How Long Is “A Town Called Panic”?

A feature-length version of Belgian animators VIncent Patar and Stéphane Aubier's kids' show Panique au village, which concerns the everyday adventures of three housemates living in a very small village. The principal characters are plastic toys called Cowboy and Indian, who share their home with a talking horse called... Horse. The 'human' duo don't possess the sharpest of intellects and spend most of their time squabbling, while Horse's days are largely spent homemaking and keeping the other two in line. One day, Horse lets slip it's his birthday. Cowboy and Indian decide to buy 50 bricks in order to build a barbecue as a present, but a misplaced coffee cup leads to the destruction of their home. This, in turn, prompts a quest that takes them to the centre of the planet, across frozen wastes and to an underwater world whose pointy-headed denizens are dishonest... The film was the first stop-motion animated feature to earn Official Selection at Cannes; given its frantic action, daft slapstick violence and charmingly silly, surreal storyline - equally appealing to children and 'grownups' - it's not difficult to see why.