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Aug 05, 2016Nursebob rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Winner of a special jury award at Cannes, René Laloux’s hippy trippy animated adaptation of Stefan Wul’s novel—itself a thinly disguised critique on the plight of the Czech people under Soviet occupation—certainly captures the essence of early 70s psychedelia. Like Salvador Dali reimagining "Yellow Submarine" the fantastical sets of nightmarish flora and impossible fauna form the perfect backdrop for some of the film’s more esoteric elements: the Drogs (quite literally) fly high on meditative trances or are prodded into “chimerical visions” by motile tree roots while the Oms flit like pixies underfoot, often taking part in quasi-religious ceremonies involving animal sacrifices and glowing brownies. And thanks to the ubiquitous mystical magical mumbo-jumbo the underlying political message, though loud and clear, is rendered more parable and less polemic. Like, far out man!