Review #161: 'A Town Called Panic' (2009)

In a strange rural town, three plastic toys, Cowboy, Indian and Horse, share a house. Cowboy and Indian awake one morning to realise they have forgotten Horse's birthday. They decide to build him a barbecue, and order the bricks to build it on the internet. The delivery goes wrong, and they accidentally order about 5 million bricks, which they hide from Horse on top of their house. The weight of the bricks eventually sink the house into the ground, and they are forced to rebuild. But a gang of strange creatures who live underwater keep stealing the walls they build, so the trio embark on an adventure to take back their bricks, and get Horse to his piano lessons.

Sound mad? Well it is. My description of the plot does not do the insanity and the randomness of this film justice. If there is one word to describe the film, it would be manic. When the credits rolled, I've never been so physically and mentally exhausted after watching a film since the mind-raping that was Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989 - thank you for that, Marc). Made from the same people who did the fantastic Cravendale milk adverts, A Town Called Panic feels like the kind of the thing that goes through your mind when playing with your toys as a kid. It drifts from one random scene to the next.

I think if I ever watched Toy Story (1995) while cained on acid, I think my mind would probably filter it through as this. It defies logic and avoids anything remotely resembling moral lessons, which makes the whole thing infinitely more fun. It's refreshing knowing that this is nothing more than childish playfulness mixed with some genuinely hilarious lines and set-pieces. How does putting a broken TV on his head allow Cowboy to breathe underwater? How do you move 5 million bricks on top of a roof in a few minutes? How does a horse type? Who gives a shit? The creators are having far too much fun to allow meaningless things like logic to get in the way.

This is truly a one in a million film, made from creative minds of such fierce individualism, with some truly beautiful animation. My favourite moment would have to be the character of Steven (voiced by Man Bites Dog's (1992) serial killer Benoit Poelvoorde) who is served a giant slice of bread covered in chocolate spread and a mug of coffee that's bigger than him. He storms into the room, ever shouting, to bounce along the table on his head munching the bread at hyper-speed, and walk straight through the coffee mug shouting "great coffee!" as he leaves. Absolute genius.


Directed by: Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar
Voices: Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar, Bruce Ellison, Benoît Poelvoorde
Country: Belgium/Luxembourg/France

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie