Les dents du singe

I was able to catch this short on the DVD for "The Fantastic Planet". It starts out with live action. Patients are calmly strolling around an apparent mental facility of some type. A group of them get together and create a story. The story they come up with is shown in animation.

It involves a dentist who pulls all of the teeth out of the patients who come to visit him. The teeth are then sold to rich people who want them. I would think that word of mouth would quickly kill off his business...but apparently not. Anyway, we are shown a patient get all of his teeth removed. The patient passes out and the dentist lugs his body all the way out to the countryside (on foot no less!). The patient wakes up and follows the dentist back to the city.

While in the city, a group of policemen start following the patient. The policemen walk onto the grounds of a high school and mysteriously turn into kids. The "kids" then end up in an anatomy class. By the way...we are occasionally treated to a view of some sort of monster riding around on a bicycle.

How does the mysterious creature factor into this dental fiasco? For those of you whose interest is now piqued, you will have to watch the short to see how this all ends up. Or you can do yourself a favor and skip it. 1/10

This was the first work of the french animator René Laloux( director of animated films like "Fantastic Planet" "Time Masters" and "Gandahar") Like his other works, this short has a strange story and strange visuals as well. However, it still was pretty interesting to watch, mostly because Laloux manages to create a fascinating and a unique world, even with very little resources.

Apparently, Laloux made this short as part of a experiment with patients of a psychiatric institution (This fact will explain a lot of things) Still, I think this is a fascinating, unusual animation, very much like the other works of René Laloux.

Rene Laloux was not involved in the writing of this story, which was done by the patients of an asylum. Which immediately brings the challenges of 'automatic writing' in mind.

What is brought to us, the viewers, is a lovely tale filled with obvious and undercurrent symbolism, appealing like primitive painting and with a depth that is breathtaking.

For those who want clear cut straight run of the mill storytelling with not too much story in it ... shy away from this little gem.

For all that like everything that promises to give more than meets the eye: do not miss this short !!

(Nor the other 2 Miracles which are given as an extra on the Anchor Bay DVD-release of Fantastic Planet/La Planete Sauvage !!! That whole DVD is a Roland Topor feast; the grand artist collaborated on all titles of the DVD but this TEETH OF THE MONKEY.)