“Fantastic Planet” (1973)

Whatever claims that can be made about this 1973 French Czechoslovakian co-production as a piece of ground breaking animation arguably should take a back seat to an appreciation of it as one of the great science fiction films.  At 68 minutes it is only marginally a feature and this would be my only substantial criticism: the shortness of its length, particularly a truncated conclusion which almost suggests its makers ran out of money.

Based on a novel by the Gallic writer Stefan Wul, Fantastic Planet has some parallels with both Gulliver’s Travels and Planet of the Apes.  Its world is populated by two distinct species: the giant, blue tinted Draags and the tiny by comparison humanoids, known as Oms.  Oms are seen as vermin, as something akin to rats in that whilst tolerated as pets their wild colonies are periodically culled.  Little do the Draags suspect that the Oms have an intelligence potential equal to their own; when one domestic steals an educational device it leads to upskilling and revolution.

Buried deep within Fantastic Planet is an allegory about the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.  It is no Animal Farm though: much as in the animations of the Japanese master Hayao Miyazaki, which it anticipates, the fictional universe takes precedence over contemporary politics and there is no danger of Orwellian didacticism.  Few films, drawn or otherwise, present such a range of philosophical and intellectual ideas or live up to the potential of a so often disappointing genre.