FANTASTIC PLANET

You are forgiven if you think I am speaking of our own Earth when I title this piece, "Fantastic Planet". What I am in fact referring to is the 1973 animated fantasy film directed by Rene Laloux and produced in Czechoslovakia. I first saw this jewel back in 1977 on late night television. My admiration for Fantastic Planet started then and has continued unabated. A few years ago it was released on DVD in wide screen format. It was nice to see the film the way it would have played in theatres. On this particular DVD were both the North American dubbed release (as brought over by Roger Corman and his New World Pictures outfit) and the original French language version, La Planete sauvage. Even though language translation over-dubbing of movies is often nothing short of noxious, I admit that it is well done in this case -- animated film, maybe? (There are some recognizable voices, too.)

Much of Planet's success comes from the pen and paintbrush of French surrealist Roland Topor. He essentially produces a graphic nightmare; or at least the kind of dream you might have after downing a bad Big Mac before hitting the hay.

My "public domain" VHS copy got a play last night and... my opinion has not changed. Time to get the DVD wide-screen copy. I am not an avid collector of DVDs since I would rather save the money and rent, instead. But Fantastic Planet is one of those few which is exempt: I could watch it more than enough times it would take to pay off the DVD purchase price.

Here is the North American release trailer for Fantastic Planet...
http://youtube.com/watch?v=SgCxCZNkQ9E