Fantastic Planet

I just watched Fantastic Planet for the first time last night, and my mind is officially blown.  For those who haven't seen it, it's a stunning full-length animated sci-fi story about a race of quasi-fascist giant blue creatures and the tiny "human" beings - called Oms - they keep as pets.  Eventually the Oms rebel, and an inevitable war ensues.  But really, the plot is beside the point.  The real magic here is the artwork and design that's gone into each and every moment of this film.

Now it must be said that while I like some sci-fi, as you know my own tastes skew a bit more fantastical, and yet this film is one of the most visually surprising I've seen, with all sorts of marvelous images and strange ideas.  And the animation itself beyond impressive, with full shadow rendering and cross-hatching and gradient colors (unlike the smooth color blocks used in most cartoons).  The filmmaker Rene Laloux stated in an interview (also featured on the DVD) that there will probably never be a film made like this again, as it was so expensive to spend so much time on each cell the way they did.  But their efforts were, to my mind, so incredibly worth it, as they created a masterpiece of texture and imagination that is unlike pretty much any other film, animated or otherwise, that's out there.  Truly amazing.

Comments

[John Coulthart]

Oddly enough I was thinking of this over the weekend while watching Patrick Bokanowski's L'Ange. Mention should perhaps be made of writer (he wrote the novel Polanski's The Tenant is based on) and artist Roland Topor whose drawings provided the basis for the FP's characters and landscapes. I still kick myself for not buying a big book of Topor's work I saw at a book market in Paris. You can see him acting briefly as the giggling Renfield in Werner Herzog's Nosferatu.

Laloux made another interesting science fiction film, Time Masters (Les Maîtres du temps) which has designs throughout by Moebius. Not as original or strange as Fantastic Planet but still worth a watch if you can find a copy. Nice that FP is available on DVD but others are hard to find; I'm still waiting to see Taxandria, a semi-animated feature by Belgian Raoul Servais.

[Pam]

Hey, John: Wow, thanks for all the great info. That's cool you were thinking about Fantastic Planet, a nice little synchronicity that. I'll definitely take your advice and hunt down L'Ange and Time Masters, both sound super cool.

[JLS]

yes. love it.
xo

[Will @ A Journey Round My Skull]

Pam, I'm a big fan of the movie too. I also like the killer soundtrack, which I bought on vinyl to ogle the gatefold sleeve artwork. It's been reissued a few times recently.

I really need to see Time Masters.

John, the German book "Topor, Tod und Teufel" is a bargain even with postage (it's big and full color): http://ow.ly/i3g7. Another Topor collector pointed me to it saying it was the best book available.

[Kristen Miller]

wow - totally nutty I just watched this film for the first time two weeks ago! Completely inspired me to continue in my animation craft. Thank you for the other film recommendations made by John - looking forward to 'consuming' them!

[Holly]

I know exactly what you mean, I walked around in a daze for days after seeing FP, it's so....well, there's just no words