Les Maitres du temps (1982)Laloux produced three of the most unique scifi films, La Planete Sauvage (Fantastic Planet), Les Maitres du temps (Time Masters), and Gandahar (Light Years). Fantastic Planet is widely considered to be a favorite among his fans (myself included). But this isn't a review of Gandahar or Fantastic Planet. This review is all about his lesser known film, Time Masters.
As a note, throughout this review I will refer to Les Maitres du temps as Time Masters, even though I did watch the original french version. This is only for my usual laziness of not wanting to type out the full original title.
The plot of Time Masters is easy to grab onto even when reading the subtitles. It begins with Claude (Piel's Dad?) and Piel racing away from an attack (most likely the insects of the planet that eat your brain). Claude crashes the speeder and tells Piel to listen only to "Mike" and to get to a weird coral forest. Mike is just an egg-like microphone that can send messages across the galaxy to someone who has the other mike. This adds an interesting layer because Piel, being maybe ten or so, utterly believes that Mike is alive (or a robot). So when Jaffar (your basic Han Solo) and the Princess talk to Piel via the mike, Piel gets confused because he wonders why Mike has two voices. Once everything is straightened out, Jaffar tells Piel to stay put and he will come and rescue him (because if he leaves the forest the brain eating insects will kill him). That is the basic plot, a race to rescue Piel from the planet of Perdide. However it is what gets in their way across the galaxy that fills up most of the story, as well as what Piel is up to while they are traveling.
The ending twist is pretty big. I would say its on par with the twist in the original SAW movie.
Time Masters art style comes from the famous artist Moebius (Jean Giraud). The style of the film is similar to the later Light Years as opposed to the hand painted look of Fantastic Planet. My only grip is that some characters, namily the prince and princess, look really plain. Kind of like a statue in their facial appearance. That and the princess has no eyebrows which weirds me out. The two gnomes, Silbad, Piel, and that waw-waw creature are probably my favorite designs. Jaffar is pretty good too, he has that tough, rogue look to him, but he just doesn't emote as well as the comical characters.
What I liked: As I stated, there were a few characters that I really liked. Piel is probably my favorite since he was animated with a lot of love. The way he spins Mike the first time he really gets to know him or some of Piel's subtle movements are what really draw you to him. His animation gives a sense of innocence, which when contrasted with the fragile nature of his link with our heroes, makes the tension high. This is especially true when the Prince begins manipulating Piel into drowning himself in a lake.
Silbad and the waw-waw creature are sort of in the same boat for me. They are both a quirky character along the same vein as Disney's humorous sidekick characters (only in this case they aren't annoying or lacking interest in their plight). Both of them have scenes that will stick with you the most (namely because of their depressing nature).
The gnomes (Yula and Jad) are very odd. At first I just though of them as goofy sidekicks like the goofy blob creature from Treasure Planet, but it becomes obvious that they are the narration that surrounds the film. Yula and Jad are creatures that can understand and "smell" human thoughts. If a human has bad thoughts they smell bad for example. The gnomes analyze several characters and explain their intents to the audience by how much of a headache they get from listening to their thoughts.
As with all of Laloux's films, the universe is just as interesting as the film itself. A forest of coral, luminous fruit, flowers that birth little people, and the blob monster that steals souls. Half the time you will be wondering if he either took a lot of drugs or if he really was crazy enough to come up with half of the weird stuff in his movies.
The bad: Alright, while the animation on the goofy characters is great, sometimes the animation on the "straight" characters (anyone who is an adult and not Silbad) is downright nonexistent. Its that bad anime animation where a character is just staring with no movement whatsoever, or just their mouth moves. The spaceship animation could arguably be worse since they are flat paintings that move across the screen. They look beautiful, but once you have seen one perspective of a ship you will end up seeing it again later. The Double Triangle 22 (Jaffar's ship) has a few views but the Interplanetary Reform only has one view resulting in a lot of obvious reuse. While I'm on the topic of spaceships, what's the deal with Double Triangle 22's cockpit? Its a clear glass dome! That's like if the Enterprise had a glass roof and a big red target marking where the command deck was.
I have to say I loved the music from this movie, mainly the intro song, but the song that the Princess sings really threw me. It wasn't the song itself, it was just that there was no suggestion of it. No sort clip of the Princess feeling motherly to Piel and softly singing to him, it was just a hard cut into a musical interlude. That and the fact that there was accompanying instruments to her lullaby. Once she is midway through the song it will feel right, but that initial cut into the song is so abrupt that it will throw you for a few seconds.
Final Verdict: If you like René Laloux's films you will like this one. Its not as much as an acid trip as his other ones, but the plot is very engaging. Its a really cool scifi, homer's odyssey kind of movie (by that I mean it is more about the journey). Unlike my previous reviews, this movie is fine for children. However there two deaths (well three but he's a jerk) and some blood.
This is sort of a side note, but why did they call it Time Masters? Sure the Time Masters are one of the main elements, but that doesn't happen until your 90% through the movie. The last thing you see is an actual Time Master (who look like glowing pod people). I think a title that refers to Piel would make more sense since he is the main focus of the plot. Whatever.
Next time: the movie that almost killed Nelvana, Rock & Rule.
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