A Town Called Panic reviews
Review by on 23 Sep 2010
Whether you're young or old it’s difficult not to be drawn in by the fast paced fun of Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar's stop-motion masterpiece. It’s quirky use of tiny toys and figurines seems somewhat familiar to the lactose tolerant(a similar style being used in certain milk advertisements)or for fans of the TV series that aired back in 2002. Those fans will be pleased to find the same beloved characters getting into even more elaborately desperate and insane situations on the big screen than they did 8 years ago. The postman, furthermore, is still whistling wherever he makes an appearance.
Having not seen the TV series prior to the film I fully expected not to understand the humour, feeling it would be like watching the 92nd series of Lost without going back to its roots. I was delighted to be proved wrong. This film is so easy to enjoy that you could bring your kids, your parents, heck, even your grandparents, it’s the kind of humour most can’t help but love. If you have the opportunity to see it in the cinema, you’ll find yourself surrounded by laughter. It’s even worth watching just to see the precision and delicacy with which the characters and scenery are animated.
It’s good to find a film that is so fantastically simplistic in its humour. The comedy is obvious, not overdone. It’s plain and simple, not pretentious. You might say it’s cliché, and you might be right, but there’s a reason certain things are classics.
Claire Alexander
Having not seen the TV series prior to the film I fully expected not to understand the humour, feeling it would be like watching the 92nd series of Lost without going back to its roots. I was delighted to be proved wrong. This film is so easy to enjoy that you could bring your kids, your parents, heck, even your grandparents, it’s the kind of humour most can’t help but love. If you have the opportunity to see it in the cinema, you’ll find yourself surrounded by laughter. It’s even worth watching just to see the precision and delicacy with which the characters and scenery are animated.
It’s good to find a film that is so fantastically simplistic in its humour. The comedy is obvious, not overdone. It’s plain and simple, not pretentious. You might say it’s cliché, and you might be right, but there’s a reason certain things are classics.
Claire Alexander
Review by on 23 Sep 2010
If you want to see a funny and quirky film then A TOWN CALLED PANIC is for you! This family film has something that will appeal to both young and old. It’s highly entertaining with its comical characters Horse, Indian and Cowboy who go on an intrepid quest to find who stole their house. As the tale unravels we find ourselves travelling with the characters who take us on a wonderful journey from their small quiet village to the centre of the earth and back again. Along the way their friendships are put to the test and they come across scary monsters and mad professors. If this is sounding like the intended audience is just for boys, then you’re wrong as romance occurs too.
Directed by Stephane Aubier (2010) and based on the Belgian animated cult TV series, this stock motion film is a perfect example of how the language barrier is not a problem. Not once is the audience left feeling that this is a dull and boring film. The fantasy propels you on and on. Attention to detail is excellent and the simple yet colourful settings are very effective. However unlike your classic ‘Wallace and Gromit’ who moved with ease - almost human like, these animated characters ‘waddle’.
Overall this is a light hearted, easy going film that is a must see for all those animation fanatics.
Ruth Lack
Directed by Stephane Aubier (2010) and based on the Belgian animated cult TV series, this stock motion film is a perfect example of how the language barrier is not a problem. Not once is the audience left feeling that this is a dull and boring film. The fantasy propels you on and on. Attention to detail is excellent and the simple yet colourful settings are very effective. However unlike your classic ‘Wallace and Gromit’ who moved with ease - almost human like, these animated characters ‘waddle’.
Overall this is a light hearted, easy going film that is a must see for all those animation fanatics.
Ruth Lack
Review by on 21 Sep 2010
After beginning life as a television series in its native Belgium, A TOWN CALLED PANIC has - like its anarchic stop-frame protagonists – broken out and embarked on something of an international adventure. The French-language feature may remind English-speaking viewers of the cult US show Robot Chicken, in that its characters and their surroundings are derived from rigid plastic children's toys. Though the charming rural setting is perhaps more reminiscent of something from Camberwick Green.
That is at least until its quaint, pastoral mise en scène compromised by its gloriously wacky inhabitants – the most dignified and well-behaved of which are barnyard animals. The humanoid characters include a range of deranged misfits, the funniest of which is Steven: a permanently enraged farmer. The central comic duo are Cowboy and Indian: two hyperactive and bumbling troublemakers around whom the world (often literally) seems to fall down.
The whole thing is riotously good fun, and properly silly. For example, at one point our heroes tumble through the centre of the earth and are taken to an arctic tundra, where they are promptly scooped up by a mechanised penguin and turned into a snowball by three tough-guy scientists. This is bookended by events just as imaginative and free-spirited, in a film replete with visual gags, like the inventive solutions to ergonomic problems presented by the domesticated Mr. Horse as he sets about day-to-day tasks: his three-tiered shower, his stand-up bed and low-lying piano.
With no shortage of humour and invention, A TOWN CALLED PANIC is a consistent delight.
Robert Beames
That is at least until its quaint, pastoral mise en scène compromised by its gloriously wacky inhabitants – the most dignified and well-behaved of which are barnyard animals. The humanoid characters include a range of deranged misfits, the funniest of which is Steven: a permanently enraged farmer. The central comic duo are Cowboy and Indian: two hyperactive and bumbling troublemakers around whom the world (often literally) seems to fall down.
The whole thing is riotously good fun, and properly silly. For example, at one point our heroes tumble through the centre of the earth and are taken to an arctic tundra, where they are promptly scooped up by a mechanised penguin and turned into a snowball by three tough-guy scientists. This is bookended by events just as imaginative and free-spirited, in a film replete with visual gags, like the inventive solutions to ergonomic problems presented by the domesticated Mr. Horse as he sets about day-to-day tasks: his three-tiered shower, his stand-up bed and low-lying piano.
With no shortage of humour and invention, A TOWN CALLED PANIC is a consistent delight.
Robert Beames
Review by on 20 Sep 2010
This delicious slice of stop-motion shenanigans follows the madcap exploits of Horse, Cowboy and Indian who share a chaotic house in a zany rural village.
Contending with the perils of internet shopping, the illicit nocturnal activities of a band of local amphibious crooks and the tribulations of falling in love with the local piano teacher, this trio of plastic figurine protagonists become embroiled in an adventure which takes them all the way to the centre of the earth, after Cowboy and Indian’s birthday surprise for Horse goes hilariously awry.
Of course, A TOWN CALLED PANIC runs a razor’s edge between offbeat hilarity and self-indulgent giddiness, but Aubier and Patar breathe life into their bizarre world with such brio and originality that the film never falls short of the mark. The characterisation of Horse, Indian, Cowboy and their loopy neighbours is charmingly eccentric and the fantasy world they inhabit is crafted with genuine creativity. Those familiar with the cult Belgian series of the same name and worried that the idea would falter in the transition to feature length can breathe a sigh of relief; the 78 minute stretch provides a perfect escapist space in which to showcase this beguilingly bonkers creation in all its glory.
In short, A TOWN CALLED PANIC is that much undervalued but beautiful thing – a triumph of unbridled silliness.
Nicola Runciman
Contending with the perils of internet shopping, the illicit nocturnal activities of a band of local amphibious crooks and the tribulations of falling in love with the local piano teacher, this trio of plastic figurine protagonists become embroiled in an adventure which takes them all the way to the centre of the earth, after Cowboy and Indian’s birthday surprise for Horse goes hilariously awry.
Of course, A TOWN CALLED PANIC runs a razor’s edge between offbeat hilarity and self-indulgent giddiness, but Aubier and Patar breathe life into their bizarre world with such brio and originality that the film never falls short of the mark. The characterisation of Horse, Indian, Cowboy and their loopy neighbours is charmingly eccentric and the fantasy world they inhabit is crafted with genuine creativity. Those familiar with the cult Belgian series of the same name and worried that the idea would falter in the transition to feature length can breathe a sigh of relief; the 78 minute stretch provides a perfect escapist space in which to showcase this beguilingly bonkers creation in all its glory.
In short, A TOWN CALLED PANIC is that much undervalued but beautiful thing – a triumph of unbridled silliness.
Nicola Runciman
Film details
A Town Called Panic
MAIN FEATURES
Actor: Stephane Aubier
Director: Vincent Patar
Director: Stephane Aubiert
Director: Vincent Patar
Director: Stephane Aubiert
Belgium, Luxembourg, France, 2010.
78 mins. French with English subtitles.
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