Fantastic Planet (La Planete sauvage). René Laloux, 1973.
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Edition screened: Eureka! Masters of Cinema Blu-ray #006, released 2006. French language with English subtitles, or alternate English audio track. Runtime approximately 72 minutes.
Summary: Animated depictions of fantasy animals hurting or killing other fantasy animals.
The art style of Fantastic Planet is lovely and I can’t argue with the didactic themes. But the indebtedness to fantastic creatures popularized five years earlier in Yellow Submarine compromises Laloux’s work. Laloux was an accomplished animator by the time he made Fantastic Planet and surely could have conceived psychedelic beasts that were not visually interchangeable with Countdown Clowns, Snapping-Turtle Turks, and the Vacuum Cleaner Monster. Most distracting is the huge blue hand that comes from above to oppress with its extended index finger. … I’ve told you before, Oh! You can’t do that! Not in 1973 at least.
Masters of Cinema also gives us five Laloux animated shorts on the disc:
Monkey’s Teeth (1960)
Dead Times (1965)
The Snails (1966)
How Wang-Fô Was Saved (1987)
The Captive (1988)