Fantastic Planet

René Laloux's mesmerising psychedelic sci-fi animated feature won the Grand Prix at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival and is a landmark of European animation.

This year we are delighted to present two cult animated features by director René Laloux, Fantastic Planet and Time Masters (which is newly restored in 4K). Nothing else has ever looked or felt like Laloux’s surreal animated marvel Fantastic Planet, a politically minded and visually inventive work of science fiction, with a brilliant psychedelic jazz score by Alain Goraguer. The film is set on a distant planet called Ygam, where enslaved humans (Oms) are the playthings of giant blue native inhabitants (Draags). After Terr, kept as a pet since infancy, escapes from his gigantic child captor, he is swept up by a band of radical fellow Oms who are resisting the Draags’ oppression and violence. 

“Although the visuals are worth the ticket alone, Fantastic Planet also crackles with emotional and political resonance.” – Gary Dauphin, Village Voice