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A Town Called Panic

Started by CaledonianGonzo, October 09, 2010, 12:12:43 PM

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CaledonianGonzo

Anyone seen this yet?  Is it as splendid as it looks from the trailer?

boxofslice

I saw the trailer for this.  Is it made by the same people who do that milk advert?

CaledonianGonzo

Quote from: boxofslice on October 09, 2010, 12:19:30 PM
I saw the trailer for this.  Is it made by the same people who do that milk advert?

It does seem similar, yes, though it's maybe just a coincidence. 

Though I quite like the milk adverts....

JPA

Quote from: CaledonianGonzo on October 09, 2010, 12:24:18 PM
It does seem similar, yes, though it's maybe just a coincidence. 

Same directors or animators I think, sure I remember reading that.

TotalNightmare

I remember first hearing about ATCP when I got a new mobile phone tv package I was asked to try out. One of the channels was called 'Aardman TV' and had ATCP as part of its schedule.

I did love it, but thought it felt foreign, dunno why, but was relieved to find that it was - mainly because I think I have an inbuilt suspicion of oddly dubbed animation.

I'm really looking forward to this, as it got an amazing review write up on Chud.com at some recent festival.
If it's as bonkers as I hope, this could be a new little favourite of mine.

The Widow of Brid

There have been ten double episodes of this up for download on iTunes for around a year now, about a fiver. The only series I've ever bought from their drm-ridden film/tv section.

It really is a great little thing. I was laughing myself sick at the episode where Horse, Cowboy and Indian keep accidentally going into stasis only yesterday.

Icehaven

You can watch episodes of it on Lovefilm too, think you have to be a member though,

TotalNightmare

Found that review, from Chud, by Devin
QuoteI don't want to make outrageous claims, but my first viewing of A Town Called Panic cured my nasty hangover. My girlfriend's first viewing cured her cold. It's unclear just what sort of powers A Town Called Panic has, but they are mighty. And they are benevolent.

This feature length version of a Belgian kid's show (Vincent Patar and Stéphane Aubier produce five minute adventures which have been repackaged and translated to air on Nicktoons in America) is an amazing head trip, a glorious journey right inside a semi-innocent imagination. A Town Called Panic follows the adventures of three friends who live together: the level headed, cool as a cucumber Horse, and two best buddies Cowboy and Indian, who are mischievous knuckleheads whose best intentions are always causing major problems for everyone in town, including their neighbor the always-shouting Stephen, his wife Nadine, their animals (who attend music school), Policeman, Postman, and Miss Longray, the beautiful redheaded horse who teaches music and who has won Horse's heart.

The storytelling is classic kid 'And then' style: 'And then they fell in a hole in the ground and the hole led to the center of the Earth. And then they climbed out of the hole and they were in the North Pole. And then they saw a giant robot penguin and then the penguin scooped them up and then three superstrong scientists put them to work. The scientists were using the penguin to throw giant snowballs at woodland creatures far away," and the resulting narrative is delightfully stream of consciousness and free form. It all begins when Cowboy and Indian forget Horse's birthday and rush to get him a present. Attempting to build him a barbecue, they order bricks online, but instead of 50, they end up with 50 million. By the end of the film they've discovered and started a war with an undersea race, traveled the globe and endangered Horse's burgeoning love affair by constantly keeping him from attending piano lessons.

There's no point in trying to get across to you the wonderful madness of A Town Called Panic. It has to be seen to be believed, especially because the puppetoon style is so distinctive, low tech and incredible. Most of the characters are plastic molded figures, the sort you buy in large plastic bags who have bases attached to their feet (think army men). Each character's real world analogue has little bearing on what they are in Panic - Horse, for example, drives a little yellow car. Cowboy and Indian carry none of the cultural baggage of their namesakes. There's a purity to the world in which they live, where each character's purpose and personality is defined only by how the creators want them to be defined, that is exactly like a child's game. But there's also a cutting subversiveness, surely unnoticed by kids, that will delight adults.

The world in which the characters live is also extraordinarily tactile and handmade. Blue cellophane stands in for water, while cotton puffs are clouds (and fire extinguisher foam). Fire is represented by a cardboard cut out of flames, and the small toys live in a world that is partially scaled to them and partially filled with giant sized objects. There's a scene of Stephen eating a huge piece of toast that is destined to be one of your favorite moments in cinema this century. It's a world not unlike what must have been in Michel Gondry's head as a child.

The best way to see A Town Called Panic is in the original French. Usually I'm no purist for language in cartoons - they're all dubbed, after all - but in this case the voice work is so unique and the French cadences so charming - 'Mon Dieu!' always sounds better than 'My God!' - that the original is the only way to go. I don't know what the American release of the subtitled version will be, but Austin's Alamo Drafthouse will be playing it in January. The question, of course, is whether or not little ones will enjoy a subtitled movie as much as a dubbed one, and I think that A Town Called Panic is so visually rich and so absorbing in its motion and energy, that following the words won't be as important to them. The subtitles do come fast and furious, as many of the characters carry out hilarious patter back and forth. But part of the hilarity of that patter is the voice work by Patar as Horse, Aubier as Cowboy and Bruce Ellison as Indian.

I don't know how this movie could be any better. It's about as perfect a film as I've seen, and perhaps the only way to improve upon it would be to create a version that never ended. A version that just kept going with the 'And thens.'

10 out of 10

JPA

Quote from: icehaven on October 10, 2010, 11:43:08 PM
You can watch episodes of it on Lovefilm too, think you have to be a member though,

Yeah, I can view them for free with the package I'm on, so intend on having a look at them at some point.

Johnny Yesno

#9
I saw this yesterday and thought it was great. It's both funny and imaginative. The best film I've seen this year, in fact, though I'm not anything like an obsessive cinemagoer, so make of that what you will.

I totally fell for it's frenetic style and crazy logic. The background art is simple but beautiful and the animation is wonderful with loads of little details, like how the characters' bases work, that left me thinking that I need to watch it again. For all its stream-of-consciousness style, the storytelling is really tight and the humour worked for me because I cared what happened to the characters.

Like (the reviewer TotalNightmare posted) Devin's girlfriend, I was miserable with a rotten cold and it cheered me right up. I agree with him that there's something about seeing it subtitled rather than dubbed as the French voice work is spot on. I've watched a couple of episodes here and the English voice work doesn't quite work for me. Possibly, you might not want to read all of that review if you haven't seen the film already depending on your thoughts on spoilers. The paragraph I'm particularly thinking of is the one beginning 'The storytelling is classic kid 'And then' style:'.


Wet Blanket

Is the version currently in cinemas the French version with subtitles then?

Johnny Yesno

Quote from: Wet Blanket on October 11, 2010, 03:38:02 PM
Is the version currently in cinemas the French version with subtitles then?

The one I saw was, yes.

Santa's Boyfriend

Quote from: Wet Blanket on October 11, 2010, 03:38:02 PM
Is the version currently in cinemas the French version with subtitles then?

Judging from what I've seen already, I've a feeling this is the only way the film should be watched.  It would lose so much without the characters speaking french.

I saw one of the shorts in a compilation of stuff at the Cube Cinema in Bristol a few years ago, and it had people in fits of laughter.  I can't wait for this movie!

Mister Six

Were the shorts that were shown on Cartoon Network in French too?

The Widow of Brid

I don't know about the Cartoon Network, but the ones on iTunes are English dubs. Personally, I really don't think they suffer at all for being dubbed. The voice work has a lovely kind of 'overheard' feel to it that gels perfectly with the 'and then the...' plotting mentioned in that review, but horses for courses and all that.

Johnny Yesno

Their Cravendale Milk adverts are up on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hG_EU8X2l2o

There's also an Aardman YouTube channel with ATCP episodes here. It's got Aardman's Pib and Pog on it too. Yay! I have this episode on a compilation and it's probably my favourite Aardman animation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta7VHKGuoJY

CaledonianGonzo

Well - this just absolutely hilarious.  I doubt there'll be anything discussed in Comedy Chat for the remainder of the year that'll amuse me as much.  Utterly daft, defiantly inconsequential and light as a feather, but at the same time milking laughs beaucoup from character and lack of congruence.

And, yes - the fact it was the French language version made it a lot funnier.  Dubbing at the very least would have robbed me of the pleasure of half-translating the dialogue with my pidgin French and being amused by the constant cries of 'Cheval!'