A strange new world weirdly unfolds in Fantastic Planet, Rene Laloux’s animated feature in which giant, blue, advanced aliens keep humans as pets (they’re relatively the size of mice). Employing an animation style that looks like paper-cut, watercolor sketches come to life, Laloux displays a vision that is equal parts Dr. Seuss, Yellow Submarine, and Fritz the Cat. (Aided by a Alain Goraguer score that could be described as French funk.) Unusual floras—spiky and undulating—pass before the “camera” to create a 3D effect; the Draags—the planet’s blue masters—wear spotted unitards that psychedelically change patterns when they engage in meditation; and the wild Oms—humans who have escaped their captors—partake in midnight mating rituals after ingesting glowing orbs. There is a narrative, in which we watch a captured baby Om grow up into something of a Moses figure (especially after he escapes and shares what he has learned about Draag culture with a community of Oms hiding in exile). What does it all mean? Perhaps it’s a consideration of the ethics of pets? Possibly, but Laloux, adapting a novel by Stefan Wul, seems mostly interested in presenting a series of loosely connected vignettes that allow us to explore a planet that is at once fantastic, captivating, and cruel.
(1/12/2023)
