A Town Called Panic (2009)

One of the weirdest, funniest animations I've seen all year, A Town Called Panic is a bizarre stop-motion movie co-produced by Belgium, France and Luxembourg. It sees the characters Cowboy and Indian accidentally ordering millions of bricks over the internet for their friend Horse's birthday present, undersea creatures stealing their walls, Horse having romantic feelings for music teacher Madame Longray (also a horse)... and a heck of a lot of other weirdness inbetween.

From the beginning I was laughing out loud at the quirky, jerky movements and the low-tech stop-motion. The movie's setting and population look like what a child's playtime may look like, a mish-mash of different creatures, a bit like Toy Story in that respect, but as the Empire quote on the DVD cover says 'like Toy Story on absinthe'. The film isn't just a load of craziness, there's a plot or two, including the aformentioned equine romance. Although the characters have hilarious French voices (it's a subtitled animation, not a dubbed one), farmer Stephen's being my favourite, they also have personalities and although they have no facial expressions, you can tell what the characters are feeling - mostly panic! Especially for Cowboy, the more antsy one. Cowboy and Indian share a room and are a very dim pair, like children, and Horse is in a paternal role.

A Town Called Panic is simply hilarious and an utter joy. Even the trailer, one of only a couple of DVD extras, is absolutle gold, with captions comparing the movie to other live-action classics. I hope that the pair of directors who made this go on to do more of this refreshingly original work (not just the Cravendale adverts), and that it gets released over here!