Film

A Town Called Panic

Claymation chaos ensues

by Sarah Shanok   |   Dec 7, 2009

A Town Called Panic

 

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This year, Belgian film Panique au village (A Town Called Panic), a puppetoon or replacement stop-animation creation, was the first film of it’s kind to be selected for inclusion at Cannes. The feature-length film builds off short, but manic, five-minute episodes from a popular children’s TV-series of the same name, begun in 2003. Starring a plastic cowboy, Native American and horse, appropriately named, Cowboy, Indian, and Horse, who share a house, managing their unlikely, yet familial dynamic, as everyday activities inevitably evolve into adventures in an otherwise quiet, mountain town.

Parental-figure Horse, who does much of the cooking, cleaning and disciplining, eagerly seeks the affections of Madame Longrée, the lovely local music teacher who is conveniently also a horse, while Cowboy and Indian compete for his attention — at any cost. In their efforts, Cowboy and Indian bicker and fight like brothers, but each night end up in a shared room sleeping peacefully, side by side in twin beds — still attached to their green plastic bases, and often armed with their standard-issue rifle or, bow and arrow accessories.

Directors Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar, who also voice Cowboy and Horse, respectively, oversee this surreal world of chaotic characters, either perpetrating crude, slapstick, clay-on-clay violence or frolicking spastically around their papier-mâché parish. Missteps lead them on a journey to the center of the earth, where they uncover a world of evil underwater characters, before fighting their way back home to their happy Hamlet. You know, what you might expect on an average day in A Town Called Panic.

Released by Zeitgeist Films, A Town Called Panic is made in a similar style to Aardman’s Wallace & Gromit, but is a little edgier and as a result has been assigned the fitting disclaimer, “Occasional bad language in the subtitles, but otherwise entirely appropriate for children.” Calm down, it’s otherwise entirely appropriate for adults, too.

December 16–29 at Film Forum 209 W. Houston St