Review of Fantastic Planet (1973) by Art S — 27 Sep 2011

French-Czech co-production which may or may not be an exceedingly weird allegory for the Soviet rule in Czechoslovakia last century. Using some sort of hand-painted cut-outs rather than usual animation techniques, Laloux and his team create a bizarre world of strangely shaped flora and fauna in muted colors wherein some very large blue creatures keep very small human-looking creatures as pets (and exterminate the feral ones as pests).

The proggy soundtrack helps but the denouement is far too rapid (after the slow, sociological build-up). Still this is out there enough to be worth it.