Publicity
poster for the original version of Time
Masters (© René Laloux/Tibor Hernádi/Image Entertainment – reproduced here on
a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)
One animated feature film that I've long
wanted to watch but had never succeeded in tracking down (or so I thought...)
was the Franco-Hungarian 1982 movie Les
Maîtres du Temps, or Time Masters
as it was entitled in the English-speaking world. Lately I've been seeking it
out online in DVD format, and have found several foreign-language versions,
with not only the original French audio option but also dubbings into
Hungarian, Russian, and German - but not English, although most versions have
English subtitles, which is better than nothing.
On 11 June 2020, I learnt that an
American DVD of it has also been released, but again it has no English audio,
only French, which seems odd, so I became resigned to having to make do with
subtitles and intended to look out for the American version, which does at
least have the English-language title and cover text. Happily, however, Fate
kindly stepped in at this point, and in a most surprising, greatly-welcomed
manner too.
As we all did back in the day, when I
bought my first VCR (videocassette recorder) in the 1980s it was quite a
novelty to record on blank videocassette tapes for personal viewing all manner
of movies, documentaries, TV shows, etc. Inevitably, however, I never got
around to viewing many of them, and they've been stored down through the many
intervening years in those interlocking plastic videocassette drawers that used
to be so abundant in shops everywhere. Even so, me being me, I did meticulously
list exactly what was on each tape, and kept those listings with the tapes. Later on 11 June, I had a look at those listings, for the first time in a very long while,
and was pleasantly surprised to find some films and shows that I not only had never
watched but also had completely forgotten about - including Time Masters! However, the best was still
to come.
When I promptly placed the tape
containing Time Masters in my VCR and
played it, I was amazed to find that it was an English-dubbed version! The lead
character's voice was that of Ray Brooks, a popular English actor (his films include The Knack ...And How To Get It, reviewed by me here) who has also
supplied all manner of voice-overs for TV advertisements, children's cartoons
(e.g. Mr Benn), etc. Investigating this
version, I discovered that it had been co-produced by the UK's BBC TV company, but
I have not been able to find any mention online of it ever having been released
in any home media format, which is very strange. All that I know is that the BBC
screened it on television in the UK once in 1987 and again in 1991. So I'd been
lucky enough to catch it and tape it during one of these TV showings. Needless to
say, I lost no time at all in sitting back and watching for the first time ever
this hitherto-undiscovered cinematic pearl that had been hidden in plain sight for
so long within my videocassette collection.
Directed by René Laloux (with Tibor Hernádi
as technical director) and based upon a 1958 sci-fi novel by Stefan Wul entitled
L'Orphelin de Perdide ('The Orphan of
Perdide'), Time Masters tells the
story of how on the planet Perdide, far far away, a craft containing a small
child and his parents crashes after being attacked by monstrous insects,
killing the parents. The child, Piel, survives; and thanks to a communications
device shaped like an American Football ball that Piel was given by his father
just before he died, a spaceship piloted by his parents' friend Jaffar is able
to communicate with him and advises him to stay hidden in a weird, coral-like
forest, where he will be safe from the insects until Jaffar's spaceship, the Double Triangle 22, can reach him (it is
currently very far away).
Publicity
poster for the American version of Time Masters
(© René Laloux/Tibor Hernádi/Image Entertainment – reproduced here on a strictly
non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)
To cut a very complex story short, the Double Triangle 22 stops en route on a
planet where Jaffar's friend, an old man named Silbad, who had spent some time on Perdide and is therefore familiar with what to expect there, joins them to help
rescue Piel, after which they journey on toward Perdide. Due to various complications,
however, Jaffar also has to land first on another planet, Gamma 10, which is
inhabited by identical faceless angel-like beings, and prevent himself from being
transformed into one of them. Finally, however, the Double Triangle 22 approaches Perdide, only to be confronted by
immensely advanced beings known as the Time Masters...
The climactic plot twist resulting from
this meeting is very unexpected, albeit featuring the almost de rigueur time
travel subplot that so often crops up in sci-fi movies, and yields, I felt, a
somewhat sad ending.
My one issue with this English-dubbed version
is that some of the voice actors spoke in a curiously expressionless monotone, more
robotic than realistic. Overall, however, Time
Masters is an engaging, engrossing film with beautifully strange animated
layouts and designs based upon the exquisite artwork of the eminent French
comic-book artist/author/designer Moebius (real name Jean Giraud, and whose work had also appeared a year earlier in the animated sci fi/fantasy movie Heavy Metal, reviewed by me here). In short, it is well worth watching,
and the videocassette tape containing this unexpected, much-valued find is now
ensconced with all of my other animation DVDs and videos.
Moreover, I have since discovered that (at
least at the time of my writing this review) the full English-dubbed version of
Time Masters can be viewed here
for free on YouTube. Consequently, I'd advise any animation fan to make the most
of this rare opportunity to watch this elusive version if you have chance to do
so, because I am still unaware of its existence in any DVD or videocassette format,
so if it vanishes off YouTube it may be very difficult to find anywhere again.
And to view a complete listing of all of my
Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly
accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE!
A still
from Time Masters depicting the faceless
angel-like entities encountered by Jaffar on the planet Gamma 10 (© René Laloux/Tibor
Hernádi/Image Entertainment – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair
Use basis for educational/review purposes only)
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