Γκανταχάρ

Jeff3.5

This was like an animated version of those sweet Yes album covers by Roger Dean. If you know what I'm talking about then you've probably smoked enough grass to enjoy this movie.Turns out this was made by the same guy who made Fantastic Planet and Time Masters, neither of which I have seen but both of which I am highly interested in now. In all honesty, I would have a hard time telling anyone exactly what the plot is; it involves time travel and mutants and metal men, but it's not quite as awesome as that sounds.What is awesome is the design of the world of Gandahar. The animation isn't always stellar, but everything always looks very cool. And the American version has great synth score, which I dug very much.The American version also has a super weird cast of voice actors including Glenn Close, Jennifer Grey, Christopher Plummer, David Johansen, Penn & Teller, Charles Busch, and Paul Shaffer. And they all sound pretty zonked out on opiates which, oddly, didn't work for me.Anyway, if you're into Dungeons and Dragons, Iron Maiden, Heavy Metal magazine, and are currently high, I'd say you should jump on this one.

Sally Jane Black

I am not sure which creature design I liked best. The Deformed had many intriguing forms, but ultimately, they were almost all vaguely humanoid. The beautiful creatures of the world ranged from familiar but well designed to completely bizarre, but I think my favorite might well have been the mouthed bulbous things that came out of the Gandahar assault on the Men of Metal during the assault on Jasper. Plant-like and somehow reptilian or protozoan-like in form, these creatures sprouted out of little spores and became like mutated rejects from the Mushroom Kingdom. The strength of the animation in all of Laloux's feature films has been the imaginative imagery he creates, defying reality and taking full advantage of being an animated creation. Marrying a sort of cold science fiction tone with a vibrant sense of possibility Gandahar is visually epic and grand and inspiring. On the other side, the story is compelling, with a well executed time travel piece and enough weirdness to match the setting and scenery. The people of Gandahar get little characterization, but the Deformed (as a community) have some depth to them that creates a critique of the exclusivity of the people of Gandahar, which is further accentuated by the fascistic uniformity of the Men of Metal. It suggests that the more exclusive a community gets, the less human it gets, until all are horrifying robotic reflections of a unitary monstrosity. The story's themes are a trifle too direct at times, and the swiftness of connection between Syl and Airelle is absurd. But the power of the work as a whole outweighs those flaws.

Rafael "Mister Movie" Jovine3.5

K-GUST: The NorthSo this one is a bit of a cheat. The film is very French in its sensibilities, somewhat reminiscent of Fantastic Planet and the main and only language is French. But the production work was done in North Korea’s SEK studio. So for all intents and purposes, we’re all going to pretend this fits the marathon’s criteria.But yeah, this was such a fantastical film, both in terms of the genre it fits into and also in terms of the animation, namely the character design. The whole thing, with the characters turning into stones and the effects, was neat. The whole film looks stunning, so from a visual perspective, I can see many being entranced by it. In terms of the story, I can see a lot of people loving it more than me. Not that I hated it or anything, but in that regard, I couldn’t connect much with it, though I can totally appreciate the great lore, worldbuilding and overall premise being creatively and conceptually interesting.All in all, fans of fantasy films such as Fantastic Planet may have a great time with this one.K-GUST: The NorthTODAY SCHEDULEThe Thrill of It AllGandaharMemories in my FrameKingmakerExtraordinary Attorney Woo