DVD Reviews

Planet 51 – Blu-ray Review

By Jeff Swindoll Mar 10, 2010, 16:41 GMT

When Chuck the astronaut (Dwayne Johnson) lands on a distant planet filled with little green people, he is surprised to discover that we are not alone in the galaxy. But he gets the shock of his life when the residents of Planet 51 mistakenly believe that his presence is the start of an alien invasion of the human kind! Luckily, Lem (Justin Long) quickly realizes that Chuck is friendly and ...more

An astronaut steps off his craft to plant old glory on an uninhabited planet. What he finds is that he’s not alone. The green-skinned aliens that witness his arrival think he’s an evil invader and he finds that the inhabitants might have more in common with 1950s America than outer space.

Lem (Justin Long) is your typical teenager. He’s just gotten a job at the local planetarium, his best friend Skiff (Seann William Scott) works at a comic shop, and he nurses a secret crush on Neera (Jessica Biel). The difference is that Lem and company are green aliens.

Their local Cineplex is going to be playing Humaniacs III, about invading alien hoards (aka humans). Something in brewing in space as a mysterious craft has entered the planet’s orbit and awakens a robotic “Rover” that was sent ahead of the expedition and the military put it on ice in their “Base 9” (think: Area 51).

In a way, Humaniacs III begins to come to life when NASA astronaut Chuck Baker (Dwayne Johnson) touches down in alien suburbia. He thought that the planet was uninhabited and it was going to be a cakewalk to plant the flag and go back home. He runs and hides from the just as scared inhabitants and ends up in Lem’s planetarium. Lem eventually discovers that Chuck “means no harm.”

Chuck only has a limited time to get back to his mothership before it turns around and goes back to Earth on auto pilot, but the militaristic General Grawl (Gary Oldham) and scientist Prof. Kipple (John Cleese) want to capture Chuck - Grawl to destroy him and Kipple to dissect his brain.

Planet 51 isn’t exactly setting any standards in CGI animated children’s films, but it is a fun family film that my family enjoyed. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson voices the over-the-top astronaut as a parody of his over-the-top screen persona. Seann William Scott is a comic obsessed sidekick that “falls” for the robotic Rover. Justin Long adds another heroic teen to his resume. Gary Oldham does villainy again, but this time with an American accent and John Cleese does his mad scientist schtick.

No one in the vocal cast is beyond any role that they’ve played in the past. The simplicity of the plot is overcome with the thought that has been put into the world in which it plays out. I was pretty attracted to the alien world that bears a striking resemblance to the 1950s as much as the plot also apes those “monster on the loose” movies that you’d see in that era.

It’s not really explained in the film but I wondered if they intercepted some of our TV shows from that era to base their society on. The whole thing is wonderfully animated in CGI and those sets are detailed and fun (see special features for a better look at them).

I’m a creaky old critic, but the intended audience (aka my kids) had a good time and loved every minute of it. Heck, even I put down the respirator to laugh. Wheeze.

Planet 51 is presented in a 1080p high definition transfer (2.35:1). Special features are presented in high definition. The Blu-ray also has the exclusive “Target 51” game. You also get 3 minutes of extended scenes, the 3 minute “World of Planet 51” which shows you the digital sets, the 12 minute making of “Life on Planet 51,” the 3 minute “Planetarium” that is about the voice cast, the 2 minute “Music Video Montage,” and 15 minutes of animation progression reels. You also get previews of other Sony products and the disc is BD-Live enhanced.

Disc two does double duty as a DVD copy of the film and a digital copy.

Planet 51 doesn’t build any new bridges in family entertainment, but it does manage to entertain the family. Don’t be too hard on it and yours will have good time too.