It only begins in Panic – this French-language production from Aardman Studios (Wallace and Gromit) journeys all the way to the center of the earth and back.
A Town Called Panic has its roots in a same-named puppetoon TV series, and the lineage shows: Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar’s anything-goes stop-motion action-comedy ambles along episodically, as a trio of housemates named Horse, Cowboy, and Indian – plastic toys, all three – go on the hunt to track down the thieves who’ve been stealing the walls of their home. (Think that’s absurd? Ya ain’t seen nothin’ yet.) Some of the voicework irritates (Aubier’s Cowboy, especially, is a Gumby-esque squealer), but the delight here is in the details – the threesome’s bathroom is tricked-out to accommodate equine and otherwise – and in the unfailingly decent Horse. He’s John Wayne in the mold of Mr. Ed, and, in a town called Panic, he turns only to that state when in the presence of his secret crush, a leggy music teacher named Madame Longrée. Ultimately, this is slight but still rather endearing stuff: Scene to scene, shot to shot, there’s no telling where this kid-friendly film is headed, and how cool is that?
A Town Called Panic screens Friday, Sept. 25 at 10:30pm and Sunday, Sept. 27, at 11:45am.
This article appears in September 18 • 2009.
