After beginning life as a television series in its native Belgium, A Town Called Panic has - like its anarchic stop-frame animated protagonists broken out and embarked on something of an international adventure. The French-language feature, directed by Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar, may remind English-speaking viewers of the cult US show Robot Chicken, in that its characters and their surroundings are derived from rigid plastic children's toys. Though the charming rural setting is perhaps more reminiscent of something from Camberwick Green. That is at least until its quaint, pastoral mise en scène compromised by its gloriously wacky inhabitants the most dignified and well-behaved of whom are barnyard animals. The humanoid characters are rather less sensible and include a range of deranged misfits, the funniest of whom is Steven: a permanently enraged farmer. The central comic duo are Cowboy and Indian: two hyperactive and bumbling troublemakers around whom the world (often literally) seems to fall down. In a strange way a more appropriate comparison for this film would be with the PlayStation video game Katamari Damacy in tone, humour, spirit and design. The story begins with Cowboy and Indian accidentally ordering 50 million bricks, as opposed to the intended 50, from an online brick delivery specialist (which is hilariously animated) with the intention of building their friend, Mr. Horse, a barbeque for his birthday. However, soon the bricks overwhelm and destroy their house. This leads to several attempts to rebuild the house using the bricks, each of which are thwarted by the appearance of a group of mysterious and mischievous aquatic criminals. Though any attempt to find some sort of linearity or conventional narrative in A Town Called Panic is sort of counter to the spirit of the film, which thrives on chaos and zaniness. The whole thing is riotously good fun, and properly silly. For example, at one point our heroes tumble through the centre of the earth and are taken to an artic tundra, where they are promptly scooped up by a mechanised penguin and turned into a snowball by three tough-guy scientists. This is bookended by events just as imaginative and free-spirited, in a film replete with fine visual gags, typified by the inventive solutions to ergonomic problems presented by the domesticated Mr. Horse as he sets about day-to-day tasks: with his three-tiered shower, his stand-up bed and low-lying piano. With no shortage of humour and invention, A Town Called Panic is a consistent delight. One minor quibble would be that, although I am more than happy to watch the French-language version, it might have been an idea to exhibit an English dub so that younger audiences could also join the fun, as doubtless there is a lot to be had here. A Town Called Panic is on limited U.K. release from October 8th.