like plaster toys) but more truly uniquely for children.
They didn't get glamorous superstars to voice the parts and they worked visibly from scratch, bringing to life recreations of kids' little Plasticine toys, a typically mismatched collection including a horse, an Indian, a cowboy, mechanical tractors, a piano lesson, and moving them around on surfaces that could be a village, or could be a train set or a display under a Christmas tree.These are actually spin-offs from a TV series that Belgian, French, and maybe French Canadian kids would know.
They were featured in five-minute films on the arty but widely watched French TV outlet Canal Plus and later dubbed by "Wallace and Gromit" producer Aardman Animations for export to other outlets such as Nicktoons in the U.S.; they can be found on YouTube.The Town Called Panic effect is much more boldly artificial and crude than the stuffed but charming furry creatures in Wes Anderson's film.
It is very simple, and the film consists of Indian, Cowboy, and Horse's misadventures, but the screenplay is clever and very funny.
The biggest worry one has when watching a film like this is that maybe after a while the animation style or loose story- telling technique may get one overwhelmed, I know that was my biggest worry.
This is intentionally low tech animation of a high order.A series of absurd, barely connected story-lines shapes this visit to a high energy stop-motion animation world, where the characters all move around just fine, thank you, regardless of the fact that they mostly have plastic bases to which their feet are welded.
Besides, it's not a cartoon, but animation with those cowboy and Indian figures that you used to get in big bags, complete with the plastic bases.The film is done in stop motion and is frantic.
"A Town Called Panic" does not invite any moments of calm or temperance, or respite from the chaos of the world, instead in revels in its absurd animated mania that would not feel out of place on Adult Swim or Saturday mornings..
Toys from a time before action figures, when plastic figures stood on mounted bases and lacked bendable limbs.A town called "the town", houses a postman, a policemen, a musical school, a farmer, his wife, and their animals (who attend the musical school), and a horse, an Indian, and a cowboy.
The trio forms a strange family, with the Horse heading the household, driving, the car, handling the finances, etc, with Cowboy and Indian as the two young impish tricksters getting into various shenanigans.The action begins when the boys realize they have forgotten Horse's birthday, and decide at the last minute to build him a barbecue.
The best scene a drunken party takes place early on, but where I expected the film to dip after the 20 minute mark, it kept delivering taking us into the center of the earth, into a Penguin shaped mobile Artic"research"station, and an undersea kingdom located directly beneath the town.
Though the effect is light, the production seems painstaking."A Town Called Panic" is delightful lo-fi animated film, that doesn't aim to impart any kind of moral or lesson, but recreate a Chuck Jones's "Looney Toons" like free range explosion built of escalating absurdity and stacking gags on top of gags in a Tower Of Babel to cartoon comedy heaven.
It doesn't quite reach these epic levels, but it's a fun film that I could imagine watching episodically week to week, late on a foggy night or over breakfast cereal the day after (or breakfast cereal later that night).Enjoyable for the uninitiated (like myself), and probably more of a treat for fans.
Churn in a love story with an equine pianist, a spastic farmer, and a slew of other high-energy characters and you have the makings of A Town Called Panic.
This flick could be watched by the whole family (though I think there is a couple swear words - that is, if you're little ones can read the subtitles, or your French), but this film isn't really very accessible.
A few gags got chuckles out of me, like the "cordless" phones and Horse (not) playing the piano, so I gave it one more star than I would otherwise.Maybe it's because I'm American, maybe I just don't get it, maybe I'm amazed at the way you love me all the time, but it's just not for me..
I watched it at a sleepover and it made my laugh hysterically.The plot is basically about an Indian, a cowboy and a horse trying to get their walls back.
In a strange rural town, three plastic toys, Cowboy, Indian and Horse, share a house.
But a gang of strange creatures who live underwater keep stealing the walls they build, so the trio embark on an adventure to take back their bricks, and get Horse to his piano lessons.Sound mad?
Made from the same people who did the fantastic Cravendale milk adverts, A Town Called Panic feels like the kind of the thing that goes through your mind when playing with your toys as a kid.
The creators are having far too much fun to allow meaningless things like logic to get in the way.This is truly a one in a million film, made from creative minds of such fierce individualism, with some truly beautiful animation.
So I give you the crazy ass french stop motion animation flick called " A town called panic" from 2009.
Well because it is not supposed to make sense, It is just a crazy film with a crazy adventure that all starts when someone orders way too many bricks and the movie just keeps rocking from there.
It is in french so don't watch if you don't like subtitles and don't get an English version, it is animation but I can't see anyone portraying the zaniness of these characters other than the original actors, all though it may be possible.
Like many who have reviewed this film I sat down with low expectations, and like others I did think at the start that the animation was lacking, but after a few minutes I really did get it.
I found this to be a wonderful film, and as it has been said by others here I do agree that it is totally insane, funny, and charming.It is like the filmed imagination of a child playing with these plastic figurines and objects around the house, and the crazy and extreme adventures that they would see these toys having.
There is a lot of screaming, actually it is pretty much all screaming, which again is like a 6 year old's Super Sugar Crisp fueled afternoon play romp.This is a Belgian film with subtitles, but if there were an English language version of this I am sure that it could be a kid's classic in the US too..
Inspired by a review from a completely baffled critic, I endeavoured to seek out Panique au Village, a stop-motion animated film based upon a Belgian television series.
Well, it turns out the same characters from "La Bûche de Noël" also appeared in an earlier full-length film...one worth seeing, "A Town Called Panic".Like the follow-up, "La Bûche de Noël", this one is stop-motion and features the same three characters...Indian, Cowboy and Horse.
In this case, it all begins when Indian and Cowboy order 50 bricks online so they can build Horse a BBQ.
Well, you wouldn't believe me if I told you!!The film made me laugh and seemed a bit like a movie made by some very precocious children.
Animated plastic toys Cowboy, Indian and Horse live together in the farming town called Panic.
"A Town Called Panic" was a good movie.I wasn't expecting a lot out of this movie; I saw clips of it on a YouTube video, and decided to check it out.
It just embodies the "in-your-face" kind of comedy, and its pretty funny!With characters that are all over the place, and settings that come out of nowhere, "A Town Called Panic" was just refreshing to watch..
It is also for adults who are on drugs." — Paul McCartneyAnimated plastic toys like Cowboy, Indian and Horse have problems, too.
Surreal adventures take over as the trio travel to the center of the earth, trek across frozen tundra and discover a parallel underwater universe where pointy headed (and dishonest!) creatures live.Absurdists at heart, Belgian animators Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar have spent two decades perfecting their hilariously antic brand of fantastic, faux-naïve humor..
Perhaps if I were a Belgian child and lived a very sheltered life in which I was unfamiliar with animation, plots and story lines, I would have felt differently about this film.
In 2009, Belgian animators Stephane Aubier and Vincent Patier made a film adaptation of their own stop-motion comedy series entitled A Town Called Panic.
Imagine what you'd get if you mixed the surreal humor of Monty Python and the bizarreness of Wallace & Gromit and Robot Chicken.The main storyline revolves around a small town consisting of some farmers, a cowboy, an Indian, and a horse.
Now comes Belgium's first entry for a full blown,stop motion animated film,'A Town Called Panic' (or as it is better known in Europe as 'Panique Au Village').
The plot concerns three house mates,Cowboy,Indian & Horse (played by miniature toys & action figures).
It's been a surprising year for stop-motion animation, and A Town Called Panic can have a seat at the table with the two giant achievements of the year, Coraline and Fantastic Mr. Fox.
In the case of A Town Called Panic, which takes characters named simply 'Horse', 'Cowboy' and 'Indian' and makes into a delirious comedy like Wallace and Gromit gone French and super-playful.
Maybe too ridiculous, actually.Oh, it's charming for most of its running time, and the directors Aubier and Patar make this into something that, for at least the first ten minutes or so, had me giggling and smiling in anticipation for what might happen next, what craziness Indian and Cowboy would somehow get themselves into in trying to get Horse's birthday off the ground.
I wonder if it's meant to really work in smaller doses; before this years ago it was a TV show (clips can be found on youtube) and it's really the kind of storytelling, not even so much animation, that's meant for short bursts of cartoonish energy ala Looney Tunes (and, again, Wallace & Gromit).At its best, this loose story around a brick barbecue present that spirals into 50 million bricks, thieving aquamen, a robot penguin with missiles, and horses that become piano masters, has its moments.
It's like forced whimsy, and an eccentric sensibility that is hard to dismiss but never gives a moment to let the audience and characters breathe - a key matter to how Selick and Anderson got through the madness of their comic narratives.I'm also not too sure, by the end, if the film really works better for kids or adults.
Firstly, let me say I am a fan of animation and do enjoy a fair few French films as usually the comedy is brilliant.
I wanted the film to charm me but there really wasn't any; wanted to be amused but there was nothing to laugh at; wanted to bond with the characters but found them annoying, and wanted to go on a journey but the plot was just daft.Really, in my opinion, it would have been better shrunk into a half- hour episode and adjusted for children, because essentially that was the only age group I could understand enjoying this.No doubt a lot of effort went into making this, however, regardless, I am still left rather unimpressed..
Well we had claymation animation, computer animation, Lego animation and now little plastic action figures that have their turn for a movie, and I want more of it.The story to Panic Village is about are two main character's Cowboy (Stéphane Aubier) and Indian (Bruce Ellison) -- who plan to buy a birthday gift for their friend Horse (the voice of Vincent Patar) but accidentally destroy his house.
A series of wacky, often hallucinatory adventures ensues that finds the trio journeying to the center of the earth, wandering across icy tundra and discovering a strange aquatic world inhabited by oddball beings with pointed heads.Cowboy and Indian are basically the two stooges doing funny but stupid things to push the plot along.
Are main characters go through a strange adventure and meeting new people who are basically two things: Strange or barking mad, like this one scene where Cowboy, Horse and Indian come across there's mad scientist in there big metal penguin, and what they do all day is control the penguin to throw giant snowballs at people for a joke, and you can already guess what kind of movie this is.
I enjoyed watching A Town Called Panic.
The movie isn't for everyone, it's just like Adventure Time not everybody isn't going to find they kind of entertainment, but I have a soft spot for those kind of humor so it's all good...
A Town Called Panic is the anarchic, frenetic feature film version of the popular Belgian cartoon of the same name.
Technically crude but all the better for it, the film like the cartoon is stop-motion animated using what look like (and in some cases are) the cheap plastic toy figurines that came by the dozens in bags, complete with plastic bases affixed to their feet.
Then things get really strange.Apparently animated using a tub of plastic toys by a bunch of Ritalin dodging five-year-olds on a Sunny-D bender, A Town Called Panic is not the most coherent of films, but it is brilliantly inventive and frequently ball-achingly funny..
I can honestly say it takes a really funny film in the animated genre,to make me laugh over 90% of the time.
Horse, Cowboy and Indian are a great trio.
The best part of the film is seeing this strange world, where the animation and set design becomes the joke.
The animation may be very basic when compared with animation coming out of Japan and Hollywood but that is part of the charm; the characters are just toys and the film looks like they were being played with by children with a very vivid imagination.
As the three chase after them they find themselves in strange locations such as the centre of the Earth, one of the poles and under the sea before they eventually get home.This film really is a lot of fun; as mentioned before the story is completely insane and the characters are equally bizarre.
If you are a fan of animation or surreal films it is a must see; I'm sure children would enjoy it too if they don't mind reading the subtitles or are good at French.