MAN, WHAT A DRAAG!
(A Visit to the Fantastic Planet)

by Dr. Abner Mality

I'll be the first to admit it, I like cartoons. Always have, since my days as a pre-school mad scientist. Some of my first memories were of "Felix the Cat", the 60's "Spiderman" and those wonderfully primtive Grant-Ray Marvel adaptations of Thor, Sub-Mariner, Hulk and Captain America. I also zoned out for the incredibly violent Hanna-Barbera stuff like the original "Space Ghost", "Herculoids" and more.

I am really sick of the state of animation today. Technically, it's advanced a million times from the days of my childhood, but I liked the rawness and easy simplicity of the 60's and 70's stuff. And I would much rather see Warner Brothers' Looney Toons than the more restrained and less smart-ass Disney stuff.

Nowadays, the old 2-D animation is on its deathbed, to be replaced by computerized Pixar junk like "Shark Tale" and "Ice Age". Ho-hum. Porky and Daffy would have Shrek and his pet jackass on their knees crying for mercy in less than five minutes. And if you do see 2-D animation, it's Japanese anime, which has infested and destroyed good American cartoons like a foreign-born plague. Aren't you so sick of seeing big-eyed spike-haired clone characters yelling and screaming at the top of their lungs while "speed lines" zip in the background? Yeah, me,too.

Therefore, a trip to "Fantastic Planet" is in order to remind us just how creative and ground-breaking animation could be. This trippy SF movie was a French-Czech collaboration of the early 70's and presented us with a world of acid-drenched surrealism to accompany its tale of cosmic oppression. The French have always been ahead of the curve on animation, predating Japan's fascination with adult anime by more than a decade. They were the primary inspiration for the infamous "Heavy Metal" graphic magazine and produced great artists like Mobius.
"Fantastic Planet" was mostly conceived by French director Rene Laloux, who had already done ground-breaking animation like "The Snails", and Czech-born Roland Topor, who wrote the story for Roman Polanski's dark fable "The Tenant". These two fellows left nothing on the table for "Fantastic Planet"...it was an epic tale of human-alien confrontation set in one of the most bizarre and dream-like landscapes even seen in any kind of film, much less animation. A lot of folks have joked that Laloux and Topor and their animators must have been tripping on mushrooms and other lysergic delights while working on the movie. Well, I can't disagree, it has a completely unique look that merges the surrealism of Escher and Dali with more classical influences like Renaissance and Victorian-era artists. Weird creatures and landscapes abound and the movie often acts as a travelogue of the Fantastic Planet more than a direct narrative.

Remember, too, that "Fantastic Planet" was released at the tail end of the Great Psychedelic Age, when movies like Disney's "Fantasia" and Kubrick's "2001" were actively pitched at LSD-crazed youth. No doubt that was one of the target audiences for the film in America, once Roger Corman acquired it for his New World Pictures. This is a movie where you can dispense with narrative (though the story is quite strong and coherent) and just enjoy the psychotronic imagery that scampers across the screen.

And what exactly is the story behind that imagery? Only one way to find out. Let's head to the Fantastic Planet...

Actually, we head first to Yaan, the giant moon that circles Fantastic Planet. It is here that most of our story takes place. Yaan is home to the Draags...enormous blue skinned humanoids with staring red eyes. The Draags, standing forty feet tall at full size, have created a peaceful and impressive civilization, one without conflict and where a great deal of time is devoted to powerful meditation. The Draags are calm and placid for the most part, but one of their enjoyments are the tiny creatures called Oms, which they often make into pets.

If you're an Om, though, things are not so enjoyable. For Oms are human beings, somehow transported to Yaan after the destruction of their ancient homeworld, Terra.

The Oms live in the wilds of Yaan, barely above the level of beasts, unable to read and write and definitely unable to communicate with the gigantic Draags. The Draags periodically capture wild Oms and domesticate them as pets.

Such a fate befalls Terr, an infant Om boy whose mother is accidentally killed by Draags playing a game. The Draag girl Tiva decides to adopt Terr as a pet. And so Terr is raised almost as a tame monkey, dressed in silly outfits and made to perform tricks. But unlike other domesticated Oms, Terr has a keen eye...and a thirst for freedom.

One day, Terr manages to escape the collar that keeps him a pet and makes a break for it This would ordinarily not be of concern, but Terr takes with him a "teacher"...a headset that is used to impart all the knowledge of the Draags to young Draag students. Terr uses the teacher to learn how to read and write as well as all the intricacies of Draag society. He is now the most educated Om on Yaan.

That may not do him much good, though, as he finds himself in a brutal and bizarre landscape full of monstrous creatures and deadly traps. He is soon taken prisoner by a band of wild Oms, who live in a primtive tribal state within a gigantic tree. In one of the most unforgettable scenes, Terr is forced to duel for his life with another Om. Both men have ravenous worms with huge jaws strapped to their bodies...the man who maneuvers his worm to kill his opponent is the victor. Through luck more than anything else, Terr wins his duel and finds his place amongst the Tribe of the Great Tree. He shares the wisdom of the "teacher" with the Tribe and they, too, learn the secrets of the Draags.

Meanwhile, conservative elements within the Draag society call for the elimination of the wild Oms...or "de-omization", as they name it. The Oms are now looked on as dangerous, thieving pests. A confrontation between Draags and Oms results in many Om casualties, but also in the unthinkable death of a Draag. The overlords of Yaan decide to proceed with their program of genocide, despite the voices of moderates who want to communicate with the Oms.

Terr and his band of Oms stumble upon an abandoned Draag spaceship facility. Using knowledge acquired from the teacher, they build spaceships so they can escape from Yaan and head directly to the Fantastic Planet...the mysterious giant world hanging in the sky. Barely escaping the de-omization procedure, Terr and his band of rebels land on the Fantastic Planet...only to discover the true secret of the Draags, a secret which may give the Oms the upper hand in their war for freedom!

Now any more than that, you'll have to find out for yourself. Suffice it to say, "Fantastic Planet" was released in America at a time when almost literally no one was ready for such a complex, adult cartoon. Movies like "2001" and "Five Million Years to Earth" were opening minds to a new vision of SF, but an animated feature that offered full frontal nudity, visions of genocide and druggy surrealism was destined to become nothing more than a cult obscurity. And so the movie has remained for more than 30 years.

You'll notice I mention nudity above. Yes, there's actually quite a bit of it in "Fantastic Planet"...nudity but no sex. The Oms are often shown in the buff, which is fitting considering their status as pets amongst the Draags. What's suprising is the unflinching and unexploitative way it is shown. Full frontal male nudity is seen a couple of times, even from our hero Terr. Even today, that's a taboo. The movie could have went the sleazy route and played the nudity for titillation but refused to. An elderly female Om is shown in pretty unflattering detail. That sort of stark approach is a plus for me.

Violence also plays a part in "Fantastic Planet". The movie opens as Terr's mother is cruelly tracked down and toyed with by Draag children, resulting in her death. The process of "de-omization" not only resembles animals being fumigated by poison gas, but uncomfortably resembles some of the techniques used by Nazi concentration camps. And when some Oms are stepped on by angry Draags, they strike back with brutal violence. But once again, the violence, like the nudity, is not lingered on. It is merely shown unapologetically.

Of course, the imagery itself is at the heart of any animated movie. Here the imagery is unlike anything seen before or since. Much of the movie takes place in long shots showing the tiny Oms in vast landscapes. Everything emphasizes the smallness of the Oms. A wild imagination went into the construction of Yaan and the Fantastic Planet...we see Terr engulfed by rapidly growing crystals that can be shattered by a whistle. We see a naked Terr being given new clothing by weird basketball-like creatures that literally spit a new wardrobe onto him. The Oms fleeing the genocide wander through a landscape of scissor-like monuments that violently snap open and close, a landscape of trees that snap like whips. The abandoned Draag facility is full of gigantic, incomprehensible machinery that dwarfs the tiny Oms in its midst.

The human figures are somewhat stiff and jerky but rendered in unusual style. Terr himself appears soft and feminine, almost looking like he came from a Reubens or Pre-Raphaelite painting. The Draags are even weirder, with their blue skin, blood-red giant eyes and clothes that look painted on. In one scene, meditating Draags literally start to blur and merge together until the spell is broken.

Despite it's memorability, the animation is not perfect. It often looks "frozen" and when characters move, it is not with any kind of grace or smoothness. Obviously more went into the actual look of the scenes than the movement that takes place within those scenes.

The story, too, seems curiously fragmented and I wonder if the version I saw was cut. The ending comes about very abruptly and feels like something is missing. Things resolve themselves too quickly and neatly to feel completely satisfactory. One almost gets the impression that Topor and Laloux were in a hurry to get the story over with and move on to other projects.

The movie is complimented by a very dated but curiously powerful soundtrack. The music throbs with more "waka-waka" early 70's funk guitar than a blaxploitation pic, filled out with flute and sax. It's a cliche "hippie" soundtrack to be sure, but it does seem to fit the action on the screen quite nicely and it's hard for me to imagine any other kind of music accompanying the action.

To sum it up, "Fantastic Planet" is a flawed but remarkable bit of work. Laloux and Topor were way, way ahead of their time with this attempt at adult SF in an animated format. I would definitely recommend it to anybody who's sick of the formulaic Disney and anime stuff that's been crammed down out throats the last 20 years. If you decide to enhance your viewing with chemicals, it probably wouldn't hurt the experience any.

Be careful,kids...one trip to the "Fantastic Planet" and you may never come down!

Many thanks to Gerry Carpenter of www.scifilm.org for his help with this project.