Fantastic Planet
by Ren? Laloux
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DVD details
Actor: Hal Smith, Jean Topart, Monika Ramirez, Nora Heflin, Olan SouleDirector: Ren? Laloux
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0; English (Subtitled)
Format: Color, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: Letterbox, 1.66:1
Running Time: 72 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1999-02-16
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Starz / Anchor Bay
DVD Reviews of Fantastic Planet
DVD Review: fantastic imagery
Summary: 5 Stars
This flick breaks the mold for creativity. It will still be fresh in 2050.
DVD Review: Excellent
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie shows you things from a different perspective and really makes you think. And it's a little creepy too. But if you're into that kinds thing it's great. :-DDVD Review: Has not aged well.
Summary: 2 Stars
Fantastic Planet (Rene Laloux, 1973)
When it came out, Fantastic Planet was visionary, cutting-edge, all those superlatives (even if it did seem to derive a great deal from Terry Gilliam's animations on Monty Python's Flying Circus). Nowadays, well, it hasn't aged well. The nostalgia crowd will get a serious kick out of it. If you haven't seen it before, though, you're better off not listening to the raves.
It's sometime in the far future. Humanity has been reduced to wild animals who co-inhabit their planet (which may or may not be Earth) with the Draag, a race of giants. The humans, now known as "om", are sometimes domesticated by the Draag and kept as pets; one of them, though the use of certain Draag tools, learns how to read their language. When he escapes and takes refuge with a tribe of wild om, he brings the disturbing news that the Draag are planning to step up their om extermination campaign, and he must therefore educate the wild om so they can either fight back or flee to another planet.
It's all quite pretty, if exceptionally retro-looking in these days of CGI and Pixar. Roland Topor's story and art, like much of his work, is stuffed full of sexual repression masking itself as permissiveness, which these days is the most interesting thing about the movie; still, Topor's obsessions tend to come off better in prose form (The Tenant is still as riveting today as it was forty years ago). That said, if you saw it long ago as a youngster, you'll probably get a nostalgia kick out of it. **
DVD Review: 5 stars for the film ONLY, not the DVD
Summary: 5 Stars
I saw this movie on cable in the mid-90s and thought it was PHENOMINAL! Yes, the animation was far inferior to mid-90s techniques, but I really enjoyed the retro feel. The film had a dream-like, surreal quality that I have never experienced with a film before. The story was great and the music was fantastic. So, why am I not buying this DVD?
I am holding out, with great faith, that it will be given a proper DVD treatment in the future. Anamorphic widescreen, if not 5.1, at least a decent stereo track, and the option to eliminate the subtitles.
The current version can be found easily, but it is expensive. I refuse to pay that much money for a product that I will ultimately be unsatisifed with. If and when a proper DVD release comes to pass, I will happily pay good money for such a unique and enjoyable film.
DVD Review: Don't Panic!
Summary: 5 Stars
If you are dismayed by the revelation that the U.S. Anchor Bay DVD edition of this animated sci-fi classic is now out of print and only available via typically price-gouging independent sellers, I have good news. There is a lovely new UK-issued edition out in summer of 2006 that I was able to pick up at one of my more discriminating local video stores (I see you can also order through Amazon UK). This latest reissue (from the Eureka studio) features an anamorphic transfer of the film. Unfortunately, the film has still not been restored, so there are artifacts and "dirt" here and there; but after an "A/B" comparison with my old Anchor Bay copy, I discerned a definite improvement. Another plus: the Eureka edition gives you the option of deleting the subtitles if you wish. Also included: The complete soundtrack (audio only) and two short films by director Laloux-"L'Escargot" (from 1965) and a beautiful 1987 piece based on a Chinese parable, "Comment Wang-Fo Fut Sauve" ("L'Escargot" was also included on the Anchor Bay release; "Wang-Fo" was not). There are two other Laloux shorts on the Anchor Bay release which are not on the new UK package, so I suppose that still gives the Anchor Bay version some degree of collectibility. For overall quality, however I would recommend the Eureka edition. The only caveat: it does require a multi-region player.
Description of Fantastic Planet
Based on French science fiction novelist Stefan Wul's Oms en Serie ("Oms by the Dozen"), Ren? Laloux's La Plan?te Sauvage (its title changed to Fantastic Planet for the U.S. release) paints an animated tale of humans kept as domesticated pets by an alien race of blue humanoid giants called Traags. The story takes place on the Traags' planet Ygam, where we follow our narrator, an Om called Terr, from infancy to adulthood, when he escapes his subjugation with a Traag learning device with which to educate the savage Oms and incite them to revolt. As a French-Czech coproduction, this story had much resonance for its makers as an allegory of Czechoslovakia's invasion by Soviet troops in the late '60s, and had to be completed in Paris due to political pressure. While the story does not distinguish itself in the annals of science fiction, the imagination invested in the surreal backdrops, with its eerie creatures and landscapes, does. The animation technique--moving paper cutouts across backgrounds--contributes to the overall feeling of other-worldliness. Fantastic Planet won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival in 1973. Included on the DVD are three early short subjects by Laloux showing his evolution toward Fantastic Planet. You have your choice of audio: French with English subtitles, or English with English subtitles. But choose the latter so you can see how much the subtitles are cheating you. --Jim GayGeneral DVDs
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