A TOWN CALLED PANIC (Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar). 75 minutes. Subtitled. Opens Friday (February 19). For venues, times and trailers, see Movies. Rating: NNN
Watching A Town Called Panic is like burrowing into a small child’s head as he amuses himself with a bucket of forgotten toys. I mean that in the best possible way.[rssbreak]
This odd little stop-motion feature, extrapolated from a Belgian TV series, follows the travails of Cowboy, Indian and Horse, three plastic toys living together in a little house and arguing about trivialities.
It’s Horse’s birthday, so Cowboy and Indian decide to buy some bricks and build him a barbecue pit. But they screw up the online order, triggering a cascade of ever more absurd events that ultimately finds our heroes saving the world from a mad scientist and his robot penguin. It’s complicated.
Stéphane Aubier (who also voices Cowboy) and Vincent Patar (who plays Horse) pack every frame with manic invention, which can make the experience of watching their movie more than a little exhausting. But when they find their groove, it’s a delight.
