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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 getting high, La Planete Sauvage is filled with the imagery and ideas of counterculture in the 70s. Topor and Laloux's script is reasonably simple, letting the imagery do most of the talking. With that said, the imagery is spectacular. Topor crafts a warped world that is both dead and alive. The landscape is teeming with life, yet there are barren and empty shots everywhere. Matching the surreal visuals is Alain Goraguer's score. It fuses jazz with certain elements of psychedelic music of the time, compounding the film's contemporary nature. It fits both the surreal visuals of the film and the emotions of the film. The acting is decent. Everyone preforms as demanded and there are no real stand out performances.

THE CONS
The only real problem is the actual medium of animation used. Laloux's film is animated with cutout animation. Laloux made this decision to preserve the quality of Topor's illustrations. There is, however, a sacrifice made when using this medium. That sacrifice is flexibility. The film's animation is stiff as a board. While the Czech animators, like Josef Kabrt and Josef Vana, were able to create movement that is smoother than Laloux's earlier works like the 1966 short film Les escargots, the cutout animation still felt a little stiff. It is an excusable decision, but not an unnoticeable one.

CONCLUSION
Overall, La Planete Sauvage is an impressive work of animated science fiction. While the cutout animation is noticeably stiff and the acting is nothing to write home about, the film makes up for that via its strong counterculture imagery and ideals, surreal production design, and a trippy score. It receives a strong recommendation from me for those who wish to take a break from the large-scale commercial nature of the modern animation industry.
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