Gandahar (1987)

Such a frustrating disappointment

Fresh and Exciting

A Masterpiece!

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

I was going through what had been labeled "bad", so bad they are funny to watch movies, online when I came across this movie. Like the others I was only watching a minute here or a minute there to see how ridiculous or bad these movies really were, but when I found this movie it was different. When I skipped around I found myself getting pulled in by the movie more and more. What started as a quick moment here or a minute there evolved into me staying over 10 minutes each time I skipped around. I eventually got to the point though where I stopped skipping around at all, I just watched the last half hour of the film in whole. Now that night I had 0 plans of watching a whole movie, just spend maybe an hour jumping around different old animations on a playlist until a certain point that night where I had plans. I was so pulled in by every moment of this movie I canceled my plans that night and started the movie over to watch it fully again start to finish. This out of nowhere movie has cemented itself in my recommended list from this point forward.

I have started watching all of the Rene Laloux animation films. They are imaginative, intriguing, original. For me, Fantastic Planet was a perfect film, for example. Gandahar starts with a similar story: sometime in the future, a colony of Earth where people have achieved nirvana by using biotechnology is attacked by metal men. They are in essence the Cybermen of Doctor Who. Spoiled by their perfect world, Gandaharians don't know how to defend themselves anymore. They send "their best, but inexperienced, agent", whatever that means, to investigate. Thus we get to see the strange alien planet, meet their nemesis and understand the story.So strange alien planet it is. Nice absurd ecosystem: check. Unabashedly naked women, European style? Galore. Weird and spooky soundtrack, too. But the story was weak, the cautionary moral not really well detailed and, worst of all, the arrogant cerebral intonation of all dialogue did not work in this film. While in Fantastic Planet it lent authority to the race of Traggs, here it just sounds like lazy voice acting. Perhaps the American voice-over, with huge stars like Glenn Close and Christopher Plummer would have been better, but I make a point of sampling the original version of a movie.My conclusion: after 15 years since La Planete Sauvage (Fantastic Planet) a movie with a similar alien theme, but a much weaker story and no real increase in animation quality, cannot impress me. It is still a nice film to watch, but my expectations were very high to begin with. Also, for 1988, the year of Grave of the Fireflies and even Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the animation feels really outdated.

This film was one of the first science fiction cartoons I had seen. Perhaps that is the reason for my high praise of the film. I was engrossed from the very beginning. The dialouge was masterful. What the animation lacked, the combination of the writing and my imagination more than made up for. This film has a PG rating for brief nudity, but I think that children ages 10 on will be very pleased. It treats the audience not as a child or an adult. If you are a fan of hardcore science fiction then this film is for you. If you have never seen a single sci-fi film before, then this is the perfect blend of action and thought provoking images to introduce you to the genre. I will not get into details about the story. You can read the synopsis. In short, I highly recommend this film.

'Light Years' is a work of sci-fi animation that really stands apart from the pack. In order to enjoy this film, one must have an appreciation of science fiction altogether. For those individuals such as Leonard Maltin, whom dismissed this movie as a pretentious 'talky' cartoon, you must understand that 'Light Years' tells a very human story about irresponsible inventions and ignorance in a completely ALIEN setting; this is the true magic of the film! I thought the dialogue was creative and the story was fascinating. The creatures and characters are beyond description, and the ending will blow you away. True sci-fi fans I think should dismiss Leonard Maltin's review and rent this one!