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Showing posts from August, 2016

Review: Fantastic Planet - 1973

INTRODUCTION As a fan of animation, I have found a bizarre safe haven of sorts in Europe. I have been shocked find some of the most creative, enchanting, and thought-provoking works of this medium in Europe. Anything, from the warped world of Jan Svankmajer to the dreamlike lands of Yuri Norstein. But the film for this review hails from France. Rene Laloux's La Planate Sauvage is a 1973 Franco-Czech animated science fiction film featuring the design work of imaginative illustrator Roland Topor. With the English title of Fantastic Planet , Laloux's cinematic debut is a truly fantastic tale. On the planet known as Ygam, Oms (or humans) are enslaved and toyed with by the planet's natives, large blue creatures called Draags. However, one Om by the name of Terr escapes his owner and finds himself in the company of radical Oms who defy the Draags. THE PROS La Planete Sauvage is film is chock full of allegories. From fighting oppression to the basic pleasures of gett...