Planeta 51

It's an "ET-in-reverse" story. An Earthling astronaut gets stuck on what he calls an alien planet. The local green folks call him (accurately) the alien. The story is a fond tribute to drive-in's, space-creatures sci-fi, and the 50's. With the Area 51 reference in its title, you know the film will be poking fun at everything it can get its hands on, including itself. It delivers this.

There's hover craft that look like big-finned autos of that era, black & white TV, and pioneer rock 'n' roll. It's clever humor, although some of this has been done before. There's a lot of parallels to Monsters vs. Aliens, too, in that frequent references to classic sci-fi flicks (up to the present, not just the 50's) pop up in sight gags and one-liner jokes. My fav was the character that resembled the Aliens movie creatures. There are other clichés sent up for satire: a loud mouth hawkish general, a wanna-be scientist, etc. Adults won't be bored thanks to these in-jokes, and the kids should like the slapstick stuff.

The film boasts a great idea, and some, but not all, of the potential is utilized. It's good natured and fun, rating about average for an animated feature.

Please disregard RichardSRussell-1's review, I am not sure he watched the movie, at least not with very much attention. First, he states "humans as the bad guys" but the only human was the movie's good guy! The military general was the bad guy, and even a four year old could easily see that. Second, I'm not sure if he is familiar with movies playing on themes and paying homage to other movies, stories, and so forth. That's not ripping off, but that reviewer obviously can't even grasp that concept. Countless movies, perhaps most of them, will include scenes and lines deliberately intended to make reference other works – this is not plagiarism, it's paying homage! There has not been a single children's animated movie with this particular theme, not even close (at least no movie or major work). Yes, it is essentially a reverse E.T. and builds on many, many other movies that have come before. But the overall work is not a copy of anything else.

It's a play on the common movie theme, and popular attitude in the 1950's, that all aliens must be terrifying monsters and the civic paranoia and fear that follows the suggestion of an alien visitor. Given that, it *has* to copy themes and images and possibly even lines from other movies. That's the whole point.

Having seen almost every kid's animated movie out there, I found this movie to be very enjoyable and I loved seeing it. More importantly (at least if you're a parent) my kids loved this movie, and they don't like every kid's movie. It may not be the greatest movie of all time, but I would definitely recommend it and a great watch.

First, I'll let you know about our demographic (to help you decide if you will relate to my review or not): I am a parent of a 10 year old boy, a 7 year old girl, and a 2 month old baby. I am in my early 30s, and my wife is in her late 20s. We are moderate movie-goers, as in, we watch a fair number of movies, and we miss a lot of movies. I am University educated, my kids are fairly typical of their age, and my wife is also fairly well educated.

We decided to go to this movie with our children at 9:20 PM on a Saturday Night which was actually also our 11th anniversary. It was a bit of a risk, and considering the rating that this movie seems to have, it could have ended horribly (considering it was our anniversary) We all quite enjoyed this movie. It's not overly complicated, but it's got a fairly unique plot, decent script, excellent character development, and it seems to steer clear of some of the more cliché stereotypes that could have plagued this type of movie.

It's pure fantasy, and it's nearly 100% kids movie, but we adults didn't have to "suffer" through it. My wife and I laughed heartily at much of the situational humour; both my kids laughed uproariously at most of the silly funny moments, and the situational humour. The visuals were quite pleasing, without being annoying (I find the latest 3D craze with so many movies rather annoying, for example). The voices were well cast, the scripts and voice-acting was well done and quite seamless. I didn't find myself thinking, "I know who that voice is!" at all, because it wasn't something that popped into my mind.

So, I gave this a 7. Why not higher?, you might ask. Well, it's not ground-breaking, it wasn't epic, and it wasn't a movie that leaves me thinking about something for a long time. It wasn't lower because there was nothing blatantly bad about this show. It was all enjoyable, and none of us regret having seen this show on our anniversary.

I hope my review helps you decide to go see this film :D

In this successful Spanish picture there are humor , rip-roaring adventures , action , thrills and many other things . It deals with an American astronaut Captain Charles "Chuck" Baker (Voice by Dwayne Johnson) lands on Planet 51 thinking he's the first person to step foot on it. To his surprise, he finds that this planet is inhabited by little green people who are happily living in a white picket fence world, and whose only fear is that it will be overrun by alien invaders like Chuck. But on this alien planet the media has tagged spacemen as brain-eating, zombie-creating monsters, causing Baker to run . The planet is set in the 50s and even though much on the alien planet is round in design, nothing has wheels . There Chuck meets Lem (the name voiced by Justin Long, is also the abbreviation for Lunar Excursion Module. NASA's LEM was used as part of the Apollo program to land astronauts on the moon) , an average teenager working on getting the girl named Neera (Jessica Biel's voice) and furthering his career at the local planetarium . While , Chuck's command module called Odyssey (this is the same name of the command module used in the Apollo 13 mission) is orbiting the planet .

Fabulous and amusing C.G. animated film , lavishly produced and achieving a big success . Gorgeous and astounding animated picture with outstanding and fantastic starring , an astronaut called Chuck and his good friend , Lem . Fun story of outland space plenty of adventures , bemusing situations , fights , chuckles , emotion , and action . Entertaining and solid retelling from Atresmedia Cine , the film division of DeAPlaneta's broadcasting group Atresmedia or Antena 3 , co-produced Planet . The whole piece of adventure teems with excitement , thrills , humor , astral atmosphere and being pretty amusing . The movie was originally going to be called "Planet One" but the owners of Planet One, who make children's and teen TV programs in the USA, threatened to sue . The film's producers chose to call the movie Planet 51 (2009), acknowledging Area 51, the supposed center of UFO investigation in America. Spain's animation output is now knocking on global market doors, boosted by the growing commitment of private broadcasters such as Antena 3 TV . Ilion Animation Studios' $60 million Planet 51, a Sony U.S. pickup, paved the way by scoring $105.7 million worldwide in 2010 . Formerly , the great producer , Julio Fernandez from Fantastic factory had produced successful animated pictures such as ¨El Raton Perez I and II¨ or "The Hairy Tooth Fairy", ¨Donkey Xote¨ , ¨Gisaku¨ , ¨El Cid : the legend¨ by Jose Pozo and ¨Goomer¨. Two of Spain's more anticipated releases — the $28.6 million-budgeted "Justin and the Knights of Valour," produced by Antonio Banderas, and Argentinian Juan Jose Campanella's $20 million Foosball are animated features.

The motion picture was compellingly realized by a trio of perfect filmmakers as Jorge Blanco , Javier Abad and Marcos Martinez ,with a high budget of $70 million, this is the most expensive movie produced in Spain . Production lasted 16 months, roughly half the amount of time it takes to make a Pixar movie. Rating : Above average , worthwhile watching .

I have always loved animation, whether it's cartoons(Looney Tunes and Silly Symphonies), films or TV shows. Planet 51 is not a bad movie, but at the end of the day it felt rather bland. I've seen worse certainly, but I can also think of better out there. The animation is wonderful though, very rich in colour and detail. The soundtrack is memorable, there are a few funny moments that will have children chuckling, fun set pieces and a couple of Cold War pastiches that will keep adults interested, Rover is a great character and by far the best character of the movie and it all begins very promisingly. The voice cast are full of great actors, especially Gary Oldman and John Cleese, and Planet 51 generally uses them well, Dwayne Johnson is an especially likable lead. However, the story, despite its great premise, is rather weak and unoriginal in structure and after a promising twenty minutes it is never quite as interesting. I liked the Cold War pastiches, but some of the other references were verging on tired. Among the funny moments, there is the overall mediocrity of the script, with a lot of clichéd dialogue. The characters are weak and stereotypical, with one of the blandest villains I've seen in an animated film recently, and the ending is very predictable. In conclusion, looks great but at the end of the day it felt very bland and forgettable. 6/10 Bethany Cox