A Town Called Panic (2009)

This remains one of the funniest films I’ve ever seen. A French language Belgian stop motion production, it is a spin off from the TV series of the same name. To call this film mad would be an insane understatement, and it’s all the better for it. The film concerns Horse, Cowboy, and Indian, three friends who live together in an idyllic rural house. The TV series consists of short five-minute episodes revolving around increasingly mundane chores gone madly awry. For example; the three of them anger a bear whilst hunting, and the bear chases them all around their house while they attempt to halt it by throwing cakes, amongst other things at it. In the film, Cowboy and Indian have forgotten that it’s Horse’s birthday. In a panic, they order fifty bricks online to build Horse a barbecue, but accidentally order fifty million bricks. This results in disaster, including Horse crashing his car into the birthday barbecue, smashing both the barbecue and his car to pieces. This prompts a character, minutes later, to suggest that Horse’s car will ‘definitely fail its MOT.’ There’s barely any point in giving away any more plot than that, but suffice to say it’s mayhem of the highest order. I have very fond memories of watching the series with my daughter in the early hours of the morning most days, and to sit down and watch the feature film was a joy, and had us in absolute stitches. 8.4/10