I watched this movie for what must have been the third or fourth time. The last time I saw it was a long time ago ( and probably over a thousand films ago ), so I remembered little, besides its crazy visuals and having seen fragments of it one time in a hipster bar in Madrid, back in 2009.
What struck me this time, is the role meditation plays in this story. I didn't remember this at all. Probably because the previous time I gave it a watch I wasn't into meditation at all.
Anyhow, I just wanted to make this a short write up and let you know of the existence of this unique animated movie, that you should really give a watch, if you're into spirituality, meditation, sci-fi, animation, surrealism or just into atypical movies.
The animation itself is pretty static - especially compared to the smooth computer generated imagery that we're used to these days - and an hour and 10 minutes feels like a long sit - but the unique experience, its soundtrack and imaginative landscapes and creatures make up for all that. It's a piece of visual art.
The art sprouted from the mind of French allround creative Roland Topor, who worked on the story together with its director René Laloux. It's a Czech-French co-production, the animations were made in the former Czechoslovakia.
Other films that I would recommend from René Laloux are Les Maitres du Temps (Time Masters, 1982) and Gandahar (1987)
Go give this title a watch one day, if you haven't already.
More info on Fantastic Planet on Letterboxd
I watched this today on MUBI.com, a streaming platform focused on arthouse movies, festival films, as well as film classics. With my film studies background - and thus acquired 'film snob' taste - I prefer MUBI over Netflix. What I like a lot about this place, is that there's only 30 movies a time on there ( for a month each ). This takes away a lot of "what to watch now?" stress.
Both pictures are screenshots taken from MUBI and Letterboxd