9. Fantastic Planet
If you're looking for an animated movie which defines surrealism, you'd be hard pushed to find a better example than in the aptly titled Fantastic Planet, René Laloux's 1973 cult classic and recipient of the special jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Fantastic Planet takes place on a world where humans - known as Oms - live under the yoke of a gigantic alien race known as the Traags, spiritually advanced beings who nevertheless perceive the Oms as pests, frequently culling their population. The closest to affection they give is occasionally keeping one as a pet, which is how Terr came to be raised in the home of a Traag called Tiva, after being orphaned when Traag children accidentally kill her mother. As Terr's knowledge grows thanks to his proximity to the Traag's educational headset, he comes to appreciate free will and escapes with the headset to teach his fellow Oms. It isn't long before a tensions between the Traags and Oms escalate into violent conflict. The visual design by Roland Topor - who had previously created the Panic Movement with Alexander Jodorwsky (another great exponent of surreal cinema) is among the most unique in movie history, infused with an hallucinatory quality which lend it a suitably other-worldly feel. Fantastic Planet is also a symbolic cautionary tale about the nature of aggression and control, an anti-war allegory every bit as relevant today as it was 40 years ago.