This has been bugging me for years. I watched this incredibly memorable animated film or series as a child in France in the 80s/90s and cannot find the name of it. It has a particularly haunting soundtrack that is unmistakable. It's very unique and doesn't match the style of animation I have seen before or since.
The unique style of animation makes me think that this was European or soviet, rather than American or Japanese.
After reviewing many examples from that time period, I think it was either Soviet or Eastern European.
Definite details:
- An egg-shaped white space ship lands on a planet
- The soundtrack is haunting and hard to forget
- The animation style is unique and different from other animated media of the era (not traditional French/Belgian, not American/Disney, not typical manga)
- Available in France in the late 80s / early 90s on VHS
- Sense of gravitas
- Colour palette is muted, washed out, darker and lower contrast than most animation of that period.
Maybe:
- The characters wear differently coloured jumpsuits.
- The spaceship lands in a jungle.
- It's possible the film / series was created in the 70s or earlier given its different animation style.
- I don't think it had weird creatures, or comic relief of any sort. I'm pretty sure this was targeted at an adult audience.
- It may be an animated short, rather than a feature.
It is not:
- Fantastic Planet / La planète sauvage
- Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.
- Time Masters / les maîtres du temps
- Legacy from the Future - Fantastic Adventures of Family Mézga
- Ulysses 31
- Once Upon a Time... Space / Il était une fois... l'espace
- Captain Future / Capitaine Flam
- Planeta 888 (although that's in the ballpark)
- Angel's Egg
- Once Upon A Time / Когда то давно although the soundtrack is in the right direction
- Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea / Les Mondes Engloutis
I went through sci-fi
& animation
in IMDb for the 1960s without any luck.
I went through IMDb's 10659 entries for Sci-Fi
, animation
, colored
or colorised
between 1970 and 1994 without finding it.
I have confirmed with my relatives that this is not a figment of my imagination and took the form of VHS tapes. They can't remember the title either.
Found!
Thanks to @McTroopers! The animation is Misiunea Spațială ”Delta” a Romanian animated feature from 1984. You can find the entire movie on youtube, including egg-shaped spacecraft and walk through jungle with strange music.