FANTASTIC PLANET is Rene Laloux's bizarre, enthralling adaptation of Stefan Wul's allegorical science-fiction novel. The eye-popping underground sensation was also a critical success, winning awards at several prestigious film festivals (most notably, the Grand Prix in 1973 at Cannes). Set on the planet Ygam, the film depicts a world in which Draags--a gigantic race of blue alien beings--run the show. Their pets are human beings--or, as they are known in Laloux's world, Oms--who are mistreated by their devious owners. Fed up with the abuse, one Om organizes his brethren and stages a mutiny that will forever change life on Ygam.

Laloux's film blends 1960s ideologies with 1970s technology to create a work that profoundly impacted animators all over the world. In creating a troubled universe dominated by the soulless, conformist Draags, FANTASTIC PLANET rejects that notion and embraces the concept of individuality. A troubled political climate forced Laloux and fellow collaborator Roland Torpor (screenwriter of Roman Polanski's 1976 thriller THE TENANT) to relocate to Paris from Prague in order to finish the film. Fortunately, they were able to do so, leaving audiences with this startling animated achievement.