An Evening of Vintage Experimental Animated Science Fiction: Fantastic Planet b/w “Mars and Beyond”

FANTASTIC PLANET (La Planète Sauvage) (1973): Those who stuck around some after KISS last time saw the first minute or so of this one, and a trailer, and thus know some of what to expect; others may remember the trailer when I showed it before TRON in the spring. Regardless, the rather deadpan preview doesn’t quite prepare the first-time viewer for this one. This is the first full-length film from French science fiction animator René Laloux (who would go on to make the films Time Masters and Light Years before dying a few years ago), in collaboration with French cartoonist Roland Topor (the French Ralph Steadman, collaborator with Laloux on “The Snails,” also shown last time, as well as the force behind the infamous Marquis). Fantastic Planet is often called a political allegory (about the Russians invading Czechoslavakia in 1968), though it’s best remembered for its surreal, almost hallucinatory visuals and attention to zoological detail, as well as its both ethereal and break-ready soundtrack. This is one of the few science fiction films out there that lives up to the high bar set by its print counterparts.

Here’s how Anchor Bay’s release from a few years ago describes the film:

“Winner of the 1973 Cannes Film Festival Grand Prix Award, Fantastic Planet is an allegorical tale about the struggle for freedom of a race of humanoid creatures called Oms. The Oms live on the far away planet of Ygam, ruled by a society of blue-skinned giants called Draags, who keep the Oms as domesticated pets for their children. But when [an Om named Terr] manages to escape with a Draag knowledge device, he unites a society of wild Oms to use the knowledge and revolt against their exploitative treatment.”

to be preceded by:

“Mars and Beyond” (1957): Originally aired in 1957 as part of the quasi-educational “Man in Space” series on the Disneyland TV show (later the Wonderful World of Disney), this segment contains both serious “educational” content, and more wheimiscal slapstick material. Of particular interest is that the program is almost entirely (and quite lushly!) animated — in styles ranging from the comical, to deco-abstract, to pulp-magazine glossy, and most stops in between. This one’s a real treat. Directed by Ward Kimball, the Chuck Jones of the Disney studio. Watch for the cameo from everyone’s favorite Nazi rocket scientist himself, Werner von Braun!

An Evening of Film About Being Trapped in Video Games: TRON b/w “Bishop of Battle”

TRON (1982): The geek-friendly early ’80s Disney space opera set inside a computer takes on a rather different light twenty five years on, and after the advent of the internet. What movie can go wrong with David Warner as the villain? If you haven’t seen this since your age was in single digits, you deserve to give it another chance.

to be preceded by

“The Bishop of Battle” (1984): This is a segment of the mid-’80s anthology horror movie Nightmares. It stars a pre-Breakfast Club Emilio Estevez as an apathetic punk with a video game jones. This is one you likely haven’t seen, but that makes a natural bookend with the feature.