Sightlines · reception

How Time Masters was received

1982 · René Laloux · Time Masters on Sightlines

The arc

Released to a muted reception in 1982 — dismissed by many as a step down from Fantastic Planet due to its cheaper, stiffer animation — it's since been reappraised as a cult treasure, largely on the strength of Moebius's designs and that ending.

What’s debated

The eternal fan debate: does the gorgeous Moebius art and haunting finale redeem the visibly budget-strapped animation, or is it a great comic that never quite becomes a great film?

Its footprint

For a generation of British and European kids who caught the dub on TV in the '80s, this is a core 'weird cartoon that quietly devastated me as a child' memory — and its Moebius look feeds the same visual bloodstream that runs through decades of sci-fi design.

Where it stands

A cult object and the perpetual 'second Laloux' — animation heads and Moebius devotees treat it as essential, even as Fantastic Planet hogs the canon slot.

Did you know? It's based on Stefan Wul's 1958 novel L'Orphelin de Perdide — the second time Laloux adapted Wul, after Fantastic Planet — and was animated largely at Hungary's Pannónia studio in Budapest, with Moebius (Jean Giraud) handling the designs.