A 1973 film collaboration between French and Czech animators, Fantastic Planet's based on a science fiction novel by Stefan Wul called Oms en Série, but the movie's theme has a lot to do with Czechoslovakia's occupation by Soviet forces in the late '60s, which brought about the close of the Prague Spring era. In the film, a race of blue giants, called Draags, co-exist with the human-like Oms. Oms are either considered by Draags to be mice-like pests or are kept captive as cute little pets, while the Draags are an enlightened, intelligent race with a sophisticated government and extensive rituals of mediation. Yet they consider Oms to be inferior beings, perhaps because of their size. (Cue allegory.) The story holds up completely, but the imagery is what's really amazing: Although the animation itself is choppy and primitive, the drawings are nothing short of spectacular. It's been described as a mixture of Salvador Dali, Hieronymous Bosch, and Terry Gilliam, and that drool-inducing assessment is not far off. There's also a swanky '70s progressive rock score, which is awesome and hilarious at the same time. (Madlib sampled the shit out of it.) by Ned Lannamann