This remarkable animated French/Czech science-fiction fantasy – conceived by Roland Topor and René Laloux – is set in a bleak future, in which the human race has destroyed civilisation.
The 39-foot tall blue cerebral inhabitants of the planet Yagam (called Traags) keep a few tiny humans (called Oms) as pets, with the wild human population destroyed by regular culls.
One day, a few young Traags are playing with an Om and her infant child. Things get a little rough and the Om is killed, leaving her orphan son.
A young Traag named Tiwa is passing by with her father and asks to take the baby Om home as a pet, to which her father agrees. Tiwa raises her pet Om, naming him Terr, and begins to form a strong bond with him.
As Tiwa receives her daily lessons through a portable headset, Terr listens and discovers the history behind Oms and Traags. He escapes with the headset, joins a group of Oms, and educates them, leading to an Om uprising.
Numerous allegorical references are imaginatively drawn as war breaks out between the two factions within a desert landscape brimming with monstrous exotic animals.
Surely a contender for the strangest feature-length animation in history, Fantastic Planet is an LSD-induced phantasmagoria utilising impressive organic design, surreal composition and stunning visuals, this Cannes award-winner is highly intriguing and compulsive viewing.
The film is made all the more poignant as it hails from Czechoslovakia, a country which had been in the thrall first of Nazism and then Stalinism.
Voices
Barry Bostwick
Marvin Miller
Olan Soule
Cynthia Alder
Nora Heflin
Hal Smith
Mark Gruner
Monika Ramirez
Janet Waldo
As Tiwa receives her daily lessons through a portable headset, Terr listens and discovers the history behind Oms and Traags. He escapes with the headset, joins a group of Oms, and educates them, leading to an Om uprising.
award-winner is highly intriguing and compulsive viewing.
