You haven’t lived until you’ve seen a plastic donkey play drums. With the frenetic energy of an ADHD kid’s E-number induced hyperactivity, A Town Called Panic catapults you into a fantastical stop-motion world where horses drive cars, teach music, and remove their shoes before going to bed.
Written and directed by Belgian filmmakers Stéphanie Aubier and Vincent Patar, it’s stop-motion at its quickest, funniest, and most wacky, made all the more whimsical by its presentation in manic French. Following the adventures of Cowboy and Indien after forgetting to buy Horse a birthday present, it’s a surreal adventure of misplaced orders, thievery, and giant mechanical penguins.
With beautifully vivid colours and inexhaustibly creative execution, the set pieces are a marvel, but there’s so much going on that it’s difficult to stop and appreciate them.
Fun and quirky, A Town Called Panic is must for fans of I Am Not an Animal and Toy Story’s plastic soldiers. If you like Aardman, you’ll love this.