Fantastic Planet (1973)
July 12, 2024 7:45 PM - Subscribe
On the planet Ygam, the Draags, extremely technologically and spiritually advanced blue humanoids, consider the tiny Oms, human beings descendants of Terra's inhabitants, as ignorant animals. Those who live in slavery are treated as simple pets and used to entertain Draag children; those who live hidden in the hostile wilderness of the planet are periodically hunted and ruthlessly slaughtered as if they were vermin.
On Plex.
On Plex.
Missed the editing window - that second quote was supposed to have a link to fantasy-animation.org
posted by bunderful at 9:05 PM on July 12
posted by bunderful at 9:05 PM on July 12
Oh hi Fantastic Planet. I think I've seen this movie a good twenty times, because this is what my dad considered to be a kid's movie. It's not a kid's movie. Still, I think it probably messed me up in good ways.
posted by Alex404 at 11:56 PM on July 12 [2 favorites]
posted by Alex404 at 11:56 PM on July 12 [2 favorites]
One of the reviews I saw recommended it for family viewing. Seriously??? 😐
posted by bunderful at 4:37 AM on July 13 [1 favorite]
posted by bunderful at 4:37 AM on July 13 [1 favorite]
I kept seeing links to this movie and having conflated it in my mind with Forbidden Planet, was confused by the radically different art style than I remembered.
posted by funkaspuck at 6:06 AM on July 13 [1 favorite]
posted by funkaspuck at 6:06 AM on July 13 [1 favorite]
I saw "Fantastic Planet" when it was released in the US in 1973 when I was 11 years old. I saw it at the Critereon Theatre on the Santa Monica 3rd Street Promenade. It was shown as a mismatched double-feature with Disney's animated Robin Hood. I remember families leaving with children when the nudity showed up. I was there by myself, since I was somewhat of a young animation geek, and imagine I found about the movie from a newspaper story. Being 1973, this was a time when my parents had no problem with me walking a mile to see a movie by myself.
You can watch "Fantastic Planet" on YouTube. It's also streaming on Max, the Roku Channel, and Criterion.
posted by ShooBoo at 10:10 AM on July 13 [5 favorites]
You can watch "Fantastic Planet" on YouTube. It's also streaming on Max, the Roku Channel, and Criterion.
posted by ShooBoo at 10:10 AM on July 13 [5 favorites]
One of the things that my wife and I bonded on when we started dating was the absolute abject terror we experienced while watching this on TV too late at night when we were teenagers. If you know, you know.
posted by vverse23 at 11:03 AM on July 13 [2 favorites]
posted by vverse23 at 11:03 AM on July 13 [2 favorites]
Pretty sure I was exposed to this via Night Flight and while I was doubtful when I first started watching it, I got sucked in.
I think what really got me aside from the main plot were the little bits where some kind of odd creature would get eaten by another creature, which you had thought was a plant, etc., implying that aside from the giant humanoids, the whole planet was just a brutal nightmare. But then you would also see humans figuring out how to exploit the local flora or fauna. I should rewatch it sometime.
posted by emjaybee at 12:43 PM on July 13 [4 favorites]
I think what really got me aside from the main plot were the little bits where some kind of odd creature would get eaten by another creature, which you had thought was a plant, etc., implying that aside from the giant humanoids, the whole planet was just a brutal nightmare. But then you would also see humans figuring out how to exploit the local flora or fauna. I should rewatch it sometime.
posted by emjaybee at 12:43 PM on July 13 [4 favorites]
When I was a kid my parents would occasionally borrow a film projector and a bunch of movies from the library and do movie nights for all the kids on our street. Alongside such classics as Bambi meets Godzillia, this film was shown. I'm sure it contributed to me and my brother's love of the deeply weird, no idea what it did to the rest of the neighbourhood children.
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 1:14 PM on July 15 [1 favorite]
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 1:14 PM on July 15 [1 favorite]
my father definitely watched this with me when i was a kid and i cant thank him enough.
posted by AlbertCalavicci at 4:05 AM on July 16
posted by AlbertCalavicci at 4:05 AM on July 16
Copied from my December 11 1998 journal entry:
I'd been thinking about that animated Czech/French film "Fantastic Planet" ("La Planète Sauvage"), and when I checked this weekend's listings, behold: there it was, opening today, a 25th anniversary re-release. I had to drive on down to the San Jose "Towne" cinema this very evening. The other two places I saw this film were the "art houses" of Washington: the "Janus" and the "Cerebrus." That first screening was quite inscrutable - I talked T into seeing it with me upon its initial release, and the version we saw was so new it didn't even have sub-titles - a weird experience for both of us, who spoke no French. A little later I saw it again with U's sister; then we did get subtitles so I understood almost everything going on. This screening, I had full comprehension (even of the stray French phrase) and there were previews, but I missed all except the last, which I've forgotten. Did catch the short opening film "L'esgargot", apparently now a traditional accompaniment to the strange planet, but I'd never seen its weirdness before.
posted by Rash at 8:53 PM on July 17
I'd been thinking about that animated Czech/French film "Fantastic Planet" ("La Planète Sauvage"), and when I checked this weekend's listings, behold: there it was, opening today, a 25th anniversary re-release. I had to drive on down to the San Jose "Towne" cinema this very evening. The other two places I saw this film were the "art houses" of Washington: the "Janus" and the "Cerebrus." That first screening was quite inscrutable - I talked T into seeing it with me upon its initial release, and the version we saw was so new it didn't even have sub-titles - a weird experience for both of us, who spoke no French. A little later I saw it again with U's sister; then we did get subtitles so I understood almost everything going on. This screening, I had full comprehension (even of the stray French phrase) and there were previews, but I missed all except the last, which I've forgotten. Did catch the short opening film "L'esgargot", apparently now a traditional accompaniment to the strange planet, but I'd never seen its weirdness before.
posted by Rash at 8:53 PM on July 17
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In the late fifties and early sixties René Laloux worked in a Psychiatric Hospital where people were being treated for depression. As part of a therapy program he hosted a series of creative workshops about painting and shadow-puppetry, and eventually started making short animation movies with the patients. These used only "simple" techniques like moving paper cutouts but nevertheless a few of these shorts were shown at festivals and even won prizes!
This brought Laloux in contact with professional artists like Roland Topor and he started making short movies with them. Several collaborations later Laloux and Topor decided to make a full-length feature based on the science fiction novel "Oms en Série" by Stefan Wul. - ScreenAnarchy
25 people had been employed for a duration of 4 years to create 1073 pencil drawings in pastel shades, which were then animated using a paper-cut technique.…
Following the Soviet invasion of Prague in the late 1960s, production of Laloux and Topor’s film had to be halted, a move that may have provoked the animators into a more overtly political approach. -
posted by bunderful at 8:49 PM on July 12 [1 favorite]