Max’s Drive-In Movie – Fantastic Planet

Fantastic Planet Header

We will take a short break from the Christmas posts. 

This is the first animation that I’ve featured on my Drive-In movie series. This is not The Flintstones, The Simpsons, or anything close to normal. I mean that as a compliment…the visual of this movie is fantastic…no pun intended. 

In 2012 I was sick with the flu and it was around midnight. I had nothing to do so I remembered a movie that a co-worker wanted me to watch. It was the 1973 movie Fantastic Planet and I was blown away. Bailey, my son, came into the room and asked me what I was watching. He started to watch and couldn’t believe the animation and what it was all about. He was 12 at the time and I was amazed as well. I’ve never seen anything like this movie before or since. I still watch it from time to time and I find things in the film I missed before. 

Fantastic Planet (original French title: La Planète Sauvage) is a 1973 French-Czech animated science fiction film directed by René Laloux. The film is known for its surreal, dreamlike visuals and its hidden meanings, which explore themes of oppression, freedom, and coexistence. It’s based on Stefan Wul’s 1957 novel Oms en série, the film became a cult classic, especially in the science fiction and animation communities.

I’ve read some about the making of this movie. The film uses cut-out animation (a form of stop-motion animation using flat characters, props, and backgrounds cut from materials such as paper, cards, stiff fabric, or photographs. The props would be cut out and used as puppets for stop motion. ), a labor-intensive method that gives the movie a distinct, dreamy feel. The style was heavily influenced by Roland Topor, a French artist and writer known for his surrealist work, who also co-wrote the screenplay and designed much of the film’s visual style.

It’s very hard to describe this movie or try to put it in words. You would have to watch it yourself. The full French version of the movie is at the bottom, underneath the trailer.  Unfortunately there are no english subtitles. My son Bailey now teaches classes at college for his Master’s degree, and he took this movie to show his class. He said they were amazed and lost. They wanted to know more about it, and many said they had never seen anything remotely like it before. 

If you are looking for something different…give this a try because it fits that description totally. I think you will be amazed at the animation they used. You also have a very seventies soundtrack which only heightens it to me. 

Plot

The film is set on the planet Ygam, where giant blue humanoid aliens known as Draags dominate the planet and keep human-like creatures, called Oms, as pets. Oms are treated as inferior beings, with some Draags experimenting on them or exterminating wild Oms who resist control. Then, an Om boy becomes educated, thanks to a young female Draag. This leads to an Om rebellion, which weakens the Draag control over their race. Will the Oms and the Draags find a way to coexist?

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

25 thoughts on “Max’s Drive-In Movie – Fantastic Planet”

  1. I am going to watch it, if it’s findable. The French do some weird movies, after all, they gave us Cirque Soli and that unwatchable Olympic debacle. I’m an old school fan of real animation, not the AI stuff we have today, although some of it is uncanny real. My small town of Granbury has one of the few remaining Drive-Inn’s in the US. They recently upgraded the projector to digital and we now receive the movie sound on our car radio, no if they can figure out a way to control the skeeter’s. Good post, Max.

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    2. Thanks Phil! We have a drive-in around an hour away from us. We have gone a few times and yea the sound comes through the car radio. The place has 4 different screens so it is huge.
      This film is odd…and I can’t even imagine the pain they went through to make it.

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    1. Yea I messed up there…I saw it and thought cool….I can’t believe I didn’t check it…sorry about that…I’ll put that…but at least people will see some of the artwork

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