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Gandahar More at IMDbPro »
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| Index | 18 reviews in total |
25 out of 26 people found the following review useful:
Truly original and forgotten classic..., 17 July 2000
Author:
mchicov from New York, USA
'Light Years' is a work of sci-fi animation that really stands apart from the pack. In order to enjoy this film, one must have an appreciation of science fiction altogether. For those individuals such as Leonard Maltin, whom dismissed this movie as a pretentious 'talky' cartoon, you must understand that 'Light Years' tells a very human story about irresponsible inventions and ignorance in a completely ALIEN setting; this is the true magic of the film! I thought the dialogue was creative and the story was fascinating. The creatures and characters are beyond description, and the ending will blow you away. True sci-fi fans I think should dismiss Leonard Maltin's review and rent this one!
13 out of 15 people found the following review useful:
forgotten animation masterpiece, 26 September 1999
Author:
Sachiel from Vermont
It truly is a shame that no one's ever heard of this breathtakingly beautiful piece of animation. It's also a shame that animation is not usually employed in America as an adult art form. Animation shows us lifeforms and landscapes the likes of which cannot be seen on this Earth. Anyway, this is an amazing film that should be checked out by all anime fans as well as fans of films like Heavy Metal, or master animator Ralph Bakshi's works. Light Years is one of the most enlightening animated works on this planet.
9 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
They Never Made Them Like This...., 14 July 2008
Author:
Joseph Sylvers from United States
French animator Rene Laloux of "Fantastic Planet" renown, attempted to
make another surreal sci-fi adventure with the 80's "Ghandar" or as
Isac Asimov and Harvey Wienstien decided to call it for those of us in
the states "Light Years", which since no... space travel takes place,
and since the movie is about a fictional country called "Gandahar" is
probably a bad title. "Light Years" I guess sounds more sci-fi-ish, and
if this film was to succeed in the states(it didn't) it was gonna need
every bit of conventionality it could muster.
The story is a complex one involving the standard sci-fi tropes of
eugenics, time travel, death, and utopia, and though it's certainly
more involved than most animated sci-fi (a good deal of the time were
watching the characters talk), it's really the visualization of the
world and it's inhabitants which makes this movie worth seeing.
Like "Fantastic Planet" before it, Laloux's environments are some of
the most alien that have ever been imagined. The landscape is often
undulating Daliesuqe deserts, which strange trees which resemble
simultaneously bodily organs and geysers, a young girl offering her
breast to a new born who looks like a tapir, born out of a grown
embryonic plant, a city of underground mutants who resemble Blemmyes,
ancient African monsters with heads beneath their shoulders, an army
hollow soldiers who turn people into statues, video camera like birds
who can lift entire buildings in swarms, and of course a colossal mile
wide sentient brain in the middle of the ocean.
Laloux uses sci-fi story structures to create, very evocative images
that do not look like anyone else's, ever, something few filmmakers in
any medium or genre, can claim with straight face.
That being said the English voice acting is just decent, not great but
decent, it keeps the story moving, but doesn't draw you into any of the
characters. "Light Years" like "Fantastic Planet" or the animated films
of Svankmajer are more concerned with form than content, but not
oblivious of the latter.
So if you like heady sci-fi, visually stunning design, and unique
animation, this is not to be passed up. If not it's probably not bad to
see once anyway, just for the visual treat of it all, and the more I
mull over the story, not the plot, I'm more impressed with how well and
vividly it told me a story I've heard a hundred times before.
14 out of 21 people found the following review useful:
Original, but really outdated, 11 September 2004
Author:
andriy-tanatar from Toronto
Well, I have to admit that I hunted this particular movie for 10 years.
I've seen it for the first time when I was in my early teens (12 or 13,
not sure), and I was really impressed by the animation and the plot.
Besides, I didn't have a chance to see a lot of sci-fi movies (let
alone animated movies) back then.
Now, that I've been able to see it again, I find it really outdated (or
"old-skul") - pretty much, it felt like Kubrick's "Space Odissey"
animated, only that "Gandahar" came out in late 80es, when "Akira" set
a new industry standard. The plot is more or less predictable, the
sci-fi backgrounds looked like something from mid-70es, and the battle
scenes are even worse than those of cheap Japanimation TV series.
Despite all the bad things above, this movie got a touch of a master.
First, I have to admit that movement animation feels highly original (I
can't think of anything similar) and is done with a lot of skill.
Second, the voices (in French) are much better than anything I've
heard. Finally, I find character design very good.
To sum up, I don't think that this is quite the right movie to see
"just for fun", but for those who are interested in animation it is
definitely a must.
6 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
A well crafted cartoon and a beautiful story, 19 December 1999
Author:
Irbis (a.drusin@worldnet.att.net) from Charelston, SC
about time and utopic realities. The animation is wonderful and detailed. Everything serves perfectly the telling of the story. And the hand of Asimov is not only in the novel, but also in the adaptation to the screen, so that is faithful to his representation of life. Worth watching a few times.
6 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
Some fairly good sci-fi, 19 November 2002
Author:
Blueghost from The San Francisco Bay Area
It's not an outstanding movie by any means, but it gets the job done
and entertains. One has to remember that when viewing sci-fi often the
plot takes precedence over character. Most plot driven films and
stories are like that: We're given the bare bones of our protagonist,
and watch him or her weave their way through a story.
Such it is with "Light Years." The animation is certainly above the
quality of your typical commercial studio, but is not as dazzling as
say a Japanese Anime space opera, nor a Disney Production feature; but
it does have a certain quality unto itself. Even so the movie could've
used more shots (cutaways and general coverage) to help move the story
and highlight the characters more. As it stands more the shots are
rather static, and the animation in them shifts gears a little too
often. In some scene the animation is very smooth, where other times is
seems very long and drawn out, or just not well staged.
The film itself has action, but some of the it is stilted and painfully
slow, where other times it moves quite well. The dubbing is adequate,
though, like all dubbed films, one gets the sense that it doesn't quite
catch the tones and inflections of the voices from the original French
cast.
Technology and regimented existence are pitted against the organic and
under-dogs of Ghandahar in a typical sci-fi theme. The film's worth a
night's rental, and if you like collecting rare sci-fi this might be
one to add to your collection. Otherwise it may only be worth a single
viewing.
*EDIT* French Region 2 DVD review, Jan 3, 2010
Well, I finally saw the original French film in all its entirety. As an
American I have to say that I appreciate the additional footage, and
can nod at the more subtle pacing, but I do have to say that I think
the Americanized version has some pluses going for, namely in the
music. The original French score underlines the basic theme of what is
being presented. There are no heroics on the battlefield nor purely
desperate moments as would be conveyed by the American musical score.
The other subtleties are apparent, and I think I better understand why
the American producers did what they did by sexing up what they could.
The French film is more prosaic and "European" (for lack of a better
term) in its presentation of a world in crisis. There's an emotional
malaise characteristic of European cinema as a whole that comes across
in the original French version. There's a subtle (and not so subtle)
nihilistic quality here. Perhaps there's a bit of Nazi occupation still
resonating within this film.
All I can really say is that it's a different film from the American
version. I'm not sure I prefer one too much over the other. There's a
lack of celebration in the French film. There's a kind of fatalistic
quality to that is twisted but still present in the American version.
Whereas the French version of this film emphasizes weathering the storm
and completing the objective, the American version emphasizes
confronting the challenge in a way that we Americans have always done.
There's a lack of ambient depression that seems to hang and mildly
envelope European art, film included. A kind of ethereal drawn out
emotionalism that you'd never see in an American film, but is fairly
strong in Russian and Swedish cinema, and hits French and Italian films
in a less powerful vein.
I would be interested in seeing a DVD of the American version to make a
more thought out and proper comparison. But I guess that'll have to
wait.
5 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
not typical sci-fi, 1 February 2001
Author:
darrylb500 from Houston
I noticed this movie at a local rental place the other week and thought,
'What on Earth is THIS?'
My dad has a book with 17,000 movie reviews--just reviews ranging from a
sentence to a couple of paragraphs--and they gave it 2 1/2 stars--3 being
good--so it was almost good (to them). They chastised the almost
non-existent characterizations, which I agree; we're given a character,
we're given about half a minute background on them, and then this is what
the character has to do. I was surprised that they didn't mention the
almost non-existent voice "acting" (note the quotes), as everyone just
pretty much mumbled their lines...even such a big talent as Glenn Close
(playing the queen) didn't help.
However, please note these are VERY minor gripes. I would've given the
movie three stars myself. It's not the typical sci-fi, with the stupidity
of childhood geniuses and robots with feelings abound (and I don't think
the
stereotypes of "oh no, it's sci-fi AND a cartoon!" help either). It's
very
imaginative, but pretty dark and apocalyptic; probably not for kids
under the age of 6, if not 8.
And on a side note, there was some pretty good music in it, too, and a lot
of it.
2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
anticipation, 16 March 2007
Author:
arsenick from Paris, France
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
It is a very good anticipation movie. the part describing the lovely and environmental gandahar is wonderful. While renewing a 70's vision of sex, nature and happiness, the colors, sounds and pictures (a young girl offering her breast to a new born invented animal who looks like a tapir, born out of a grown plant). the story: mixing future and past, threatening the present by having itself created in the past, the elements that will be dangerous in the future. It is also a huge criticism of the liability of the human being regarding its evil habit to master the nature, th human body and science. In the end, scientific rubbish save the human beings from a great scientific discovery they made years ago. Happiness is conditioned by assuming one's mistakes. A great philosophical tale. The blue skinned woman with head-wings is very impressive, as well as the very beautiful nude females.
2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
One of the Best Science Fiction Films, 20 November 2002
Author:
dragonsquire from Providence, RI
This film was one of the first science fiction cartoons I had seen. Perhaps that is the reason for my high praise of the film. I was engrossed from the very beginning. The dialouge was masterful. What the animation lacked, the combination of the writing and my imagination more than made up for. This film has a PG rating for brief nudity, but I think that children ages 10 on will be very pleased. It treats the audience not as a child or an adult. If you are a fan of hardcore science fiction then this film is for you. If you have never seen a single sci-fi film before, then this is the perfect blend of action and thought provoking images to introduce you to the genre. I will not get into details about the story. You can read the synopsis. In short, I highly recommend this film.
5 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
Decide for yourself..., 30 August 2004
Author:
Logan San from Düsseldorf, Germany
It's not as bad as some people want to make you think. "Time Masters"
is much better, but if you like "Time Masters" (and like it much more
than "The Fantastic Planet") then you'll probably like "Gandahar" (aka
"Light Years") too.
It's true, it has a lot of talk, but that's because it HAS a real story
instead of other so called adult animation movies. The music wasn't bad
(I even find it good), but especially one music was getting on my
nerves at the end of the film. The animation isn't a breakthrough
either, but with it's light effects and the fantastic backgrounds it
was 100 times better than the animation in Fantastic Planet. On the
other hand it's falling to dust if compared to the best Japanese
animation films at that time like "Akira" for example.
Go and decide for yourself!
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