How a French graphic novel spawned one of 2016’s most acclaimed films

Let it be known that the French filmmakers behind April and the Extraordinary World, a new hand-drawn animated feature based on Jacques Tardi’s graphic novel, were not influenced by Fantastic Planet – even though the 1973 film remains a benchmark of France’s animation industry.

Released more than four decades apart, both stories are sci-fi adventures revolving around human attempts to free themselves from the oppression of fantastical creatures.

When they are asked about René Laloux’s counterculture classic just before the Hong Kong premiere of April, which screened last week as the opening film of this year’s Le French May cinema programme, both Christian Desmares, the film’s co-director, and Luciano Lepinay, its artistic director, offer a resounding “no” to the cinematic lineage that cineastes everywhere are eager to infer.

“That said, it’s true that René Laloux came from around the same period as Jacques Tardi,” says Desmares, who is making his feature directing debut alongside co-director Franck Ekinci. “Through learning about Tardi’s work, we got to know more about the work of his contemporaries as well.”

It would certainly appear that to clarify the cultural influences surrounding April is to bring up some of the biggest names in the realms of graphic novels and animated features.