Underplayed Gems

Fantastic Planet (1973)

Fantastic Planet poster
Original title
La Planète sauvage
Directed by
René Laloux
Genre
science fiction film, arthouse science fiction film, adult animated film
Country
Czechoslovakia, France
Runtime
1h 12m
Rated
PG
Rating
7.6 of 10 from 1,109 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

More films like thisWatch the trailer

or watch the trailer on YouTube

How it feels

Giant humanoid aliens keep tiny humans as pets and pests on a strange planet. The story follows a small human who learns from the aliens and leads an uprising for freedom.

surrealdreamlikeunsettlingslow-burncerebralvisually lushbleakalienating

What happens

Fantastic Planet (French: La Planète Sauvage; Czech: Divoká planeta, lit. 'The Wild Planet') is a 1973 surrealist adult animated science fiction art film directed by René Laloux. Its allegorical story, about humans living on a strange planet dominated by giant humanoid aliens who consider them animals, is based on the 1957 novel Oms en série by the French writer Stefan Wul. The film was written by Laloux and Roland Topor; the latter also made the production design. It was a co-production between companies from France and Czechoslovakia and was animated at Jiří Trnka Studio in Prague. A working title while in development was Sur la planète Ygam (On the Planet Ygam), which is where most of the story takes place; the actual title (The Fantastic/Savage Planet) is the name of Ygam's moon. Production began in 1963. Fantastic Planet was awarded the Grand Prix special jury prize at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival, and in 2016, it was ranked the 36th greatest animated movie ever by Rolling Stone. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

This page is from Underplayed Gems. Not quite it? You can browse by genre, country and year, or take this one into the 3D catalogue and ask the Catbot for something closer.