I was talking to my wife about
Fantastic Planet shortly after we'd recorded the podcast, and I thought of a lot of things I wish I'd said. So I'll just say them now!
I touch on this in the podcast a little, but the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that the film's about knowledge more than anything else. Obviously, the Oms are oppressed, but the why is the focus: they're oppressed because they're ignorant. They don't deserve to be treated like animals, but they
do act like them, drinking blood, participating in Pagan-esque sexual rituals, and fighting amongst themselves despite sharing a much larger common threat. And it's their disposal of these things that ultimately gains them equality. They stop being oppressed when they know enough to realize they are being oppressed.
At first, I thought it was odd how quickly they utilized technology and put themselves on even (or perhaps even superior) footing to the Draags. But the more I think about it, the more it makes sense: the Oms cherish their knowledge, because they have to struggle to get it. Terr uses the learning device whenever he gets a chance, whereas Tiwa has to be scolded into doing it, like most children with their homework. Terr has to drag the device around with him in order to continue learning.
It's like that quote from Ian Malcolm in
Jurassic Park (emphasis added): "I'll tell you the problem with the scientific power that you're using here:
it didn't require any discipline to attain it."
The Draags are complacent. They are decadent. They take their knowledge for granted and spend all day in some sort of meditative sex state. Nobody notices or cares when an Om makes off with one of their learning devices. But when one of them interferes with their Space Sex Waltz? Sound the freakin' alarms.
There's probably a lot more to say about this, and I expect reading the source material (a book) might shed a little light on the original intent. But I think there's a lot here about not just oppression, but the kinds of indirect ways that people either become oppressors, or allow themselves to stay oppressed.