Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Subscribe to Criterion: youtube.com/channel/UCAP57cF-FSjJKzzXg7ntPlQ?sub_confirmation=1
Watch René Laloux’s animated masterwork FANTASTIC PLANET (1973)–plus two of Laloux’s short films, and a documentary on the filmmaker–on Criterion's streaming service, The Criterion Channel: criterionchannel.com/fantastic-planet
And order Criterion's Blu-ray release of FANTASTIC PLANET–picked here by Danny in the Criterion Closet–from criterion.com: criterion.com/films/28636-fantastic-planet
Watch the trailer of the new restoration of Laloux’s final feature, GANDAHAR (1987), which is coming to theaters August 28! youtube.com/watch?v=u55roqzrOwQ
Danny McBride’s full Closet Picks: youtu.be/ZCxYGx6ueNM
*About _Fantastic Planet_*
Nothing else has ever looked or felt like director René Laloux’s animated marvel _Fantastic Planet,_ a politically minded and visually inventive work of science fiction. The film is set on a distant planet called Ygam, where enslaved humans (Oms) are the playthings of giant blue native inhabitants (Draags). After Terr, kept as a pet since infancy, escapes from his gigantic child captor, he is swept up by a band of radical fellow Oms who are resisting the Draags’ oppression and violence. With its eerie, coolly surreal cutout animation by Roland Topor; brilliant psychedelic jazz score by Alain Goraguer; and wondrous creatures and landscapes, this Cannes-awarded 1973 counterculture classic is a perennially compelling statement against conformity and violence.
Subscribe to Criterion: youtube.com/channel/UCAP57cF-FSjJKzzXg7ntPlQ?sub_confirmation=1
Watch René Laloux’s animated masterwork FANTASTIC PLANET (1973)–plus two of Laloux’s short films, and a documentary on the filmmaker–on Criterion's streaming service, The Criterion Channel: criterionchannel.com/fantastic-planet
And order Criterion's Blu-ray release of FANTASTIC PLANET–picked here by Danny in the Criterion Closet–from criterion.com: criterion.com/films/28636-fantastic-planet
Watch the trailer of the new restoration of Laloux’s final feature, GANDAHAR (1987), which is coming to theaters August 28! youtube.com/watch?v=u55roqzrOwQ
Danny McBride’s full Closet Picks: youtu.be/ZCxYGx6ueNM
*About _Fantastic Planet_*
Nothing else has ever looked or felt like director René Laloux’s animated marvel _Fantastic Planet,_ a politically minded and visually inventive work of science fiction. The film is set on a distant planet called Ygam, where enslaved humans (Oms) are the playthings of giant blue native inhabitants (Draags). After Terr, kept as a pet since infancy, escapes from his gigantic child captor, he is swept up by a band of radical fellow Oms who are resisting the Draags’ oppression and violence. With its eerie, coolly surreal cutout animation by Roland Topor; brilliant psychedelic jazz score by Alain Goraguer; and wondrous creatures and landscapes, this Cannes-awarded 1973 counterculture classic is a perennially compelling statement against conformity and violence.
