Cheryl Chia
Image courtesy of Shaw Organisation
“That is a weird place for an antenna” – Planet 51
Despite being rated safe for the kiddies, Pixar Animation’s newest creation has humour that alternates between slapstick and crude with pockets of minor sexual innuendos.
The storyline is predictable much like a reverse E.T. only with the human taking on the role of the alien invader. It also gives many iconic scenes from other alien themed shows, for example, CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) references to the flying bicycle scene in E.T.
That is, if you’re old enough to spot them.
The movie’s opening scene shows 2 alien teenagers from the ‘50s “parking”. For you young’uns out there, “parking” means making, *ahem* whoopee in a parked car. Masquerading as a cartoon for children, Planet 51 is a chock full of running “anal probe” jokes with the protagonist, Lem (Justin Long) accidentally touching his friend Skiff’s (Seann William Scott) used… anal plug.
However, it’s nice to hear Justin Long’s natural voice coming out of an animated character again. I had nearly forgotten how he sounded like after hearing his helium voice as Alvin, from Alvin and the Chipmunks.
Image courtesy of filmofilia.com
The “alien” in this case is astronaut, Captain Charles “Chuck” Baker (Dwayne Johnson). A handsome meathead who wants to just get back in time for the Nicklelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards to be slimed. Mad props to Dwayne for marvellous voice acting on his first try, definitely nothing like a rock. Sorry, bad pun.
Image courtesy of filmofilia.com
He eventually becomes a mentor to Lem and befriends the comic book geeks of Planet 51, who help him find his spaceship that’s held in Base 9 by General Grawl (Gary Oldman), a not-so-subtle spoof of the show District 9. General Grawl also freaks out at an iPod spewing the Macarena, but, then again even I would think my ears were bleeding and clutch my head in agony from listening to the Macarena.
Chuck’s shining moment comes when he puts on tango music and tries to teach Lem cheesy pick-up lines (guys, please don’t ever use such lines) like, “Are sparks flying or is this place on fire?” to use on his poor crush Neera (Jessica Biel). That move, of course, fails badly.
I must admit, I… laughed at the next joke and yes, I feel so ashamed that I did.
After Chuck accidentally dropped his towel, (after being saved from getting his brains cut out) and was standing there in his birthday suit, the alien kids looked at him with curiosity and Skiff spouted this gem of a line, “That is a weird place for an antenna.”
Kid friendly? Only because they’re too young to know what it really means.
Image courtesy of filmofilia.com
But like all animated films, cartoon always aim to impart a value to the kiddies. In this case, the moral would be keeping an open mind as not everything strange or unknown is necessarily a bad thing.
The animation was no great shakes with certain portions still looking cartoonish, but the movie had a great soundtrack filled with remastered 50s music.
With such a tired storyline, save your money and just rent the DVD.
Release Details:
Opens: Dec 10
Duration: 90 mins
Language: English with Mandarin subtitles
Rating: G
Genre: Animation
Director: Jorge Blanco and Javier Abad
Cast: Justin Long, Dwayne Johnson, Jessica Biel, Gary Oldman