A Town Called Panic

A Town Called Panic is a 2009 internationally co-produced stop-motion animated adventure fantasy comedy film directed by Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar from a screenplay co-written by Aubier, Patar, Guillaume Malandrin and Vincent Tavier. The film is based on the French-language Belgian series of the same name and stars Aubier, Jeanne Balibar, Nicolas Buysse, Véronique Dumont, Bruce Ellison, Frédéric Jannin, Bouli Lanners, and Patar, among others. It premiered at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and was the first stop-motion film to be screened at the festival. The film was released theatrically in Belgium on 17 June 2009 by Cinéart and in France on 28 October 2009 by Gébéka Films. The film received generally positive reviews from film critics. Plot Friends Cowboy, Indian, and Horse live in a rural house together peacefully. Cowboy and Indian forget Horse's birthday, and come up with the idea of building him a brick barbecue. Not wanting Horse to find out they forgot, they get him out of the house by convincing their neighbor Steven to ask Horse to pick his animals up from the nearby music school. There, Horse meets his love interest, Mrs. Jacqueline Longray, a fellow horse who is also a music teacher. When he attempts to play piano for her, she offers to give him lessons. Back at the house, Indian attempts to order the fifty bricks needed for the grill, but Cowboy accidentally orders fifty million. They get rid of the excess bricks by building them into a cube and putting them on top of the house, then build the grill. That night, the house collapses under the weight of the bricks. Irate, Horse makes Cowboy and Indian help rebuild the house. When they try to put up the walls, an unknown figure continues to steal them. When staking out the house to find the culprits, the trio discover the walls are being stolen by a family of aquatic creatures whose heads are shaped like cones. All but one of them escape with the wall. They chase the straggler, Gerard, off of a cliff, where they fall into the Earth's core. Gerard escapes.