The other day I watched Fantastic Planet (La Planete Sauvage), and I highly recommend it. This 1973 French animation is like the surreal alien lovechild of Dr. Suess and Salvador Dali.
A band of humans — known as Oms — are kept as domesticated pets by an alien race of blue humanoid giants called Traags in director Rene La Loux’s animated sci-fi classic, said to be based on the Soviet occupation of the Czech Republic. The story centers on an Om named Terr, who escapes his subjugation with a Traag learning device and eventually uses it to educate other Oms and incite them to revolt.
It was incredibly interesting to watch a depiction of human beings treated the way we treat our tiny pets (I wish people would be more careful handling little animals!).
I tried to find some good screencaps, but none of these do justice to the fantastical creations in this film.
If you like strange, wonderful things (and old school animation with visual pencil cross hatching!)…see this movie.








8 responses to “Fantastic Planet (La Planete Sauvage)”
If you enjoyed this film, you might also want to investigate the Codex Seriphinianus book, which is even more remarkable.
Click to access Luigi_Serafini_-_Codex_Seraphinianus.pdf
I’m a HUGE fan of the Codex! I have a folder of all the book images saved. I could stare at it for hours!
WOW…….. BRUTAL ART BRO…………………!
I also love the references to Swift. If you want you can check my critique here http://networkedblogs.com/44gjs I’d be very happy to have your feedback.
By the way excellent blog.
Valerie
Thank you!
I’ve watched this masterpiece 15 years ago in TV and I’ve been looking for it since but didn’t knew the tittle nor the country, although I remembered that the language were somekind of Slavic.
Thank you very much!
Now I must find it…..
I’m so glad I could remind you of this film!
yep, saw it as a kid sometime after it came out. just watched it again after 30+ years…trippy.
I never saw this movie as a child, but it would be interesting to compare how it seemed back then and now!