With conceptual work by Jean ‘Moebius’ Giraud, Les Maîtres du Temps is a striking combination of Japanese anime and Ziggy Stardust. Based on a novel by Stefan Wul (like director Laloux’s earlier masterpiece, Fantastic Planet), this is old-school, conceptual sci-fi, closer in tone to Tarkovsky’s Solaris than Star Wars.
A young boy, Piel, is alone and lost on the hornet-infested planet of Perdide. His only outside contact is an egg-like transceiver, through which he communicates with Jaffar, a space-pilot who must travel from one end of the galaxy to the other to rescue him. The story plays out across the endless gulf of space (and time), and despite some fantastic settings and colourful characters, the action is underscored by a haunting sense of melancholy and loneliness.
Les Maîtres du Temps recalls the very best of Don Bluth and Ralph Bakshi; it’s an entertaining, quality, adult science fiction film which just so happens to be animated. The twist in the ending is genuinely disorienting, and like the best sci-fi short story, it pulls upon the intellect as much as the emotions.
René Laloux, the director of Fantastic Planet, created Les Maîtres du temps, his penultimate animated feature film, in 1982. A huge hit in France at the time of its release, it combines Laloux's famous imagination with that of animation designer Jean Giraud (aka Moebius).
On planet Perdide, an attack of giant hornets leaves young Piel alone in a wrecked car with his dying father. A mayday message reaches their friend Jaffar, an adventurer traveling through space. On board Jaffar's shuttle are the renegade Prince Matton, his fiancée, and Silbad who knows the planet Perdide well. Thus begins an incredible race across space to save Piel.
Les Maîtres du temps is a finely animated metaphysical rescue mission, previously seen in English-speaking countries as a dubbed version entitled Time Masters. This is the original French version of Laloux's distinctive vision.
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Les Maitres du Temps (Masters of Cinema)
