Content Warning: Discussion of genocide; full plot details
Some works of art aim only to leave the audience with a feeling. Characters, story, aesthetic, all elements become secondary and instrumental to producing a state of mind. Fantastic Planet is about genocide, and, more strikingly, the mindset needed to commit genocide. The film guides the audience to, for even one small moment, adopt this mindset, and then realise with horror how easily they adopted it.
Some works of art aim only to leave the audience with a feeling. Characters, story, aesthetic, all elements become secondary and instrumental to producing a state of mind. Fantastic Planet is about genocide, and, more strikingly, the mindset needed to commit genocide. The film guides the audience to, for even one small moment, adopt this mindset, and then realise with horror how easily they adopted it.
On the planet Ygam, the gigantic Draags
treat Oms (humans) as animals. The Draags either keep Oms as pets or exterminate
them as vermin. One pet, named Terr, flees into the alien wilds, dragging behind
him a Draag education headset. Finding a ‘wild’ Om tribe, he gives them the
Draag headset, allowing Oms the knowledge to escape Draag oppression.
