Fantastic Planet (PG)
A jarring examination of racism and intolerance.
(Flash is loading. If this text does not disappear you need to install the latest flash version)
- Studio: Anchor Bay Entertainment
- Directed By: René Laloux
- Cast: Barry Bostwick
- Running Time: 72 minutes
- Release Date: 12/01/1973
- Video/DVD Release Date: 01/12/1999
- Genre: Fantasy
- MPAA Rating: PG
- MPAA Explanation: Parental Guidance Suggested
Parents need to know
Families can talk about why the filmmaker chose to animate such a weighty film when people tend to associate cartoons with children's shows and humor. Can you think of other comics are cartoons that are for more mature audiences?
Message
Social Behavior:
A dominant race of blue-skinned giants embards on genocide when the slave race rebels.
Consumerism:
Drugs/Alcohol/Tobacco:
Violence
In the style of fantasy violence, alien creatures eat each other, humans get stomped on by much larger aliens and are killed by alien contraptions. A human casually kills an animal with a knife. Some scenes show large groups of people killed en masse.
Sex
Characters appear in various degrees of nudity. In the film's strangest moment, we see how the Tragg race mates. Their mental forms (depicted as bubbles with a Tragg inside) attach themselves to the necks of headless nude statues, which then proceed to dance with one another!
Language
Common Sense says
What's the story?
Reviewed by Paul Trandahl
Is it any good?
In keeping with the serious themes, much of the imagery has an unsettling impact, particularly scenes in which the giant blue-skinned Traggs (whose faces subtly resemble human skulls) embark on a zero-tolerance policy and attempt to wipe out the humanoid Oms. The movie's focus on ideas and images, rather than on characterization, gives the story a cold, emotionless feel. We follow the main character Terr, but we never really get to know him, just that he wants to end the tyranny of the Traggs. Still, Fantastic Planet makes for some interesting viewing.
Other choices
|
Parents and kids say



