An adventure in animation. Recent advances in technology have made it possible for artists to wow us with the visual impact of their work. There's also been several pieces of late that possess intense and haunting beauty. I applaud these works. Panic isn't like that. It's not packed with visual beauty or technological wonders, instead it's packed with fun, good humor, and well... panic.

Seems just natural law that stop-motion animation projects ought snuggle into the "Short Films" category. Those that attempt the stretch to feature length often suffer fatal complications. Panic, on the other hand, impressively maintains its frantic pace from beginning to end (75 minutes).

The animation is lo-fi, but very watchable. In fact, its rough edges enhance the overall fun factor. It's fast, with perfectly timed still moments that'll tickle you silly. Speaking of silly, the voices (even though, in French) are so completely right on. Swinging Rock n Roll music accompanies as well.

The only thing keeping this little feature out of my A category is some meaning/depth. It's just good clean silly fun using classic toy figures.

From the press notes: A Town Called Panic is also a cult TV series whose 20 memorably outrageous animated episodes where telecast in 2003 by Canal+ (in France and Belgium) prior to making their way around the world to festival acclaim and TV popularity.

-- Books by Author/Illustrator Ross Anthony --