I'm trying to remember...

[A l t e r E g o 9]

A movie named Forbidden Planet (<I think) but it's not the Forbidden Planet you're probably thinking of.

 

It was an animated film; unseen "gods" ruled over a planet of people by placing collars on their necks and making them compete in games of combat to the death.

 

Now you're probably thinking I must mean TOS episode The Gamesters of Triskelion but that is the Trek connection. I believe that TOS episode may have been based on the mystery films story.

 

I've searched the net with keywords Forbidden Planet but the classic film is all I get hits on...

[DrWho42 13]

Alter_ego, I believe you are referring unto the 1973 foreign film of "The Fantastic Planet"...

Long time since I have seen that movie... Good animation, I thought. :(

 

I like the movie, though it's been awhile since I have seen it.

Edited September 27, 2004 by drwho42

[A l t e r E g o 9]

Alter_ego, I believe you are referring unto the 1973 foreign film of "The Fantastic Planet"...

Long time since I have seen that movie... Good animation, I thought. :(

 

I like the movie, though it's been awhile since I have seen it.

266883[/snapback]

 

:( That's it! Thank you Dr.Who! I gotta get that one...

[DrWho42 13]

Your very welcome, AE. :( :blink:

 

:( It's from the countries of Czechoslovakia and France...

Good to know my watching obscure movies would have helped me (and others) in some way today.

Edited September 27, 2004 by drwho42

[A l t e r E g o 9]

Thanks for the extra information. :( with as much tripe as Hollywood puts out these days you gotta go obscure in order to see something interesting. :wink2:

 

 

 

Click For Spoiler

Review by Tasha Robinson

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

n the planet Ygam, a race of detached, intellectual blue giants called Traags live in abstracted peace. They spend much of their time meditating, sending their consciousnesses sailing over their planet's surface in colorful bubbles. They merge and distort their bodies in a ritual called "Imagination." They acquire their race's collected knowledge through a mental induction device, ensuring that even their young children quickly become remote geniuses. Their world contains cruel predators, but little seems to touch the aloof Traags.

 

 

As a society, their only enduring problem seems to be the presence of a race they call Oms, a species of tiny pink-skinned bipeds brought back to Ygam as pets after a trip to a planet called Terra. Oms have a tendency to escape and breed in the wild at an alarming rate, and they steal food and destroy property. Frequent "de-Oming" runs are necessary to keep the population down, and some Traags debate the wisdom of keeping Oms as pets at all--back on Terra, they show signs of organized life, and it's possible they may even be intelligent.

 

One Om, a boy named Terr, proves the point by escaping his owner and bringing a knowledge-induction device to the wild Oms of a local park. As they learn to read Traag language and use Traag technology, their society begins to change and mature from a near-Neanderthal tribal state into a more cohesive group that might actually challenge the Traags. But the Traags, appalled at the Oms' increasing numbers, are considering wiping out the entire species once and for all.

 

Striking art, hidden defiance

 

French animator René LaLoux' first feature film, produced in Prague's Jiri Trnka Studios, is widely regarded as a metaphor for the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia. The story is based on Stefan Wul's novel Oms En Serie (Oms By the Dozen), but the symbolism of a powerful technological culture subduing a (literally) smaller one, then thoughtlessly underestimating and abusing its people, is clearly nonspecific enough to apply to almost any situation of political inequity. As an act of political defiance, it's fairly vague, though considering its broad call for mass education and overthrowing the ruling class, it's surprising the Communists allowed it to be produced at all. (It was a struggle; the film eventually had to be completed with French financing.)

 

As pure art, Fantastic Planet is visually stunning, but lethargic and emotionally distanced. The animation--paper cutouts moving over painted backdrops--is reminiscent of Terry Gilliam's concurrent Monty Python work in style and depth. Heavy crosshatched shadows, muted colors, and lovingly detailed artistic design give the images a complex, weighty three-dimensionality. The imaginative wildlife and the Traags' society of psychedelic introspection seem like nods to 1968's Yellow Submarine and the art of the '60s drug-culture underground in general.

 

There are a few notable flaws in this production--the light blue subtitles are sometimes impossible to read, and the sluggish, though thoughtful, pacing is occasionally aggravating. But the intelligence, talent and care that went into producing this film are unmistakable, and doubtless these, rather than its political message, were what led Fantastic Planet to win the Special Grand Prize at Cannes in 1973.

 

This edition also includes three animated LaLoux shorts from the 1960s--Monkey's Teeth, a slow and ugly fairy tale based on the drawings of inmates at a psychiatric clinic where LaLoux worked; Dead Times, a striking surrealistic indictment of humanity's murderous impulses; and The Snails, a creepy but funny story of nature gone wrong. -- Tasha

[BakulaBabe 2]

OMG, I love that movie! :( I've only seen it once, and now that I (finally) know the title, I can look for it. Thanks, drwho42! :(

[scaleman 0]

Whoa :(, i saw this a while back on PBS and completely forgot about it (and never knew of it's hidden meaning either :( ). I was rather surprised to see it back then because it had a fair amount of nudity in it (although it WAS on during the midnight kinda time, this was STILL PBS).

 

Nice to get a reminder of it, it was a neat movie (even if i didn't know nor get the meaning).