Fantastic Planet



Fantastic Planet (French: La planète sauvage) Is an animated French science fiction film directed by the Frenchman René Laloux. It is today one of the great classics of European animation. Through a science fiction story, the film immerses us in the drama of two societies facing each other, through oppression, and in the uncertain destiny that they face, driven to their own destruction.

To emphasize, besides the plot, the striking aesthetic that presents, heiress of the canons of the time and the place in which it was created.

It was a film co-produced by France and Czechoslovakia and distributed in the United States by Roger Corman. He won the special jury prize at the International Cannes Film Festival in 1973. The story is based on the French novelist Stefan Wul's "Oms en série".

Summary (with spoilers)
The film shows a future in which humans, called "Oms" (invented word derived from the French "hommes", men), have been taken to the planet of the Draags (giants), where they are kept as pets (with collar). The Draags are an extraterrestrial race with humanoid form, but much older, with blue skin, ears like fish fins and huge red eyes. The Draag live much longer than humans - one week Draag is equivalent to 15 human years. Some Oms have been domesticated as pets, but others run wild and are exterminated periodically. The Draags' treatment of humans contrasts with their high level of technological and spiritual development.

The story begins with a woman running: from time to time, look back as if persecuted. A huge hand descends and blocks its way. She runs to the other side, and finds the road blocked by another hand; It is understood then that it is being used as a toy by an entity that does not understand the fragility of it. When the woman dies, the child she was trying to protect starts to cry.

The sight goes away to let us see the Draag children, who have accidentally killed the woman; they quickly move away when an adult and a Draag girl approach. Newcomers deliberate on what to do with the orphaned human child, and both take him home. Tiva (the girl Draag) gives the human child the name of Terr (a play on words that in French lead to the idea of terrible and Earth).

From that moment of the film, the voice of the adult Terr tells the story. Tiva's father, Master Sinh, places Terr on a collar that can control his location and bring him back when he walks away. The relationship between Terr and Tiva is developed in the following scenes.

Terr watches Tiva's parents feed themselves by inhaling food from a contraption. In another scene, Tiva changes clothes to Terr as if it were a doll. Tiva uses makeup to give herself a human appearance. When Terr changes the clear makeup to a dark one, Tiva blows some makeup on it. Tiva uses a small artificial cloud to make a small storm on Terr. Tiva takes Terr to walk, and then teaches him how, under certain circumstances, crystals form on static objects, including stopped feet. She also teaches him that whistling will break the crystals. The voice of the adult Terr relates how other Draag children have Oms as pets and the Draag meditation rituals.

Tiva's education is managed by hearing aids that transmit knowledge directly to your brain. As she enjoys having Terr in her hand while taking her lessons, Terr begins to acquire knowledge.

Meanwhile, at the seat of government, the Draag Council discusses the regulation of the extermination of Wild Oms or whether it is only necessary to keep them in an acceptable number. It is revealed that the Oms were found on a planet that showed evidence of civilized life, but the images also show that the Earth was in a postapocalyptic state.

Terr decides to escape, and takes the headphones. He did not go very far when Tiva discovers that he is not and his mother tells him to wear the bracelet to bring him back; Tiva refuses at first for fear of hurting her. Terr is aided by a wild Om when he is dragged by the collar.

Terr explains that hearing aids contain the knowledge of the Draag, but they do not know where to go. The woman offers to take him to his tribe, who lives in a fenced park. When Terr demonstrates that he can read the Draag script, the leader accepts Terr in the tribe; But the magician does not, and demands that he participate in a tribal combat to the death. Terr manages to win the strange combat.

The following scenes show how the Oms have adapted to life on the planet. Small snails weave clothes over the body of the Oms. Predators are removed and used as food. The Oms make occasional expeditions into the Draag areas to stock up. Returning from one of those expeditions, they are stolen by bandits Oms. The leader of the tribe explains to Terr that the bandits live on the other side of the park and that they are evil.

When the literate Oms read on the walls of the park that it is going to be demolished, Terr decides to take this information to the bandit tribe of that park. As he approaches, he is captured and taken before his leader and an elderly and wise woman.

The woman does not believe what Terr says. Terr is bound and abandoned. But when the process of demobilization begins, the old woman returns and releases it. The decommissioning is done by throwing disks that release poisonous gas. Many Oms perish by the gas, but a good amount escapes through a hole in the wall of the park.

Two Draags observe the escape of the Oms and begin to tread them. The Oms counterattack and manage to neutralize and kill a Draag. In the struggle the tribal leader dies, then the wise old lady takes the lead and leads the surviving Oms to a safe place. The Draag's death puts the Draag council in trouble. Decommissioning becomes a more important issue and is carried out with better technologies and increases the frequency with which it takes place.

The old woman has taken the Oms to a warehouse of abandoned rockets. Applying the knowledge they have acquired, the Oms, under the direction of Terr, quickly adapt technologies abandoned for their purposes and begin to thrive thanks to the rebirth of a mechanized industry. In a visit to the old woman, Terr and the woman who rescued him hear of her optimism as well as her sadness for not seeing the Oms reach an era of peace.

When the Draag try to unmake the rocket deposit they do not succeed, since the Oms have built shelters. As the attacks diversify and become more effective, the Oms launch their rockets into the Wild Planet. In that place they discover statues without head to which arrive the bubbles that create Draag when meditating; the statues dance. Each bubble coupled fulfills the function of giving vital energy to the Draag and facilitating the nuptial rites between Draags and beings of other planets. As the feet of the statues threaten to destroy the ships with their dance, the Oms throw lightning destroying the statues. It is then that the massacre of Oms stops and the Council of Draags decides to look for the way both races live in peace.

In the final scene, this story is being told through hearing aids as part of the Draag knowledge, where they call Terr "the one who saved the Oms."

Trivia

 * This film is extravagant even by today's standards (in all its aspects: visual, musical, literal).
 * It was one of the works that inspired Karbo.
 * Courage, the Cowardly Dog - SE3-EP07b was a tribute to this film.
 * A saga in GANTZ treats about giants who capture human as pets. Oku Hiroshi was inspired by this film in this saga.

Source

 * "La Planète Sauvage", una rareza de la animación: http://www.morbidofest.com/archivos/21513