Fantastic Planet 1973
I was glad to catch this movie during a HBO Max preview, which included a selection of Criterion movies like this. I had never seen this French animated feature, but had definitely seen a lot of the artwork, like maybe from a book or documentary or just clips. The animation is very lo fi, almost clumsy, but the drawings themselves are very imaginative, showing odd life forms on another planet. Because the movie is animated, they can take this much further than live action sci-fi. The story itself is interesting, a bit like a Twilight Zone episode, where humans are an invasive species, considered pests and sometimes kept as pets by the much larger native inhabitants, the Draags. Draags wonder if humans (Oms, in the movie) are truly intelligent or if they just mimic the Draags. So that is always a good approach, and immediately allows parallels to humans vs. animals on earth or one race against another. Or you can just enjoy this struggle as the humans who are about the size of a mouse compared to the Draags, struggle to survive as Draags occasionally try to purge their planet of Oms. There is also some cool music, which at times sounds a lot like Pink Floyd, but can also be more atmospheric. It is probably good that the movie is in French, which makes it more like we are listening in on an alien language. Ultimately the plot is kind of simple, despite the complexity of this alien planet and the life cycle of the Draags. The movie has a certain quaintness in the simplicity of the animation and the plot is maybe similar to a Twilight Zone or Star Trek episode, which were made a little before this movie was made. Still it is worth watching, not just for the story, but the fantastic artwork and creatures and some cool concepts about alien life forms.
Written: 06 Jan 2021