Professor Pfinklepfunder's $1 Sunday Films
Directed by Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar
With Stéphane Aubier, Jeanne Balibar, Nicolas Buysse
Rated PG, 75 minutes, DCP
In French with English subtitles
Hilarious and delightfully wacky, the stop-motion extravaganza A Town Called Panic has endless charms and raucous laughs for children and adults alike. Based on the Belgian cult TV series (released by Aardman Studios of Wallace & Gromit fame), A Town Called Panic stars three plastic toys named Cowboy, Indian, and Horse who share a rambling house in a rural town that never fails to attract the craziest events. Cowboy and Indian's plan to surprise their pal Horse with a homemade barbeque pit goes awry when 50 million bricks they accidentally ordered online show up on their doorstep. This sets off a raucous chain of events as the trio travels to the center of the earth, treks across frozen tundra (complete with a giant snowball-throwing robot penguin), and discovers a parallel underwater universe of treacherous, pointy-headed creatures. And with panic a permanent feature of life in this papier-mâché burg, will Horse and his equine girlfriend—the flame-tressed music teacher Madame Longray (Jeanne Balibar)—ever find a quiet moment alone? A Town Called Panic is zany, brainy, and altogether insane-y!