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Fantastic Planet

Simultaneous Sympathy for the Oppressor and the Oppressed:

Equality in Fantastic Planet

Su İpek Özbek and Ulaş Ersezen

Still–A Traag girl holding an Om in her hand

Fantastic Planet is an animation by René Laloux released in 1973. It is the story of Oms who are the descendants of the contemporary humans and Traags who are the giant, blue, humanoid inhabitants of the planet Ygam. Traags have brought Oms to Ygam after Oms have destroyed their planet; Traags keep Oms as pets and use them for entertainment. This dynamic between the two species creates allegories regarding oppression, slavery, and human’s relationship with animals; this leads to discussions about many notions, but the main one is anthropocentrism. At first, it might seem as if anthropocentrism connects only with the allegory regarding human and animal relationships; however, it also contributes to the allegories about slavery and oppression, because both of these notions stem from a person not seeing the another person as a human or in other words not as an equal.

The movie makes the viewer relate to both of the species hence the viewer questions their understanding of equality, because humans look and act like Traags, but they have experiences similar to Oms too. Traags consider themselves to be superior to Oms because they believe Oms do not possess the inherent values that come from being a Traag, so it is similar to one human seeing the other as inferior because of their ethnicity, belief, nationality, or race. Throughout the movie, it is seen that this idea of superiority is not about inherent values that Traags have; rather it is connected to the education Traags can access. When Oms gain access to the same degree of education, they quickly develop their intellectual capabilities. This presents that this inequality is artificial, and it is created by Traags. Their treatment of Oms is not only unethical – since a species or race is not required to possess specific attributes to be treated as an equal – it is also delusional, and they sustain this delusion by depriving Oms of the rights Traags have. This allegory is the same as countless situations that minority citizens come across; minority groups are not only exposed to discrimination – similar to the discrimination that Oms face in the movie – but they are also – usually – deprived of resources that the majority has access to thus their future potential is also supressed.

The movie concludes with Traags and Oms making peace. Oms have found a way to easily kill Traags; by travelling to the Fantastic Planet and attacking them during their mating ceremony. They manage to kill several Traags which causes panic amongst their community, so they decide to make peace. These events on their own show that this peace does not carry much worth because the peace is not established because Traags recognized the right of Oms; it is because Oms have harmed their community, so the issue of inequality was not addressed. The peace is only made for pragmatic reasons, and this can be seen more clearly in the movie’s ending. The movie ends with the shot of a Traag girl petting a reptile, so the inequality is still present only Traags’ choice for the oppressed species has changed. By concluding with this shot the movie asks these questions: Why is the viewer not as disturbed by this image similar to the way they were disturbed by the image of a Traag holding an Om? What makes the Om inherently more valuable than the reptile? Thus, the viewers might realize that they do not thoroughly understand the weight behind the value of equality.