It’s Horse’s birthday, and roommates Cowboy and Indian had forgotten to get him a gift. They decide to build him a barbeque put of bricks, but instead of ordering 50 they accidentally request 50-million, hiding them atop the house in a large block hoping their friend won’t notice. But when they crumble, disintegrating Horse’s house in the process, a surreal chain of events begins taking the trio into the bowels of the Earth, beneath the waves of the ocean and stranded on the snowy plains of a barren no-man’s land.

The plastic cast of Zeitgeist Films' A Town Called Panic

In the annals of all things odd, the stop-motion animated adventure A Town Called Panic has got to be near the top of the list. I’ve never seen the Belgian television show on which this movie is based (apparently available domestically thanks to Aardman Studios) but apparently it has a pretty big cult following. While I can’t talk about that, as far as this French theatrical version is concerned my head is still a bit discombobulated from watching it, and whether that’s a good thing is still very much up for speculation.

The film is certainly an original, the whole thing playing like some sort of Gallic variation on The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine crossed with the whacky animated interludes from “Monty Python’s Flying Circus.” It’s not just odd it’s super odd, all of these plastic animals and humans moving around in a constant state of trepidation and worry that’s completely discombobulating. Filmmakers Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar kept me continually off guard, and from one second to the next I had no idea what to expect.

Yet I do wonder what the point of it all is, and even at a brisk 75-minutes the movie still manages to come perilously close to wearing out its welcome. At a certain point I started to get a little bit tired of the constant whimsy and inanity, and even the site of a gigantic mechanical snowball throwing penguin wasn’t enough to keep my interest as fully as you’d think it would be.

Still, there are so many outlandishly humorous bits here that brought a smile to my face – some even getting me to laugh out loud – it’s hard to hold too much of a grudge. The underwater sequences are an inspired riot (loved the barracuda, but the pointy-headed Creature from the Black Lagoon-like villains’ obsession with waffles is downright hilarious), while everything having to do with the music school had me giggling like 12-year-old schoolgirl. The movie also ends remarkably well, the last ten minutes a surreal cavalcade of barnyard lunacy that’s a delirious joy.

I don’t have too much more to say. I can’t give a fuller description because than that could potentially ruin the fun for those that tap into the film from start to finish and I don’t want to discuss more of the bits and pieces I both loved and loathed for that very same reason. What I will say is that A Town Called Panic is a one of a kind experience that’s as outside the norm as anything I’m ever likely to see, and for that reason alone I can calmly recommend this import with very only a scant few reservations.