Fantastic Planet

Fantastic Planet (La Planète sauvage, 1973) is René Laloux's cult animated sci-fi, and you can watch it online on iFILM. On the planet Ygam, towering blue Draags treat the tiny human Oms as pets and playthings.

A young Om named Terr slips away with a Draag learning headset and carries that stolen knowledge to the wild Oms hiding in the wasteland. Once the captives understand their masters, rebellion stops being a fantasy. The look is the real shock: Roland Topor's cut-out artwork fills the screen with surreal creatures and dread-soaked landscapes that feel hand-drawn and alive.

This French-Czech production took roughly five years to animate frame by frame and picked up the Special Jury Prize at Cannes in 1973. Underneath the strange fable about giants and pygmies sits a sharp parable on slavery and freedom. It rewards anyone who loves bleak vintage sci-fi and unfiltered 1970s psychedelia. Stream Fantastic Planet (1973) online on iFILM.