La planète sauvage [Fantastic Planet] (1973)

(On Cable TV, August 2021) I am aware that La planète sauvage is widely hailed (as per Wikipedia) as a Science Fiction classic, an alternative animation landmark, a strongly allegorical counter-culture reference and all sorts of superlative monikers. But for someone who grew up reading metric tons of written SF, it feels like a naïve, blunt, ugly piece of psychedelia with little internal coherency and even less real-world relevance. Adapted from a 1957 Stefan Wul novel by writer-director René Laloux, La planète sauvage feels like baby’s first conceptual breakthrough SF allegory, obvious to the point of exasperation. Consider for yourselves: It’s about humans living on a world dominated by blue giants —Traags-—that usually regard humans as pests, with the exception of a curious youngster who takes on a baby human as a pet after the mother is killed by three young Traags playing at “boys will be boys.” The plot develops once the human escapes and rejoins fellow humans trying to mount a resistance to be considered as equals. So that’s one thing. The other is the animation, taking place almost exclusively on a 2D plane. It’s clearly meant to be stylized, but it’s ugly to the point of repulsion — it takes a special kind of aesthetic to find any of it beautiful, and when combined with the naïve script, it doesn’t leave much space for any kind of affection for the result. I can see why La planète sauvage was such a critical hit in the 1970s, but these days… it’s best seen as a historical curiosity.