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Panique au village (A Town Called Panic)

Panique au village (A Town Called Panic) (2009)

tomatometer

100

Average Rating: 8/10
Critic Reviews: 14
Fresh: 14 | Rotten: 0

No consensus yet.

audience

83

liked it
Average Rating: 3.9/5
User Ratings: 3,448

My Rating

Movie Info

This unusual feature (a French-Belgian-Luxembourgian co-production) stylistically recalls the work of Art Clokey (Gumby, Davey and Goliath), with its lead cast consisting entirely of stop motion-animated children's toys. The premise concerns two such toys -- Cowboy (Stéphane Aubier) and Indian (Bruce Ellison) -- who plan to buy a birthday gift for their friend Horse (the voice of Vincent Patar) but accidentally destroy his house. A series of wacky, often hallucinatory adventures ensues that

Jul 20, 2010

$0.2M

Zeitgeist Films

Cast

All Critics (68) | Top Critics (15) | Fresh (55) | Rotten (12) | DVD (4)

Directors Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar (who also provide voices) display a pleasantly warped sensibility without going for adult humor.

June 18, 2010 Full Review Source: Dallas Morning News | Comment
Dallas Morning News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

There's really very little to say about this film beyond that it's absolutely brilliant.

March 26, 2010 Comment
Hollywood Reporter
Top Critic IconTop Critic

If a precocious 9-year-old with attention deficit issues made a stop-motion animated movie, he might produce a triumph of supreme silliness like A Town Called Panic.

March 12, 2010 Full Review Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune | Comment
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Top Critic IconTop Critic

All the silliness unfolds in a complex social structure, where good manners are expected, bad behaviour is punished and birthdays are not to be forgotten.

February 19, 2010 Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | Comment
Globe and Mail
Top Critic IconTop Critic

In a world lousy with computer animation and 3-D whizz-bangery -- j'accuse, James Cameron! -- it's nice to know there's still fun to be had with nothing more than plastic figures and a little imagination.

February 19, 2010 Full Review Source: Toronto Star | Comment
Toronto Star
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Made with an anarchic, anything-goes spirit, this is truly a film, not to mention a town, where you never know what's going to happen next.

January 29, 2010 Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | Comment
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Anyone who has spent anytime around kids will know exactly what Aubier and Patar are trying to achieve.

April 20, 2011 Full Review Source: Metro Times (Detroit, MI) | Comment
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)

full review at Movies for the Masses

April 14, 2011 Full Review Source: Movies for the Masses | Comment
Movies for the Masses

Charming and highly original but a little of it goes a long way.

October 11, 2010 Full Review Source: Daily Express | Comment
Daily Express

Though it probably works best in short bursts on DVD, it might just be wacky and strange enough to appeal to kids who'll simply accept it for what it is.

October 11, 2010 Full Review Source: Scotsman | Comment

Chaotic, warped and impervious to logic ? a total treasure just waiting to be discovered.

October 11, 2010 Full Review Source: SFX Magazine | Comment
SFX Magazine

A very small amount of this would be funny. But here, there's 77 minutes of it. And that's about 76 minutes and 30 seconds too much to stomach in one sitting.

October 10, 2010 Full Review Source: News of the World | Comment
News of the World

Bounces around with a hyperactive dementia that somehow never flags.

October 8, 2010 Full Review Source: Daily Telegraph | Comment
Daily Telegraph

Studded with surreal and unexpectedly tender touches (kamikaze cows, an elegantly lovestruck horse), this is plastic and fantastic.

October 7, 2010 Full Review Source: Total Film | Comment
Total Film

Like a very lo-fi Toy Story with the vibe of a live-action Terry Gilliam cartoon and the addled craziness of SpongeBob SquarePants; it's funny for adults and children alike in a refreshing, barking mad sort of way.

October 7, 2010 Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | Comment
Guardian [UK]

A heady and utterly unapologetic roller-coaster ride into a hyper-vivid, hyperactive world created from cheap children's toys.

October 7, 2010 Comment
Little White Lies

One of the year's originals -- frantic, unpredictable and very, very funny. Remove brain. See loud.

October 6, 2010 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | Comment
Empire Magazine

If someone laced Wallace and Gromit's stockpile of West Country cheeses with hallucinogens, they might start to show some of the free-associative abandon of the characters in this trippy debut feature...

October 6, 2010 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment

The action sometimes overrides the subtitles, but children of all ages could well be mesmerised just trying to keep up with the accident-prone story of Cowboy, Indian and Horse.

October 6, 2010 Full Review Source: Birmingham Post | Comment
Birmingham Post

Deliriously daft, ludicrously lunatic and nuttily nonsensical.

October 6, 2010 Full Review Source: Sky Movies | Comment
Sky Movies

a truly postmodern concoction, where, along with the village's properties, narrative norms are deconstructed brick by brick, as free associations and visual gags come thick and fast, offering a surreal jaunt through toy town.

October 5, 2010 Full Review Source: Eye for Film | Comment
Eye for Film
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Panique au village (A Town Called Panic)

Well this is the first French, cartoon, comedy film i've seen and its very good.Its basically a feature length version of the Cravendale adverts, if you like them then you'll love this movie.It is simply the most random movie to watch though, one minute your on land, then in the artic, and then somehow swimming the

March 13, 2012
FiLmCrAzY
Film Crazy

Super Reviewer

From out of seemingly nowhere comes the bare bones stop-motion animation extravaganza Panic Au Village (The Town Called Panic). I fell in love with this on one viewing. It's like watching a kid play with their toys as the logic of the plot is really based around that. One minute you're in a small village, the next

August 28, 2011
FilmFanatik
Tim Salmons

Super Reviewer

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Foreign Titles

  • Panique au Village (DE)
  • A Town Called Panic (Panique au village) (UK)
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