Janus Films has restored French animation director René Laloux’s striking animated feature The Time Masters (Les maîtres du temps) and will give a theatrical run to the new 4K restoration. The film, in original French with subtitles, will open in New York on Friday, July 26, followed by a national rollout.
Watch the trailer, debuting exclusively on Cartoon Brew, for the newly-restored 79-minute film:
Laloux, who is best known for his Seventies sci-fi classic Fantastic Planet, completed The Time Masters in 1982. The film boasts a stunning universe designed by the revered illustrator Jean ‘Mœbius’ Giraud, who also co-founded Métal hurlant magazine (republished as Heavy Metal in the U.S.). Mœbius storyboarded the entire film, as well as designed the characters, costumes, and backgrounds.
The film was animated by Pannonia Studio in Budapest, Hungary. Unlike Fantastic Planet, which was produced at a leisurely pace, Time Masters had a lean budget and tight production schedule, which worked against Mœbius’s elaborate design style. The production was also hampered by language barriers between Laloux and Mœbius and the Hungarian animators. And yet, the film’s original conception is so strong and distinctive, that the limitations don’t compromise the production so much as add to its charm. The Time Masters continues to be a must-see classic in the sci-fi animation canon.
The film was adapted Stefan Wul’s novel The Orphan of Perdide (L’orphelin de Perdide). Here is the film’s official synopsis:
After his parents are killed on the dangerous planet Perdide, young Piel (voiced by Frédéric Legros) survives by maintaining radio contact with Jaffar (Jean Valmost), a pilot transporting the exiled Prince Matton (Yves-Marie) and Princess Belle (Monique Thierry) from their former kingdom. Jaffar seeks the help of Silbad (Michel Elias), a cheerful old-timer who knows how to circumvent Perdide’s hazards, including brain-devouring insects and watery graves. Along the way, Jaffar and company encounter a pair of impish homunculi stowaways, identity-less angels controlled by an amorphous hive mind, and the Masters of Time, mysterious beings who can bend reality and perhaps reveal to the heroes their secret origins and destinies.
Beyond its release of The Time Masters, art house distribution company Janus Films has been pushing more heavily into animation recently. The company, along with Sideshow, recently acquired North America distribution rights to Gints Zilbalodis’ Flow, which premiered earlier this year at the Cannes Film Festival and won four awards last month at the Annecy animation festival.
