The animated pic "Planet 51" – a Spanish/English/American co-production directed by Jorge Blanco - turns the sci-fi genre on its ear by having the earthlings be the alien invaders from outer space rather than the other way around. The planet that NASA astronaut Charles "Chuck" Baker (Dwayne Johnson) lands on looks and sounds suspiciously like a space age version of the 1950s, where English is the spoken language, rocks fall like rain from the sky, rock'n'roll classics blare out from every radio and jukebox, malt shops and bowling alleys serve as the primary venues for recreation and socializing, cheesy science fiction movies dominate the culture, and women in poodle skirts and bouffant hairdos ride around in cars that don't touch the ground. Lem (Justin Long) is a local teen who hides Baker when mass hysteria on the part of the community threatens this stranger from outer space with imprisonment, dissection or worse.
Most of the humor in this sly parody of "The Day the Earth Stood Still" derives from the anachronisms of the setting, as pop culture references, both old and current, pour forth from the screen with reckless abandon. The screenplay by Joe Stillman isn't always as sharp and sophisticated as the idea behind it would warrant, but the action is fast-paced, the voice work spot-on and energetic (with major assists from Jessica Biel, Gary Oldman, Seann William Scott and John Cleese), and the visual style so cheerful and appealing that only a total meanie would expend time pointing out the movie's few imperfections. In many ways, it's less pretentious and more fun-loving than some of the more arty and cerebral Pixar extravaganzas of recent times – which makes it a nice fit for old and young alike.
Most of the humor in this sly parody of "The Day the Earth Stood Still" derives from the anachronisms of the setting, as pop culture references, both old and current, pour forth from the screen with reckless abandon. The screenplay by Joe Stillman isn't always as sharp and sophisticated as the idea behind it would warrant, but the action is fast-paced, the voice work spot-on and energetic (with major assists from Jessica Biel, Gary Oldman, Seann William Scott and John Cleese), and the visual style so cheerful and appealing that only a total meanie would expend time pointing out the movie's few imperfections. In many ways, it's less pretentious and more fun-loving than some of the more arty and cerebral Pixar extravaganzas of recent times – which makes it a nice fit for old and young alike.