At 91, Brigitte Bardot is dead

  

  From the rustic flop-motion animation to the crude lack of articulation in the figures to the perpetual absurdity - I loved every second of A Town Called Panic.

  I usually despise the french* but this is a huge exception. I even refuse to watch the English dub because the French language performances are so uniquely funny, impressive even: they have extra lifting to do since there are virtually no facial expressions to animate. The accents and specific inflections therein are integral to the overall accoutrements. English would be a downgrade; my head canon is this was made in a post-Pontypool world; it changed everything, after all.

  This is one of the rare kids movies that actually feels like it was made by kids and that's not a negative criticism. The impulse is to paint this as  'charming' but it's quite the opposite: it's fucking abrasive how boorish this thing is. I feel like people whip out 'charming' almost defensively with these types of movies, like they're trying to downplay any inherent silliness; 'charm' signifies either 'surprising maturity' or 'pitifully cute'. Panic never puts a ceiling on its indulgences and there's a confidence in that that I admire a great deal; I actively rolled my eyes a few times and yet...it didn't subtract from my enjoyment.

  The trade-off are the handful of absolutely gorgeous backgrounds and striking compositions, like a parent painted this playroom for their stupid ADHD-addled French kids to play in. Imagine Robin Williams during his unwitting job interview in Mrs. Doubtfire when he's playing with the dinosaurs. That's the whole movie; I immediately wanted to write about it but I was too exhausted. I like being slightly annoyed by it, actually. I'd rather that than a movie made with adults in mind that's cloying for uppies with limp banter.

  *Bardot, who died yesterday, was a repugnant bigot who found nearly every flavor of prejudice delicious — she was especially partial to the bitterness of racism and homophobia (arrested 6 times for inciting racial violence). She made the choice to sully her legacy with hatred so I figured I'd talk about a French export of pure joy.