Synopsis
ONE WEEK ONLY
“Fast-paced and exciting. Funny and original. An absurdist, chaotic version of the pastoral European countryside – la France profonde meets Buster Keaton. Simultaneously giddy and satirical… reminiscent of South Park and the Wallace and Gromit movies, but less pointed, more poetic.”—Mike Hale, The New York Times

“Despite a cast of 1,500 plastic toy figures, A Town Called Panic was probably made for less than it cost to produce 10 seconds of Avatar and is, in some ways, an even weirder, more ingrown, raucous fantasy. [A] hyperactive Belgian puppet animation. Embodies a sensibility that might be termed ‘extreme quirk.’”—J. Hoberman, The Village Voice



Hilarious and frequently surreal, the stop-motion extravaganza A TOWN CALLED PANIC has endless charms and raucous laughs for children from eight to eighty. Based on the Belgian animated cult TV series (which was released by Wallace & Gromit’s Aardman Studios), 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 weirdest events.

Cowboy and Indian’s plan to gift Horse with a homemade barbeque backfires when they accidentally buy 50 million bricks. Whoops! This sets off a perilously wacky chain of events as the trio travel to the center of the earth, trek across frozen tundra and discover a parallel underwater universe of pointy-headed (and dishonest!) creatures. Each speedy character is voiced—and animated—as if they are filled with laughing gas. With panic a permanent feature of life in this papier-mâché burg, will Horse and his equine paramour—flame-tressed music teacher Madame Longray (Jeanne Balibar)—ever find a quiet moment alone? A sort of Gallic Monty Python crossed with Art Clokey on acid, A TOWN CALLED PANIC is zany, brainy and altogether insane-y!