Fantastic Planet
by René Laloux
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DVD Cover Information
Director: René LalouxBrand: FACETS VIDEO
Cinematographer: Lubomir Rejthar
Cinematographer: Boris Baromykin
Composer: Alain Goraguer
Editor: Dick Elliott
Editor: Rich Harrison
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); French (Original Language); English (Original Language)
Format: Anamorphic, Animated, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 72 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-10-23
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: ACCENT CINEMA
Movie Reviews of Fantastic Planet
Movie Review: Great movie, wish this was a better version
Summary: 5 Stars
OK, so I was never able to get the Anchor Bay DVD version of this film, although I do own the Collector's Edition VHS on Anchor Bay, which is in French with the English subtitles and three Rene Laloux animated shorts tagged at the end. I heard all about the problems of the Anchor Bay DVD about not being able to shut off the subtitles. I am also familiar with the standard English language VHS on Anchor Bay (without the animated shorts) which had subtitles too. There's also some earlier VHS editions that you probably should just avoid, because there are a few scenes that got hacked (United Home Video, for example).
But I just got the new Accent Cinema DVD which has its goods and bads. One thing, the controls are faulty, you can't return to the menu by pusing the "menu" button, which seems weird (I am able to return to the menu by pushing the "top menu" button on my controller, but you're not able to return back where you left off). If Anchor Bay was able to treat us with three Rene Laloux animated shorts ("Les Dents du Singe", "Les Temps Mort", "Les Escargots"), why did Accent only provide us with one ("Les Escargots")? Also when you choose the Special Features, they also let you turn on or off the subtitles or have it in English or French, but the big problem is you can only choose one, then it goes immediately to the movie (you'd have to choose the other by pushing the "subtitle" or "audio" button on your remote control when the movie plays). Plus the English audio gets out of sync later on in the film (ie. you hear the talking but the lips are not moving for about one second after), which never did on the old English language VHS on Anchor Bay.
Now for the good: you are now able to turn on and off the subtitles, and switch between English and French. That's great for those who were used to hearing this film in English in the old days when the USA Network would air this on Night Flight, or in French to see how the voices were originally like, and of course those bothered by the Anchor Bay version where you couldn't turn off the subtitles. And you also get to hear an interview from René Laloux (did before his passing) and about how he got into animation, and how Fantastic Planet came to be. I was a bit surprised to find out he never had much joy making any of these films, aside from Les Dents du Singe.
There's also a music video, "Would I Be the One", a Marc Bolan song recorded by Sean Lennon (as everyone knows, John Lennon's only son from his marriage to Yoko Ono - yes, I'm fully aware of Julian Lennon, he was from a previous marriage). The reason for it is the video features animation that was obviously inspired by Fantastic Planet (the Draags this time around have more than two eyes). And I have to say the music is actually quite good, I can detect some of that Beatles influence in it (but not a full copy), but I guess Marc Bolan had the Beatles in mind writing that song, and of course, Sean Lennon being related to a Beatle sure helps.
Now on to the film. I was one who first unintentionally caught this movie on Night Flight back in the late '80s and I was completely blown away by the sci-fi imagery, the funky '70s music from Alain Goraiguer (sounding like Pink Floyd meets Isaac Hayes' "Shaft" to me) and the animation which was so far removed from the usual high-paced animation one is so accustomed to (such as Disney). Since that time, I had rarely seen it (because no station would air it since Night Flight left), until I acquired the VHS copy in 2000, and now the Accent Cinema DVD.
Right away, you know this isn't a Disney animation for the kids. It's a rather unusual sci-fi film based on a Stefan Wul novel from 1957, Oms en Séries (unfortunately never translated in English, so you better know French to be able to read that book). It's basically Oms (apparently descendants of Terrans who fled Planet Earth) who are being kepts as pets by giant blue-skinned Traags, until one Om gets a Traag learning device, which causes a revolt. The film was started in Czechoslovakia, but funding stopped due to the 1968 Soviet invasion, and the fact the communists likely deemed this movie anti-communist, so the film had to be completed in France (you have to bear in mind the Soviet Union at that time was under Leonid Brezhniv who basically wanted to bring the Soviet Union back to the bad old days of Stalinism, and didn't like how Czechoslovakia was becoming more democratic). Because of this, it's little wonder it took until 1973 before it finally got released. If it weren't for the political turmoil of Czechoslovakia at the time, not to mention budget problems, the movie would have likely been released in 1969 or 1970 (and the music probably would had a more late '60s psychedelic sound, rather than early '70s funk).
There's no getting over the fact the movie really depicted an alien planet full of wonder and of danger full of creatures that hardly look like anything on Earth. This is sure unlike a lot of sci-fi I've seen of recent where everything looks gloomy and depressing. Then you have the wonderful psychedelic imagery, which I find so sorely lacking in most sci-fi, especially the post-Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind-era of sci-fi. And then the music, from Alain Goraiguer. I'm pretty certain had it not been for Isaac Hayes doing "Shaft", and a band like Pink Floyd starting to make it big (The Dark Side of the Moon came out earlier the same year as Fantastic Planet), we would probably not get this wonderful funky music to go with it. I'm certain that both Pink Floyd and "Shaft" were a big inspiration for the soundtrack. The great news was EMI/Pathé Marconi had released a soundtrack album, but that LP has since became very rare and collectible, luckily a small label did reissue this on CD much more recently.
Well, in conclusion, still hold on your Anchor Bay DVD, if you want to see "Les Dents du Singe" and "Les Temps Mort", but the Accent Cinema version is still worth getting for many of the great features, although they should have taken more time to iron out the flaws before releasing it. As for the film, it's one of the most unusual sci-fi films you'll ever hope to see, proving you can go far even on a low budget.
Summary of Fantastic Planet
René Laloux's mesmerising psychedelic sci-fi animated feature won the Special Jury Prize at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival and is a landmark of European animation. Based on Stefan Wul's novel Oms en série [Oms by the Dozen], Laloux's breathtaking vision was released in France as La Planète sauvage [The Savage Planet]; in the USA as Fantastic Planet; and immediately drew comparisons to Swift's Gulliver's Travels and Planet of the Apes (both the 1968 film and Boule's 1963 novel). Today, the film can be seen to prefigure much of the work of Hayao Miyazaki at Studio Ghibli (Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away) due to its palpable political and social concerns, cultivated imagination, and memorable animation techniques.Fantastic Planet tells the story of Oms, a human-like species, kept as domesticated pets by an alien race of blue giants called Draags. The story takes place on the Draags' planet Ygam, where we follow our narrator, an Om called Terr, from infancy to adulthood. He manages to escape enslavement from a Draag learning device used to educate the savage Oms - and begins to organise an Om revolt. The imagination invested in the surreal creatures, music and sound design, and eerie landscapes, is immense and unforgettable. This release includes the early LaLoux short The Snails.
Special Features: English Language version, Original Subtitled version, photo gallery, trailer, Fantastic Laloux, the new 26 minute documentary on director Rene Laloux, short animated film Les Escargots (The Snails), an animated segment of Sean Lennon's music video for "Would I Be The One", inspired by Fantastic Planet.
Based on French science fiction novelist Stefan Wul's Oms en Serie ("Oms by the Dozen"), René Laloux's La Planète 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 Gay
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