Film

Imagine a skit from Robot Chicken spun out to 75 minutes and you’ve got a pretty good idea what you’re in for with A Town Called Panic. Using little plastic toy figurines, clay and a lot of handmade props, Aubier and Patar go on a manic free-associative jaunt about a horse, a cowboy and an Indian who live together (Don’t go into some weird sex panic: The horse is a sort of mature father figure, and the cowboy and Indian are like a pair of eight-year-olds). The celebration of the horse’s birthday triggers a wild set of adventures involving mysterious aquatic brick thieves, a giant mechanical penguin, a flirtatious lady horse and assorted explosions and chases.

There’s something rather admirable about directors Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar’s ability to tap into the hyperactive creative mentality of an eight-year-old (complete with annoying character voices the makers of South Park would kill for). Unfortunately, though A Town Called Panic is meticulously detailed, it’s frantic and occasionally grating, like listening to that eight-year-old spin a story out for more than an hour. Kudos for the purity of the filmmakers’ vision, but we can’t say we enjoyed watching it.