Like Fantastic Planet, visually compelling but more than a little light in the loafers. This could be due to Isaac Asimov's involvement in the dub; the story seems to be more of an adventure or fantasy, which is not Asimov's strong suit. I suspect an American producer heard the plot involved robots and made the appropriate calls before actually seeing the film.

With the animated work of Rene Laloux, it is almost expected that the animation is both surreal, especially in his sci-fi work where it looks like a truly alien environment, and beautifully drawn, and his last film is no expectation. Sadly, unlike Fantastic Planet where you were concerned for the main characters, the ones in this are completely uninteresting and extremely bland, and by the end the story is not as interesting either.

As usual, life on other planets is portrayed as only slightly and cosmetically different than life on earth (biologically, socially, aesthetically, etc). Actually, the only thing otherworldly and alien about "Light Years" is the crudeness of its text and glaring lack of intelligence. I suppose imaginativeness is too much to ask from science fiction, but if the setting has to be so banal, at least come up with a mature narrative. Worse than Fantastic Planet.

A thousand years ago, Gandahar was destroyed and all its people massacred. In a thousand years, Gandahar will be saved and what can't be changed will be.

Beautiful surreal scifi story from the director of "Fantastic Planet". The flaws in animation are redeemed by the epic story.

An interesting, odd, and somewhat thought-provoking story from Isaac Asimov. The ending, I found anticlimactic. The animation is rather poor and you can't escape that. Worth watching once, maybe.

Like Fantastic Planet, this is both terrific and flawed.