At the start of the 70s animated feature films that directly addressed mature adult topics were virtually nonexistent. When Rene Laloux’s “Fantastic Planet” came out, it not only resonated with social and political themes prevalent at the time, but it also featured a distinct look that was almost the opposite of what audiences were used to in animated movies by the likes of Walt Disney, and Miyazaki, who at the time had an almost iron clad monopoly on animated feature films.
Rene Laloux was a champion of minimalistic animation that in the movie gives a unique feeling to the alien world being portrayed. Laloux was an animator who had radical ideas concerning his craft. He believed that character development did not necessarily require realistic graphics and created his animation through the use of paper cutout images animated on fixed or extremely limited foregrounds that is added to very slightly moving backgrounds. This style was punctuated by the cutup characters who move like puppets in a medieval puppet show, showcasing a different type of animated art. Anyone familiar with Terry Gilliam’s Monti Python animation will immediately recognize this style. It is an Avant Garde style that is acutely aware of the mysterious world that the movie uses as an allegory to real-time issues prevalent at the time.
The story pits two completely different self-conscious organisms against each other. One is the giant, blue-colored controlling race called the Traags, who are the masters of their planet. The other is the small (compared to the Traags) humanoid Ohms, who are treated by the Traags as either pets or pests. The opening scene is brutal in its introduction to this world, as we see a giant blue Traag hand playing cruelly with a female Ohm, until she is nonchalantly dropped to her death by the hand while trying to protect her baby. The hand belongs to Traag children, who play with the women in a similar way that many of our children play with insects. The now abandoned baby is then taken into possession by one of the children as a pet, which is a common occurrence on this planet. The movie then begins a narration narrated by the baby as he grows up a pet in a Traag home. While there, the pet boy/man is named Terr by the girl who keeps him, and secretly uses a knowledge machine that the Traags use to school their children. The Traags do not consider the Ohms as intelligent beings and are shocked when they discover that Terr is interested in their knowledge. Escaping his captivity, he takes the knowledge machine with him and becomes a sort of rebel leader who unifies all the previously antagonistic Ohm groups living wild in the parks and garbage disposal centers. Feeling threatened by their unification and intelligence, the Traags attempt to exterminate all Ohms from the planet. There is an existential aspect to the Traag race that relates to their peaceful coexistence with each other (unlike us humans), meditative lifestyle and their dependency on altered states of consciousness through a lifeline found in psychedelic power on a satellite off their planet that they call fantastic planet.
It is through this plot that Laloux succeeds in touching on many social issues, from Animal rights, totalitarian population control, fascistic ethnic cleansing, and the antiestablishment counterculture movement from the 60s. The story of another world and planet gave freedom to the filmmakers to make bold statements. For example, the Traags’ determination to eliminate all traces of Ohms from their world touches not too subtly on the Holocaust, and the relationship of owner and pet between the two species is reflected in how communist Russia treated its satellite nations at the time. The lifestyle of the Traags also reflects the hippie culture with its emphasis on peace, meditation, and the need to be in an altered state of consciousness. Probably the most obvious thematic plot line is that of man’s treatment of animals and animal rights. By making the Ohms look and act like us, I was made to empathize strongly with animals, as pets as well as pests.
“Fantastic Planet”, while very basic and minimalistic in its design, is a fascinating movie that has a social conscience and is a must see for all fans of mature animation. Both as an artistic medium and as a vehicle promoting real political and social concerns that face society even today.
1001 Movies before you die 