Welcome to Cinemecca's new column, Animated Writings. Every week we'll review an animated film. Hope you like it.
Gandahar is a the trippy classic directed by Rene Laloux (Fantastic Planet) that is as visually impressive as it is mind boggling.Laloux manages to craft a charming story interwoven with outrageous acid-trip like imagery that moves at a frantic brain bashing pace that leaves you wondering “what the fuck did I just see?” (But not in a bad way)
This film is truly an example of the versatility of animation as Laloux uses color, motion, and the beautiful fantasy backdrop of Gandahar to create an immersive experience like few other animated features I’ve ever seen. One of the best parts of the animation is the breathtaking watercolor backgrounds that, while rough, are absolutely stunning and incredible to watch. I even found myself losing track of the characters and the events in favor of the fluid graceful animation.
The real standout part of this film is the outrageous story that takes place in the idyllic utopian land of Gandahar that plays simultaneously with past, present, and future until you feel like your mind is likely to explode. The main character Syl has been tasked with discovering the source of evil that is spreading across the land. Essentially the main plot of the story takes place in the “present” that Syl is from, but an ancient prophecy states that “In 1,000 years, Gandahar was destroyed and all of its people killed. 1,000 years ago it will be saved and the inevitable avoided”. Syl discovers the evil that is threatening the idyllic peace of Gandahar is an army of soulless robots controlled by the giant brain known as Métamorphe. The brain,a failed experiment of the Gandaharians themselves, is harvesting the people in the present to prolong its own life. Syl confronts Metamorphe to try to stop the destruction of Jasper, and the brain agrees to let him kill it but only 1,000 years in the future when it will have grown old and feeble.
Syl is then put to sleep for 1,000 years until the moment when Metamophe can be destroyed. Syl wakes to a wasteland of metal and robots controlled by the now old brain. He then discovers that the Metamorphe has been prolonging its life by the use of a door to the past that allows it’s minions to go back in time to an infinite number of pasts and harvest the life force of the inhabitants of Gandahar in a twisted form of immortality. Syl with the help of the remaining living Gandaharians stops this process and completes the prophecy by killing Metamorphe 1,000 years in the future.
During the course of the film the plot progresses very quickly, and at times confusingly, but in the end the epic reach of the timeline and its implications come together in a symphony of trippy ideas and animation. This film is a true classic in science fiction as wellas animation. The story is undoubtedly a mind fuck, but is so beautifully executed that it makes this one of the best animated films I’ve seen in recent memory. Don’t miss it.
5 out of 5 stars
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