Rene Laloux’s weird and whacky ‘Fantastic Planet’ is showing at The Barbican, this March. An adaptation of Stephan Wul’s eponymous novel, back in the day the movie picked up the several awards including Cannes Special Jury Prize 1973. Often shown as a double bill alongside ye olde favourite ‘The Yellow Submarine’, the film lives up to its name, with action taking place on the planet Ygan, within a world habituated by bug-eyed, blue guys called Draags. These characters favour pet humans, AKA Oms (hommes, get it?); a taste that, unsurprisingly, leads to an uprising.
While this may all seem a little 'Planet of the Apes' meets evil 'ET' by way of Dali or May Ray, the movie is a classic, one relective of the times' political and economic climate. Mixing sixties notions together with seventies technologies, it's certainly got a certain something. And yes, OK, this may sound a little dated and cheesy now – but hey, laser jets, LCDs and, lipsuction, all came along in the seventies, as did the trusty cashpoint and Post It Note. Exactly.
Fantastic Planet (La planète sauvage) is showing at The Barbican, Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London EC2, on 29th March 2008.
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