Has anyone seen "Lightyears"? It's a French animated movie, from the late eighties, that contains some interesting parallels to End Sinister, like cryogenic sleep, confronting an enemy 1,000 years in the future, mutants (if you look closely, you can see one with no nose or mouth, just like End Sin's aliens), and some ultra-bizarre imagery (in one scene, a flower gives birth to what looks like an anteater, and a woman breastfeeds it).

-- Paul D. Gilbreath (gilbreathfamily@worldnet.att.net), June 03, 2000

Answers

"my quest begins with a riddle: in a thousand years, gandahar will be destroyed. a thousand years ago, gandahar will be saved, and all that can't be avoided will be." you know, paul, you're a bit scary when you point to obscure material when exploring possible influences for any given flux episode. as a professional animator, it is almost certain that chung would have viewed "light years" and enjoyed how asimov's fantasy planet, gandahar, was depicted. i would like to point out, however, that the enemy in "light years" is an artificial brain that gandahar's leading scientists created and left abandoned in the middle of the ocean. the mutants (much after the x-men tradition) were outcasted by the society. seen as a threat to the society, the mutants (who were victims of the scientific experiments linked to the creation of the artificial brain) were forced to live underground. but in the thick of battle, the mutants show that they are allies. they are NOT the enemy. therefore, just as in "End Sinister," the 'aliens' are thought to be an enemy but turn out to be human, so too do the mutants in "light years" prove to be fellow brothers of the gandaharian people. rene laloux is a wonderful director of animation. i recommend that you watch "fantastic planet," if you enjoyed "light years." thanks for your wonderful insights. although i never respond, i enjoy reading all the post-its on this site. :)

-- illy (yyen@hotmail.com), June 08, 2000.

Hey, thanks. I think Lightyears (is it Lightyears or Light Years?) was seen by all of 2 people, honestly I didn't expect a reponse. I hear Fantastic Planet was really amazing for it's time, one of these days I'll have to see it. Thanks.

-- Paul D. Gilbreath (gilbreathfamily@worldnet.att.net), June 08, 2000.

Did you know that Isaac Asimov was a biblical scholar? He wrote a book called "the Bible, according to Isaac Asimov." He also didn't believe a writer has to sit back and wait to be inspired, he worked at it like a job. He wrote every day from like 9 to 5 at his typewriter, and wrote like 1000 books/articles.

-- Barb e. (Suesuesbeo@aol.com), June 09, 2000.

Ahhhh i saw that movie before...and i thought i was the only who's seen it! i haven't watched it for quite some time though...i'm going to have to go and rent it now...lol....and fantastic voyage, cool i'm going to look for that one to.

-- Lady Morgan (Aeonfluxfan1@Aol.com), June 11, 2000.

I just went to the video store to rent lightyears and they have never even heard of it! Darn it!!!!! Wonder where i can get it.

-- Lady Morgan (Aeonfluxfan1@aol.com), June 12, 2000.

hi, well, just a thing to say:

www.ygam.fr.st

only french/spanish version at this moment this site is, of course, dedicated to the universe of Rene Laloux , director of la planete sauvage[fantastuc planete)], les maitres du temps [time master] ans Gandahar[light years]

coming soon, the music of Fantasticp, animations about this universe, and a lot of stuff...

:-) bonheur sur vous

maitre sinh

-- maitre sinh (ygam@fr.st), October 22, 2000.

The "American" version of Light Years features the voices of Glenn Close and Christopher Plummer, although the original French version sounds cool.... But you can get it (in English) and Fantastic Planet from "the Whole Toon Catalog" this is THE catalog for hard to find animation they have the Bros. Quay and Jan Svankmajer and of course A/F They are put out by Facets who have also a really good Movie catalog for hard to find exotic (in america anyway) titles! Go to:

http://www.facets.org/

and request a catalog =:}

-- Sean Merli (smerli@earthlink.net), October 22, 2000.

Tish, I love it when you speak French - Gomez

-- Barb e (Suesuesbeo@aol.com), October 22, 2000.

mmmm

salut

i am really surprised that where is more than 10 people interested by Gandahar...and they are in america...;-) well, hope you enjoyed my website about the rene laloux's cartoons (see above the url), there is not a lot of things for the moment about gandahar, but Caza (the one who made the drawings) told me that is going to send me a lot of stuff..so... i have got also the original version in divx, partialy in .rm soon on the site...

anyway, if you like Gandahar, you should LOVE fantastic planete (la planete sauvage), les maitres du temps (time master) and comment wang fu fut sauve, (from marguerite duras novel)

sorry for my english, quite horrible,

a plus

-- philippe dapelo (ygam@fr.st), November 20, 2000.

Time Masters, isn't that the one illustrated by Moebius? Sounds intriguing, I'll have to dig up a copy.

-- Paul (gilbreathfamily@worldnet.att.net), November 21, 2000.

BTW, what is Wang Fu about? Is it by the same director? IMDB doesn't list many foreign films. Oh, and what does Ygam mean? Sorry for all the questions.

-- Paul (gilbreathfamily@worldnet.att.net), November 21, 2000.

My goodness but Moebius is good. I have been looking at his illustrations for only a short while, but the artwork is really beautiful...www.neverland.net//bellamy/english/bd/ebd.html has a nice tribute to him, as for the bellaminettes, well dreams of heffner on his knees do nothing for me when I see this, the old wolf roars still.

-- Barb e. (Suesuesbeo@aol.com), November 25, 2000.

bonjout

well, i will very pleased to answer yout questions, whatever it could be...if only i could speak a correct english...

so ...

-Ygam is the name of the draag's planet -from fantastic planet, the fist (and cult!) movie from Rene laloux(the title is, in fact, in french, savage planet)... hte autour of the original science fiction novel had a particular hability to create poetics neologisms...

-Comment Wang fu fut sauve (how they saved Wang-fu) is a short by the same director (and also the same grafic-artist, philippe caza) from a Marguerite Duras's novel...it's about a tale with a chinese painter of the medieval china...the original novel is really so beautiful, that this cartoon is naturaly lovely...

-About moebius...i had put more things about "les maitres du temps" on my website (time master)...it's not my favorite, but it's true that Moebius world is so incredible that you can't help hallucinate! see creatures likes the "frelons" or views of the Perdide's planet...

maybe i will put the short on my website soon (in april ?)...anyway, i would enjoy to talk with everyone about thi subject...let me remember you that you 've got a forum on the ygam site www.ygam.fr.st, where you can post in english if you want :-), 'cause i will not come here very often...

hmmmm...one more thing, i am just starting to write with/to the director, so if somone want to say him something (admirative? ) let me know...

Ciao

Philippe

-- philippe dapelo (ygam@fr.st), November 27, 2000.

Hi. I have lightyears in french and the name of it there is Gandahar. When i was like 3 years i watched it everyday and allways fall asleep hehehe, i didnt understand much but i liked it, i still like it. It's so odd and cool... Lightyears rules! PS. In the version i have theres a hack so 2 mins is missing, when it starts its lots off slugs...

-- Laser (laser5@spray.se), August 14, 2002.

Hi!

I came across this page while hunting desperately for something Im pretty sure doesn't exist, but I'll try my luck. I love the movie Light Years, and I love the music in it. And I want to find a soundtrack. I dont believe they made one though... If you know of any place to get one PLEASE email me. I will love you forever ;) squee@comicartist.com Rae. :)

-- Rachael (squee@comicartist.com), November 20, 2002.

Hey Squee fan.

-- Sam (janecherrington@paradise.net.nz), November 20, 2002.

The same for me....i like the ambiance of this animation....and i'd really like to buy or get music from it....thanks in advance if someone can help..

-- Nanou (usul@wanadoo.fr), April 28, 2003.

I rented the film at Movie King about a year ago and loved it, I'd like to find a copy of it for sale but have had no luck searching for it anywhere. If anyone knows where I can buy a copy please let me know.

Thanks, Jerimy

-- Jerimy Campbell (jerimycampbell@yahoo.com), October 24, 2003.