(PANIQUE AUX VILLAGE, Stéphane Aubier & Vincent Patar, France/Belgium 2009, 75 min., French/subtitles)

This thoroughly delightful stop-motion animated fantasy tells of an eccentric provincial village and its beguiling inhabitants. The impetuous Cowboy and Indian, eager to buy a birthday gift for their more mature roommate, Horse, accidentally set off a chain of events that destroys their residence and places their innocent neighbor behind bars. Setting out to right their wrongs, Cowboy and Indian are joined by Horse and taken on a journey to the center of the earth, across a frozen tundra, and into a bizarre underwater parallel universe. Rendered in a completely charming style, this feature film version of a popular European television program has occasional impolite language in the subtitles, but is otherwise appropriate for children. Preceded by another gem of stop-motion animation, THE TOLL COLLECTOR (Rachel Johnson, US 2003, 10 min.).