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820 Fantastic Planet
Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2016 10:09 pm
by swo17
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 natives (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.
SPECIAL FEATURES
• New, restored 4K digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Alternate English-language soundtrack
•
Les escargots (1966), an early short film by director René Laloux and illustrator Roland Topor
•
Laloux sauvage, a 2009 documentary on Laloux
•
Italiques: Roland Topor Special, a 1974 French television program on Topor's work
• Archival interviews
• Trailer
• New English subtitle translation
• PLUS: An essay by critic Michael Brooke
Re: 820 Fantastic Planet
Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2016 10:22 pm
by mfunk9786
WTG, MichaelB!
Re: 820 Fantastic Planet
Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2016 10:28 pm
by worriedfire
Not familiar with this one (should I be?) but I'm more than happy over Criterion putting out animated films.
Re: 820 Fantastic Planet
Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2016 10:39 pm
by knives
It's one of the most famous animated films to come out of Europe and Leloux is arguably the greatest animated feature director of all time. Master of Cinema in UK put it out previously, along with his two other features, but Criterion putting their weight behind this release is fairly good.
Re: 820 Fantastic Planet
Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2016 11:13 pm
by colinr0380
It's also the film that
Jennifer Lopez falls asleep to in The Cell, which felt a very apt reference in that context in providing some of the source material that her character is able to draw upon later in her dream world, suggesting that Fantastic Planet makes for fertile material for those with vivid imaginations and a slight anti-authoritarian streak!
Re: 820 Fantastic Planet
Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2016 11:31 pm
by Jeff
mfunk9786 wrote:WTG, MichaelB!
Michael, is this your Criterion debut?
Re: 820 Fantastic Planet
Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2016 1:49 am
by djproject
Saw this at the Brattle last October. Had a feeling it was going to get a spine number (and was hoping for a while it would).
Re: 820 Fantastic Planet
Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2016 4:10 am
by Lowry_Sam
Finally! People have been speculating about this one for more than a decade & it was assumed this would be Criterion's 1st animated feature. Unless the new transfer is radically improved, I'll probably stick w/ the MOC version as Criterion is only including one of the shorts.
Re: 820 Fantastic Planet
Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2016 5:11 am
by Zot!
Lowry_Sam wrote:Finally! People have been speculating about this one for more than a decade & it was assumed this would be Criterion's 1st animated feature. Unless the new transfer is radically improved, I'll probably stick w/ the MOC version as Criterion is only including one of the shorts.
ha, "finally... I can ignore this". They had released at least Akira previously.
Re: 820 Fantastic Planet
Posted: Sat Apr 16, 2016 10:45 pm
by dwk
Criterion has updated the specs on this: it is now from a "New 2K digital restoration" (not 4K as originally announced), they've added another short (Les temps morts), and the archival interviews is now "Interview with Topor from 1973." Here is how the special features are now listed on Criterion's site:
New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
Alternate English-language soundtrack
Les temps morts (1965) and Les escargots (1966), two early short films by director René Laloux and illustrator Roland Topor
Laloux sauvage, a 2009 documentary on Laloux
Episode of the French television program Italiques from 1974 about Topor’s work
Interview with Topor from 1973
Trailer
New English subtitle translation
PLUS: An essay by critic Michael Brooke
Re: 820 Fantastic Planet
Posted: Thu May 26, 2016 11:47 pm
by domino harvey
Re: 820 Fantastic Planet
Posted: Fri May 27, 2016 12:28 am
by Trees
Holy smokes. The restoration looks insanely good, comparing it to the previous versions. This film looks amazing.
knives wrote:It's one of the most famous animated films to come out of Europe and Leloux is arguably the greatest animated feature director of all time.
How do you think he compares to Miyazaki?
Re: 820 Fantastic Planet
Posted: Fri May 27, 2016 2:17 am
by knives
Not at all. Beyond working in animation, and they use the medium differently, they don't have much in common.
Re: 820 Fantastic Planet
Posted: Fri May 27, 2016 6:03 am
by tenia
It's, ahem, blue. Is it a Fox Deluxe restoration ? (* sarcasm *)
Re: 820 Fantastic Planet
Posted: Fri May 27, 2016 1:51 pm
by Cash Flagg
Pro-B's 5-star rave is doubtless being cut and pasted from his boilerplate review template as we speak! I see he is
already getting snippy about it.
Re: 820 Fantastic Planet
Posted: Fri May 27, 2016 1:58 pm
by CSM126
Cash Flagg wrote:Pro-B's 5-star rave is doubtless being cut and pasted from his boilerplate review template as we speak! I see he is
already getting snippy about it.
I love that he's aghast at someone for attacking a transfer that no one from the production was around to supervise, then turns around to attack the King Hu restos that were endorsed by people that were there. But he doesn't like them so they're automatically wrong.
This guy's hubris is an endless font. I'm kind of amazed Criterion haven't complained about this clueless schmuck reviewing all of their discs. If I were them I'd have stopped sending review copies.
Re: 820 Fantastic Planet
Posted: Fri May 27, 2016 2:38 pm
by tenia
Svet stopped doing more than PR announcements after the Thieves Highway debacle but it seems he resumed giving his personal feedback on blu-ray.com's boards since yesterday.
On the other end, Arrow titles seems now to be handled by Jeffrey and I much prefer his style (though I still sometimes disagree with his final score).
CSM126 wrote:I'm kind of amazed Criterion haven't complained about this clueless schmuck reviewing all of their discs. If I were them I'd have stopped sending review copies.
I'm quite sure they're happy with someone reporting faulty 1st pressings but waiting 3.5 months for the replacement scheme to be available before posting its review. (as a side note, it was quite amazing to read him trying to walk on eggs when asked if he basically waited Criterion's permission to inform readers formally about the dropped frames issue on Code Unknown).
Re: 820 Fantastic Planet
Posted: Fri May 27, 2016 7:09 pm
by Big Ben
Looks like I'll be double dipping on this one. I already own the MoC but the Criterion looks to be quite an improvement. The only real advantage the MoC has is that it has more shorts on it.
Re: 820 Fantastic Planet
Posted: Fri May 27, 2016 9:34 pm
by jojo
CSM126 wrote:
I love that he's aghast at someone for attacking a transfer that no one from the production was around to supervise, then turns around to attack the King Hu restos that were endorsed by people that were there. But he doesn't like them so they're automatically wrong.
This guy's hubris is an endless font. I'm kind of amazed Criterion haven't complained about this clueless schmuck reviewing all of their discs. If I were them I'd have stopped sending review copies.
Why would Criterion complain? He usually gives their discs very good reviews.
Anyway, I suspect the people at the controls thought the Draags didn't look blue enough so they cranked the blue to 11.
Re: 820 Fantastic Planet
Posted: Sat May 28, 2016 12:02 pm
by tenia
From adamhopelies on blu-ray.com :
I was part of a team that put together a programme of Laloux films in 2009, amongst them Fantastic Planet, the near-pristine 35mm print of which I believe was struck just 18 months earlier (tho of this detail I'm not 100% sure; I'm certain that it had only been screened a handful of times though). I did the tech run thru of it and watched it on the night too, and am comfortable in saying that the colours in the new Criterion version of the film do not look like the print that I saw of it then.
http://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p ... ount=23528" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Re: 820 Fantastic Planet
Posted: Sat May 28, 2016 4:26 pm
by movielocke
tenia wrote:From adamhopelies on blu-ray.com :
I was part of a team that put together a programme of Laloux films in 2009, amongst them Fantastic Planet, the near-pristine 35mm print of which I believe was struck just 18 months earlier (tho of this detail I'm not 100% sure; I'm certain that it had only been screened a handful of times though). I did the tech run thru of it and watched it on the night too, and am comfortable in saying that the colours in the new Criterion version of the film do not look like the print that I saw of it then.
http://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p ... ount=23528" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
and this article I just read seems a perfect counterpoint to this claim:
http://www.vox.com/2016/5/27/11788884/s ... harks-hoax" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Re: 820 Fantastic Planet
Posted: Sat May 28, 2016 4:40 pm
by tenia
movielocke wrote:tenia wrote:From adamhopelies on blu-ray.com :
I was part of a team that put together a programme of Laloux films in 2009, amongst them Fantastic Planet, the near-pristine 35mm print of which I believe was struck just 18 months earlier (tho of this detail I'm not 100% sure; I'm certain that it had only been screened a handful of times though). I did the tech run thru of it and watched it on the night too, and am comfortable in saying that the colours in the new Criterion version of the film do not look like the print that I saw of it then.
http://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p ... ount=23528" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
and this article I just read seems a perfect counterpoint to this claim:
http://www.vox.com/2016/5/27/11788884/s ... harks-hoax" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
But a general one related to heuristics, not specifically ending the question about Fantastic Planet color timing. In the present case, while I don't know myself what's correct or not (and thus if Adam is correct or not), it would be akin to the "even a broken clock gives the correct time twice a day" sophism.
Re: 820 Fantastic Planet
Posted: Tue May 31, 2016 7:05 am
by Orlac
movielocke wrote:tenia wrote:From adamhopelies on blu-ray.com :
I was part of a team that put together a programme of Laloux films in 2009, amongst them Fantastic Planet, the near-pristine 35mm print of which I believe was struck just 18 months earlier (tho of this detail I'm not 100% sure; I'm certain that it had only been screened a handful of times though). I did the tech run thru of it and watched it on the night too, and am comfortable in saying that the colours in the new Criterion version of the film do not look like the print that I saw of it then.
http://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p ... ount=23528" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
and this article I just read seems a perfect counterpoint to this claim:
http://www.vox.com/2016/5/27/11788884/s ... harks-hoax" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Damn, I loved Street Sharks as a kid!
Re: 820 Fantastic Planet
Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2016 6:41 am
by cdnchris
This is what the notes on the transfer say:
This 2K digital restoration was undertaken from the 35mm original camera negative at Eclair/Groupe Ymagis by Argos Films, with the support of the CNC, under the supervision of Florence Dauman and Fabrice Blin.
Re: 820 Fantastic Planet
Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2016 7:47 am
by Manny Karp
cdnchris wrote:This is what the notes on the transfer say:
This 2K digital restoration was undertaken from the 35mm original camera negative at Eclair/Groupe Ymagis by Argos Films, with the support of the CNC, under the supervision of Florence Dauman and Fabrice Blin, who got like, totally baked watching this tripped-out flick, dudes, and were convinced the world was greeeeen, man!