Les dents du singe (1961) User Reviews

Very odd animation with an interesting genesis

[Red-Barracuda · 7/10 · 22 March 2013]

Animator René Laloux conceived of a different approach in coming up with the content for this cartoon. He decided to use the therapy sessions for the inmates of an asylum as a basis for a story-line. Basically the patients wrote the plot and designed the backdrops. Laloux then went away and animated it. What came out was decidedly strange, yet fascinating. It begins with live action with shots of the grounds of the asylum and the patients, while a voice-over explains the set-up. Then we are thrown into the cartoon.

It's about a dentist who removes the teeth of poor patients and sells them on to the rich. A hapless victim visits him and has his teeth removed. He passes out and experiences a strange dream. The dentist then drags his unconscious body all the way out to a remote wasteland. He returns to the city but is followed by policemen. Meanwhile, a monkey magician rides a bicycle in the background seemingly directing events, which just get more and more weird until the monkey ultimately gets vengeance on the dentist on behalf of the poor victim.

It's kind of like what would have happened if the Hanna-Barbera team took hallucinogens one day and started work on a new cartoon. The result is a very surreal film, with appropriately ominous music and primitive animation. It's mostly a strange mood piece but I have to say it's pretty successfully bizarre.

I think that this was pretty good.

[Rectangular_businessman · 7/10 · 10 June 2010]

This was the first work of the french animator René Laloux( director of animated films like "Fantastic Planet" "Time Masters" and "Gandahar") Like his other works, this short has a strange story and strange visuals as well. However, it still was pretty interesting to watch, mostly because Laloux manages to create a fascinating and a unique world, even with very little resources.

Apparently, Laloux made this short as part of a experiment with patients of a psychiatric institution (This fact will explain a lot of things) Still, I think this is a fascinating, unusual animation, very much like the other works of René Laloux.

A quirky and fascinating little film with bags of charm

[fishermensmell · 7/10 · 14 December 2020]

I really enjoyed this unusual little film. The version I saw started with a brief filmed introduction showing the La Borde clinic and explaining the approach to treatment and the process by which the characters and plot of the film were constructed (i.e. through workshops the director, Rene Laloux held with patients).

That plot goes something like this: a man visits a dentist, who has something of a side-line going in selling teeth to presumably affluent clients. During the extraction of all of his teeth, the drowsy man recalls his wedding day and the sensation of his teeth being pulled makes him dream that giant pliers are plucking all of his guests from the table. The wicked dentist dumps the prone body of the man far from town, but his act is witnessed by a cycling monkey who becomes something of a guardian angel to the man and ultimately exacts a satisfying measure of revenge on the dentist and rights all wrongs.

The animation is crude but inventive, using stop-frame animation of shadow-puppet-like cut-outs, whilst visually it adopts a sort of primitivism that is reminiscent of West African folk art. It's extremely charming and characterful.

Almost childlike in terms of its narrative and abandon of conventional reality, the film however exposes the underlying anxieties of its creators: the mistrust of medical professionals; the sad isolation of the toothless man remembering his happy wedding day; a fear of authority figures. But as the film's introduction reminds us, "it is not our place to explain either the obvious or the hidden motivations" of the film's writers, so just sit back and enjoy the surreal creativity on show!

Those crazy French!

[BrettErikJohnson · 1/10 · 5 October 2003]

I was able to catch this short on the DVD for "The Fantastic Planet". It starts out with live action. Patients are calmly strolling around an apparent mental facility of some type. A group of them get together and create a story. The story they come up with is shown in animation.

It involves a dentist who pulls all of the teeth out of the patients who come to visit him. The teeth are then sold to rich people who want them. I would think that word of mouth would quickly kill off his business...but apparently not. Anyway, we are shown a patient get all of his teeth removed. The patient passes out and the dentist lugs his body all the way out to the countryside (on foot no less!). The patient wakes up and follows the dentist back to the city.

While in the city, a group of policemen start following the patient. The policemen walk onto the grounds of a high school and mysteriously turn into kids. The "kids" then end up in an anatomy class. By the way...we are occasionally treated to a view of some sort of monster riding around on a bicycle.

How does the mysterious creature factor into this dental fiasco? For those of you whose interest is now piqued, you will have to watch the short to see how this all ends up. Or you can do yourself a favor and skip it. 1/10

Nice idea, not so nice execution

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 29 July 2016]

"Les dents du singe" or "Monkey's Teeth" is a French 11-minute animated short film from 1966, so it's already over 55 years old. The director here is René Laloux and he made a film based on the idea of mental health patients. What we see in this film is consequently very absurd. We have an evil dentist who takes teeth from the poor to give them to the rich, but a monkey is ready to take revenge for the poor. The animation here did not really impress me and yeah well.. the story is just too bizarre to actually really get me interested. It was still a decent project, but it does not need to be done more than once. There is a good reason why mental health patients don't write screenplays and this has nothing to do with their mental state, but just with their lack of writing talent as it can be said about all other non-creative professions too. I wish I could, but I cannot recommend the watch. Thumbs down.

Small Wonder Of Surrealism

[wobelix · 9/10 · 20 November 2004]

Rene Laloux was not involved in the writing of this story, which was done by the patients of an asylum. Which immediately brings the challenges of 'automatic writing' in mind.

What is brought to us, the viewers, is a lovely tale filled with obvious and undercurrent symbolism, appealing like primitive painting and with a depth that is breathtaking.

For those who want clear cut straight run of the mill storytelling with not too much story in it ... shy away from this little gem.

For all that like everything that promises to give more than meets the eye: do not miss this short !!

(Nor the other 2 Miracles which are given as an extra on the Anchor Bay DVD-release of Fantastic Planet/La Planete Sauvage !!! That whole DVD is a Roland Topor feast; the grand artist collaborated on all titles of the DVD but this TEETH OF THE MONKEY.)