Rating: 
Summary: Strange but Good
Review: Fantastic Planet is a movie that anyone can love and enjoy. The movie is a true spectacle of filmmking.Of course, it has its share of problems (ending is extremely rushed, characters lack personality, dubbing is so bad, its not even funny) but if you just ste back and lok at this movie as a whole, you get something very good. The plot follows the story of one "om" (human) who is kept as a little palm-sized pet for the gigantic, blue skinned traags. He escapes with a taag learning device and uses it along with other wild oms to rebel against the traags. The plot is full of wonderful details such as the interesting scene on which the movie opens. The animation looks like they made thin outlines and filled them with color-pencils. This creates an effect that makes the animation both spectacular and horrendous at the same time. Ultimately the movie is great, and any problems in the movies are made up for by the fact that there ARE other short films on the DVD. Finally, the subtitles are much better than the dub; use them.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't get the version by United American
Review: Fantastic Planet is by far one of the more unusual animated I have ever seen. Truly unusual and surrealistic scenes, and that funky Pink Floyd meets "Shaft"-style soundtrack by Alain Goraguer gives the movie that truly '70s look and feel. But I warn you to stay away from the earlier VHS edition from United American Video Corps. While the newer dubbed-in-English VHS from Anchor Bay has the problem of forgetting to remove the subtitles, the United American Video Corps. version suffers from poor picture quality, and several missing scenes, not to mention a lot of the animation seems rather choppy. Anchor Bay fixed that problem with better picture quality, and all the scenes intact, and without that choppy animation in certain places. The only advantage United American version has is no subtitles, but since it's not widescreen, you won't be able to see everything. Despite the drawback of subtitles on the Anchor Bay version, if you want the dubbed-in-English version of this European sci-fi masterpiece, go for the Anchor Bay version and avoid the earlier United American edition.
Rating:
Summary: A forgotten gem of the seventies....
Review: I saw this movie more than 30 years ago when it was current... there was a rash of Franco-Czech animation collaborations going around at the time...another one was "The Masque of the Red Death", done, I think, by the same people who did "Fantastic Planet", and a few others. "Fantastic Planet", (not to be confused with "FORBIDDEN Planet", a completely different sort of sci-fi movie,) is the story of the enslavement/domestication of the humanoid Oms by the larger, much more civilized Traags. One day, one of the Oms discovers the learning device of his owner, and, thus educated, proceeds to rally his people to rebel against the dominance of the Traags. The animation style has that funky, artsy-fartsy, primitive quality that makes some foreign or artfully low-budget animations so charming in that certain way. Now, I don't own this DVD, and from what I've read, the subtitles on both the French and English sides are irritating to the extreme....the story, nonetheless, along with the music and general design, is a charming one dealing with oppression, rebellion and pathos. If you can get past what apparently is a MAJOR mini-bugaboo, enjoy this obscure, well done movie for what it is...Art!
Rating:
Summary: great sci-fi!
Review: The stylistic surrealism of Fantastic Planet was remembered blurrily from an early morning viewing on TV. I've asked around, and this is how most people know this film, although I'm pretty sure I saw it at a drive-in too. This is dark imagery with a telling social satire. The DVD itself is flawed. You may listen in English, but you have to watch the subtitles, which don't match, as well. The three shorts are just plain stupid. The first, The Monkeys Teeth, is probably the worst. I reccamend watching all of them at 2X by the way, it isn't quite as painfull. Anyway, the annoying thing is that he doesn't start with the animation, instead using film of people in what looks like a classroom. The narrator drones about mental patients writing a story together. Then the animation starts and you wonder "Why the stupid intro?"."Maybe they'll have some sort of wrap up or something" you think. But no, it's just a stupid intro. Some guy gets his teeth pulled by a dentist, then wanders around for ten minutes. Then the monkey pulls the dentist's teeth and gives them to the victim. That's worthy of 20 minutes of your life isn't it? NOT! The second film (The Death Times) is not any better, but the visuals are interesting. It's just an excuse for a film really, it's just zooms and pans of drawings. Ignore the narrator, it's just drivel. Some of the pictures are quite striking and inventive. Slides of these would be preferrable, however. The third (The Snails) is almost, ALMOST bearable. Again you must utilize the 2X or you will tear your hair out! A farmer discovers that tears will make his crop grow larger, so he walks through his field with an onion, then reads a depressing book, etc. Anyway, so snails come and eat the crop, grow large and chase people around. It's kind of amusing watching giant snails run around a city and chase people. Keep that 2X on though because they are snails! Overall, just ignore the shorts and enjoy the film, as much as that's possible with the stupid subtitles! Still, it's better than nothing.
Rating: 
Summary: Please read MY review FIRST...
Review: I've noticed that TOO MANY people have ruined many products on Amazon before they're even sold with their uptight fierce complaints disguised as 'reviews'!
That unfortunately has happened also with THIS DVD! All I can say is BUY IT! IT'S GREAT! No complaints!....
Now, the reason I am so "FOR" this release is I've had a VHS copy of this film for years [on the 'Embassy Home Video' label] and it was fine. It had the english dubbed-in voices & NO 'subtitles'. I got THAT copy after FIRST seeing it on the SCI-FI channel in 1995, [although I've heard of this movie ever since I can remember!] and later bought a "Video YesterYear" release that had faded colour & a whole scene cut out! Like most of us movie & TV on home video fans, I've been looking for a 'DVD' release....and THIS is IT!!
Sure everyone whines about the infamous 'subtitles', but criminey! HOW many other 'foreign' [YES! 'FOREIGN'] films out there have them?? The soundtrack of this DVD version has the beautiful original French dialogue & music - OR -the option of the English dubbed version, which sounds like it's coming over the telephone for some strange reason[?] So, I recommend watching it with the original 'French' and THEN the non-removable subtitles work PERFECTLY! You'll be GLAD they ARE there!
The BEST part of this DVD version is the inclusion of the earlier 3 Rene Laloux films 'Monkeys Teeth' 'Dead Times' & 'The Snails'! That's the MAIN reason I BOUGHT this! Then again, I'm into obscure foreign animation from the past and don't go berserk if there are 'subtitles'... Yes, they COULD have issued the DVD with 'Closed Captioning', THEN you could remove the subtitles if you want, but they didn't, so there.
Anyone out there seen the "Masters of Russian Animation" series on DVD? Well, THEY have non-removable subtitles too, but if you like the animation for it's own sake, you'll enjoy the films but if you're bothered by mere 'subtitles', then you're MISSING alot of great examples of animation.
Also, anyone who likes the Alain Gorageur soundtrack for FANTASTIC PLANET will ALSO like the 1960s/70s music of composer/arranger "David Axelrod". Very similiar.
What I'm doing here is 'RECOMMENDING' items friends, [like the folks at Amazon suggest], NOT 'tearing things down'. If I believed ALL the negative reviews people have put on this site, I'd NEVER buy ANYTHING! Glad I trust my own instincts & hope you do too. If you can't say something nice don't say anything, I always thought.... OK, I'll shut-up now [:-)]
Rating:
Summary: Stunning sci-fi animated
Review: I remember seeing this when I was 16 year old on the USA Network around the end of 1988 or beginning of 1989, I was totally amazed at the stunning surrealistic animation and odd '70s period music. I then saw it again on the Sci-Fi Channel in 1994 and I was still equally impressed. I never saw it again, until I got my dubbed in English version VHS copy on Anchor Bay. If you want a truly bizarre sci-fi experience and you're sick and tire of garbage that passes as sci-fi like Lexx and Farscape, then give Fantastic Planet a try. I just love those otherworldly scenes, bizarre creatures, and those meditation scenes where the big giant blue-skinned Traags project spheres. The music, courtesy of Alain Goraguer is amazing, in a progressive funk/jazz/experimental rock style that's absolutely perfect for this style of movie. Fantastic Planet is full of social/political undertones, it seems that the Traags verses the Oms was a metaphor for the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, in fact the film was made in Czechoslovakia, until the communists found out the intent of the movie, so it had to be finished in France, at least that's what I understand. The animation is very different from any Disney or Warner Bros. cartoons. In fact it's more like Terry Gilliam's minus the humor, and more bizarre and surrealistic. Some people might complain about the crudeness of the animation, but I love it because it's different from normal animation. The small complaint I have here is the fine folks at Anchor Bay had forgot to remove the English subtitles on the dubbed in English version, which is the VHS tape I own. Aside from that, it's perhaps one of the greatest sci-fi films I've seen.
Rating: 
Summary: More Whining About Subtitles!
Review: YOU CAN'T TURN THEM OFF, PEOPLE!!! AND they run right over the picture, not even in the black letterboxed space beneath! AND (and even if you could forgive not being able to turn them off, this next one is really too, too much to take) MORE THAN HALF THE TIME THEY DON'T MATCH THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION!!!! This last bit takes it from annoying to insufferable. I love Fantastic Planet, and I hate, hate, hate this DVD.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic Animation, DVD is FLAWED!!!
Review: The Fantastic Planet is one of my all time favorite animations. I can watch this movie again and again and get lost in its trippy/dreamy animations and hypnotic music. However, I cannot imagine the extreme idiocy involved in ruining a perfect piece of art by not allowing the user to remove the subtitles when the audio is in the same language!!! I have to say we're talking about IQ's of less than 10 here. But, nonetheless, the movie is so amazing that I would still consider buying it. Just like a blind man learns to get around by touch, someone watching this movie can learn to take in the movie without letting those aweful subtitles ruin the entire experience. So, I would recommend this movie... just expect it to be a slightly painful experience. Whatever production studio that made this does NOT know what they're doing obviously.
Rating:
Summary: makes you wonder about your own pet.....
Review: I became obsessed with seeing this movie after i saw the movie The Cell, since this is the movie that jennifer lopez is watching while trying to sleep. I was able to rent it from netflix.com, and i got the dvd with the option of the audio in either french or english, however the english subtitles are still there. So I know they make one! While the subtitles are annoying, and distrating, i still think this story is awsome, so i give it a 5! definitally worth seeing, maybe not worth buying until they fix the audio/subtitles.
Rating:
Summary: This review is for the French with subtitles version
Review: Fantastic Planet remains one of my all-time sci-fi favorites. This movie shows all that was great in the world of sci-fi in the pre-Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind era known as 1973. This odd French/Czech film is stuffed with truly bizarre and psychedelic scenes, with a great '70s funky score. The movie was based on a book from French sci-fi author Stefan Wul called Oms en Série from 1957 (unfortunately the book was never published in English, as far as I know, which is too bad). Anyway, if you still collect VHS, the ultimate version is the Collector's Edition on Anchor Bay with clamshell packaging, in its original French language, with English subtitles. I have to admit the original French voices are quite superior to the American voices of the dubbed-in-English version. Also you get the Fantastic Planet trailer, which has endorsements from everything from the Los Angeles Times to Seventeen Magazine (which seems a bit odd, given the magazine at the time was more for the Brady Bunch, Patridge Family, and the Osmonds type of teen audience). And the trailer also mentioned the awards the film received (especially the Grand Prix award at the infamous Cannes Film Festival in France). And then there are three shorts included, Les Dents du Singe (Monkey's Teeth) (1960), Les Temps Morts (Dead Times) (1964) and Les Escargot (The Snails) (1965). These were the only animateds René Laloux had done prior to Fantastic Planet. I would only give the three animateds a three star rating, they are fascinating to watch, and you get to see the evolution of the animation that lead up to Fantastic Planet, but they simply pale in comparison to Fantastic Planet itself. But regardless, the subtitled VHS version on Anchor Bay is a total must, and if you like bizarre and unusual sci-fi, get this.
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