Fantastic Planet (La Planète sauvage)

RESTORED IN 2016 FROM THE ORIGINAL NEGATIVE

WINNER, SPECIAL JURY PRIZE CANNES FILM FESTIVAL 1973

FANTASTIC PLANET

Based on the Novel by STEFAN WUL

She stopped moving.

Now we can't play with her anymore.

Careful! It's Master Sinh.

Look, Father. A female Om and her baby.

You think she's dead?

I'm afraid so, Tiwa.

Why's the baby making noise?

It depends. He could be frightened or hungry.

We can't leave him here. Let me keep him.

Please, Father. I'll take care of him.

All right, Tiwa. We can't let this animal die.

Thus I first heard the name of the Grand Master of the Draags.

In saving my life, he linked my fate to his.

Mother!

Look at the little Om. Isn't he cute?

His mother's dead. I'm going to keep him.

He's very pretty, Tiwa.

Tiwa, you disturbed your mother's meditation.

If you can't discipline that animal, I'll have to take it away.

But Father, he ran off. He needs a collar.

You must learn to use it. Watch.

Set the animal down.

How fun! Let me try.

Not so fast!

The animal's delicate.

You might hurt him.

What are you going to call him?

Tiwa, like me.

That's not an Om's name.

Call it Trusty or Frisky.

Look at him wriggle, the little terror!

I'll call him Terr.

I was forgotten about.

A baby Om is nothing

compared to the extraordinary importance of their meditation,

that strange ritual to which my masters devoted most of their time

and which seemed to be their chief concern.

Contrary to projections,

the housing unit factory on our Uva at Goham

has not met its new production target.

The worker machines show unusual wear,

and that seems to have caused the lag.

- Master Taj, can you explain? - We don't yet know the reason.

In the meantime,

we'll use reserve worker machines to meet the schedule.

I don't understand.

The machines have worked perfectly up till now.

Have you had the same problem on other Uvas?

Only machines from our space flight to Planet Antax 4…

had some trouble completing their program.

Master Sinh, our scientists attribute this decline in activity

to a rupture in their system of emotional equilibrium.

Our scientists also noted

that animals brought from Planet Terra

had a high level of savibon and intelligence.

I'm not so sure they're correct.

It's clear that this animal has adaptive capabilities.

But is that intelligence?

The little pet you're stroking between meditations

may well surprise you one day.

Films made on Terra reveal numerous traces of organized life.

These adaptive capabilities you mention, Master Kah,

may indicate an advanced evolutionary state.

Oms have a much shorter life span than us,

but keep in mind that they reproduce much more rapidly.

Whether this animal evolves or not, Master Sinh,

we have yet to establish.

What we have established

is the considerable damage

caused by Oms on the Uvas of Jexte and Télèze.

The number of domesticated Oms is easy to verify,

but the number of wild Oms is probably much greater

than is generally acknowledged.

We de-Om the enclaves of wild Oms every three cycles,

but I wonder if that's often enough.

Few weapons remain effective in the long term.

Forceful measures must be taken.

New ways to fight them are currently being researched,

but I doubt they will suffice.

Tiwa, go play somewhere else.

I'm sorry.

Imagination was so rich today.

This animal is a pest!

Think nothing of it. Our children all love those animals.

I grew up fast in that slow world,

for a Draag week was equal to one of my years.

I was just a living plaything

that sometimes dared to rebel.

Tiwa loved me.

"Terr loves Tiwa."

Repeat.

Terr loves Tiwa. Repeat.

Tiwa received her education through a headset.

The lessons were transmitted directly into the brain…

and engraved in the memory forever.

"Our planet Ygam has just one satellite,

the Wild Planet,

which is uninhabited and is used for meditation.

Ygam is divided into several Uvas.

Two of them, Strom and Yot, are natural and symmetrical.

Urtana is the largest Uva

and is completely covered with blue assanic blocks.

Furthermore, temperatures there range from 8 to 243 laiks,

making exploitation impossible.

Our Uva, Goham, has a fepular inland sea

that stabilizes the apenosh at about 25 laiks.

Fixation blocks combat pontic ribation,

and emmaliate domes regulate pressure.

All Uvas undergo a cycle of three seasons of differing lengths.

The season of garus crystallization…"

By accident I too was able to acquire

the Draags' knowledge.

"When the soil peels,

dense vegetation replaces all mosks

with similar mosks."

I liked the lessons

and did my best to make the most of them.

"The cliffs on the fepular sea

are eroded by rains that often last…"

Tiwa, bring your animal over here.

Jurgal has his here. We'll have some fun.

I don't want him hurt. Jurgal's Om is like a ferocious animal.

He nearly tore Terr's ears off the other day!

He won't hurt your Om. Come play!

Come see!

Let's have Terr fight. It will be more fun.

Terr will win. He's really wild.

Go fight.

- He sings well. - Terr can sing too.

Sing, Terr. Go on.

- He'll strangle him! - I don't know what he's doing.

What a horrid animal!

"It's easy to see a tark's fladed musculature

because the animal is easily skinned."

You hear the Om?

He's reciting Tiwa's lesson.

She loves Terr so much that she's never without him.

You think he understands what he's saying?

I don't think so.

Anyway, I'll forbid Tiwa to have the Om with her

during her Infos.

She has to study seriously.

"Let us observe the chiscinian muscle of a tark's leg.

The chiscinian muscle is a sinewy, threadlike vilore…"

"The molog is an anviparous animal.

It has over half a billion lucons,

and the entire surface of their walls

is made up of tiny cells

separated by very thin sheets of organure.

Some scientists today believe it is not organure

but gambous amalga, an artificial structure…"

Is Terr with you again during your Infos?

I told you not to do that.

Back to the Omerie!

He doesn't disturb me, Father, and he's so happy.

The Infos are for you. Back to your studies now.

The day came for the Draag children to meditate for the first time.

The initiation ceremony was an essential step

on their road to knowledge.

Tiwa's interest in me had been fading for some time.

As she grew into her teens, she gave up her playthings.

I could no longer make use of the lessons.

I decided to run away.

Mother, I can't find Terr!

And my headset is gone.

Then use your bracelet.

But if he's far away, I'll hurt him.

Put your bracelet on maximum right now!

No, Mother…

You're not very bright, like all tame Oms.

- But you have a collar too. - It's a fake, to fool the Draags.

What's that?

A device invented by the Draags.

A what?

A Draag device.

Listen.

"Valio cycle, Info 4.

You will observe that searching for aklons

in pernetrope in space

is carried out in the same way as on land.

Note that the search is not only for festation groups…"

Don't be afraid. It's not dangerous.

Where are you taking it?

- I don't know. - Follow me.

My new friend took me to her people,

who lived hidden in the Big Tree deep in an abandoned park.

This tame Om looked ridiculous

in his first encounter with wild Oms.

Don't touch that case. It's a trap!

Since I had brought the headset of knowledge to the Big Tree,