Fantastic Planet (DVD, 1999)

"Fantastic Planet" is an animated sci-fi movie from the early 70s. It is a story of a world where humans are "pets" of giant blue humanoid creatures. One human is raised in a well-to-do household of these creatures where he manages to secretly use their teaching devices to learn their language, history, and science. He runs away and takes this technology to his fellow "savage" humans, who rise to war against their giant counterparts. The film is animated in a wildly creative style, unlike any other film. The world revealed throughout the film almost becomes its own character. The culture of the blue humanoid creatures is saturated with psychedelic imagery without being drug related in the least. The soundtrack varies from funk to jazz to classical. The problem I have with this DVD is the fact that the subtitles are NOT removeable. The DVD contains the original French audio, so if you choose to watch it that way, the problem is almost forgiveable. However, the subtitle translation is very different from the english dubbed dialog and in some important scenes it loses a lot of the impact of what the characters are saying. The English dubbed version has a very different feel from the French version, and if you choose to watch it in English (the default setting) you have to watch the subtitles, too. It gets extremely annoying when you see the glaring differences between the dialog and the subtitles. This Anchor Bay release is only sought after because it contains other short films by the director. A better release is the version put out by East West Entertainment. It also has some very minor flaws such as the film is split over two title tracks instead of scene tracks, so most DVD players will have a very short skip at that moment in the movie. The East West Entertainment version is presented in full screen format and has bright vivid colors. The public domain version is OK, but the colors are weak and the film is very scratchy. The VHS version is a virtually problem free release, but the colors are nowhere near as bright and vivid as the East West Entertainment version's transfer. The absolute best release of this movie is put out by Eureka (a european company, but the DVD is region 0). The Eureka release is presented in widescreen format, and it fills a widescreen TV beautifully. This DVD contains the original french dialog with OR without subtitles, as well as the english dubbed version WITHOUT SUBTITLES! The subtitles look nicer than the Anchor Bay release, and the glaring translation issues are gone. The DVD contains several extra short films, but the best extra is without a doubt the inclusion of the ENTIRE SOUNDTRACK which is itself sought after. The cover art is beautiful and captures the vibe of the movie better than any other release I've seen. The Eureka release is truly THE version to get if you're getting a copy of this movie. Every detail is done right on this release, and it may very well be the definitive release of this movie, since I'm not sure if there's enough demand for this movie to justify a high definition release of it.