What I Think About Movies I've Seen

A Town Called Panic (or in its native French, Panique au Village) is a Belgian movie that focuses on three main characters, Cowboy, Indian, and Horse. It's Horse's birthday, and Cowboy and Indian decide to build him a barbequeue pit as a present. They go online to order some bricks, but accidentally order fifty million bricks instead of the fifty that they wanted. That kicks off a whirlwind of activity that leads to all kinds of adventures, including fighting mermen under the ocean, a robotic penguin in the artic, and hot lava in the center of the earth. I couldn't possibly do the story justice by recounting it here, but it's definitely worth watching if you get the chance.

The crude stop-motion animation of simple children's toys isn't going to win any awards for visual effects, but the quality of the story, and the inflection of the voice work more than make up for it and really lure you in. The fact that it's in French with English subtitles doesn't significantly detract from the experience. The experience of watching this movie reminded me a lot of watching the Chilean movie "31 Minutes", also based on a television show (although it uses live action with puppets rather than stop motion with figurines). Both movies illustrate how much more important the story, good writing, and relatable characters are in overall experience than things like visual effects. My only real complaint would have to be the length, since this is only a little over an hour long and the characters were far from wearing out their welcome.