A Glimpse at Fantastic Planet

Man, the 70’s were weird. What’s the first thing you think of whenever somebody mentions that particular decade? Farrah Fawcett’s gigantic hair? Jaws being the number one hit and making beach communities scrambling for tourists? The Atari 2600 birthing home video gaming? How about all that strange, psychedelic art? Yeah, the 70’s were fun, weird but so much fun. It was a decade about experimenting and taking down barriers, Fantastic Planet is definitely one of those films.
The script for Fantastic Planet was based on a science fiction novel published in 1957 titled Oms en série by French writer Stefan Wul. The film, like the book, takes place on a distant planet named Ygam. Here, the dominant species is a giant race of blue humanoid aliens called Draags, while humanity (referred to as Oms) is seen as something entirely different.
The film introduces the relationship between Oms and Draags in a spectacular way in its opening sequence. A mother is fleeing for her life, clutching her infant son in her arms, and trying to hide amongst strangely colored trees and foliage. As she climbs a hill, a gigantic blue hand comes down from the sky and blocks her path. She’s launched with a flick of the hand, large objects are placed around her to block her path, and she’s chased with falling debris. The hands clutch onto her, forcing her to drop her infant son, and lift her high into the air. She’s then dropped to her death right in front of her child. The very next shot is of three juvenile Draags suddenly noticing that “she stopped moving, now we can no longer play with her”. The entire sequence is reminiscent of children playing with insects they found under rocks. The familiarity of the opening is part of what makes it so disturbing.
The film follows the life of the orphaned baby Om, as he is picked up by another juvenile Draag and brought home as a pet. He’s given the name Terr, and is given food and shelter, but at the cost of his freedom. The story is narrated by Terr in a biographical tone, explaining his relationship with the Draag family that took him in and his discoveries of the Draag lifestyle. Probably what makes Fantastic Planet more in depth when it comes to its setting, is how human our antagonists are presented. Oms are mice to them. When a wild or savage Draag comes in contact with a wild Om, they’re seen as vermin that need to be culled before they can breed and get out of control. Most adult Draags are heard saying “They’re okay as pets, but we need to find a way to get rid of these wild ones”. Meanwhile, the Oms are merely looking for survival and freedom.
The film was director René Laloux’s first project that was full length rather than a short film. In the 60’s, he came across writer and illustrator Roland Topor, who ended up writing the adaptation of the book into script. The film became a French-Czechoslovak production for financial reasons, French animation was still considerably young, and the only film like Fantastic Planet at the time was Walerian Borowczyk’s Mr. and Mrs. Kabal’s Theatre (1967), and that was barely seen when it first was released. So production was done mainly in Prague with finances coming from France. Production for Fantastic Planet began in 1968 and, due to the occupation of the Soviets at the time, faced numerous push backs. It was actually a bit of a shocker that the film was allowed to be completed at all, when the Soviets invaded Prague (along with the rest of Eastern Europe), they began banning and destroying films that had allegorical themes to invasion and enslavement. Fantastic Planet absolutely fits those themes, but the studio managed to slip by and complete production. The film was released on December 6th, 1973 and became the hot ticket title for the Cannes Film Festival of that year, winning the Special Jury Prize. It also received the International Jury Prize at the Trieste International Science Fiction Film Festival. The film paved the way for Laloux’s career and he went on to continue his career in animation. Since then, the film has gained a strong cult following thanks to the home media movement.
Probably the thing that sets Fantastic Planet apart from other dystopian “fight the man” stories that are so popular in science fiction even to this day, is the way that our heroes overcome their oppression. Usually you see the lower class shake their fists in the air, storm the castle or palace, and take down the evil ruler via brute force. But in the case of Fantastic Planet, that’s not nearly enough to get what they want in the long run. So what’s the answer? The all-too valuable concept of knowing your enemy. Throughout Terr’s childhood he’s surrounded by his oppressors, he learns what they eat, what they do in their spare time, what rituals they consider important, how they’re taught, even their history! It’s through this knowledge that Terr figures out how to help his people and put an end to the tyrannical relationship between Om and Draag.
Fantastic Planet is a hodgepodge of wonder and imagination. It’s everything I personally love about finding vintage science fiction titles in my local used book stores. You get a glimpse of the political issues of the time period it was written in, you get beautiful and surreal images dancing over the screen, you get some very dated (but in a good sense) music to score the film, and it’s all in one nice tightly wound bundle. This is like seeing one of those amazing illustrated book covers come to life and visually tell you the story it was created for. While it doesn’t grab me on an emotional level like films such as Metropolis (1927) Pan’s Labyrinth (2006), it’s still a fun ride for anyone that loves science fiction. The film recently was released by Criterion and it’s a must-have if you’re a fan of the film, the clean up is impeccable and practically leaps off the screen. Absolutely check this out if you’re looking for something different.
