Planet 51

Planet 51
Canadian teaser poster
Directed by	Jorge Blanco Co-Director: Javier Abad Marcos Martínez
Produced by	Ignacio Pérez Dolset Guy Colins
Written by	Joe Stillman
Story by	Original Idea: Jorge Blanco Marcos Martínez Ignacio Pérez Dolset Javier Abad
Starring	Dwayne Johnson Jessica Biel Justin Long Gary Oldman Seann William Scott John Cleese
Music by	James Brett
Editing by	Alex Rodriguez
Studio	Ilion Animation Studios HandMade Films
Distributed by	TriStar Pictures (USA) DeA Planeta (Spain) Entertainment Film Distributors (UK) Alliance Films (Canada)
Release dates	November 20, 2009 (2009-11-20) (United States) November 27, 2009 (2009-11-27) (Spain) December 4, 2009 (2009-12-04) (United Kingdom)
Running time	91 minutes
Country	Spain United Kingdom
Language	English
Budget	€49 million[1] ($70 million)[2]
Box office	$105,647,102[2]

Planet 51 is a 2009 English-language Spanish/British animated science fiction/family comedy film directed by Jorge Blanco, written by Joe Stillman, and starring Dwayne Johnson, Jessica Biel, Justin Long, Gary Oldman, Seann William Scott, and John Cleese. Produced by Madrid-based Ilion Animation Studios and HandMade Films,^[3] it was originally acquired for U.S. distribution by New Line Cinema, but then sold to Sony before it was completed.^[4] Planet 51 was released on November 20, 2009, by TriStar Pictures.^[4] It was originally titled Planet One.^[5] Produced on a budget of $70 million, Planet 51 is the most expensive film produced in Spain.^[1]

Plot

On Planet 51, green humanoids with snail-like feelers and pointed ears live peacefully in a society reminiscent of 1950s America, but with alien technology and with 1950s themed space-ships and alien homes. In the town of Glipforg, Lem (Justin Long) is a teenage boy with a new part-time job at the local planetarium and a long-time crush on his neighbor Neera (Jessica Biel). His best friend is Skiff (Seann William Scott), a big fan of the Humaniacs films. At a barbecue Neera's family is having, Lem tries to ask her on a date; her hippie friend, Glar, keeps interrupting with his protest songs.

Just then, a mysterious spacecraft goes into orbit around Planet 51 and sends out a signal. On Planet 51, under a secret Army installation called Base 9 (their version of Area 51), there is a basement filled with Earth artifacts including robotic satellites launched by the U.S. and the Soviet Union. The spacecraft's signal activates Rover, a wheeled A.I. probe. Rover escapes, following a program to locate the newly arrived astronaut. The Planetary Army becomes suspicious after Rover's escape and begins to investigate.

The mysterious spacecraft touches down in the backyard; NASA astronaut Charles "Chuck" Baker (Dwayne Johnson) emerges. As Chuck plants the U.S. flag, he steps on a "rubber ducky" someone left on the ground. Everyone stares, and Chuck tries to get back into his module. Eckle is in his way, eager for an autograph. Shocked when he realizes he is on an inhabited planet, Chuck runs about wildly and hides at the planetarium as the Army arrives on the scene. Planetary Army General Grawl (Gary Oldman) consults Professor Kipple (John Cleese) about the "alien invader." The Army quarantines the area and asks citizens start a local civil defense force to prevent the citizens from becoming "zombies."

At the planetarium, Lem discovers Chuck's hiding place. They are surprised to discover they speak the same language. Realizing this alien is no threat, Lem decides to help Chuck, hiding him in his bedroom for the night. Rover finds Chuck, who is very happy to see it. As the General and his men search Lem's room, the group sneaks back into the planetarium with Chuck, who tells Lem he has "the right stuff". Chuck also shows Lem the star that Earth orbits and how the universe is much bigger than Lem had thought. The next morning, the Army takes Chuck's module to a secret location.

The next night is the première of a new "Humaniacs" movie; and Lem, Skiff, and Chuck attend in costumes as fans. Chuck introduces some new music as part of the contest and teaches Lem to dance. Things go well until Rover arrives: chaos ensues. General Grawl arrives and points out Chuck's United States Flag insignia is a dead giveaway that he isn't a local. Chuck is captured and unmasked. When Lem tries to keep him from being taken away, General Grawl labels Lem a zombie, and Professor Kipple announces he will dissect both their brains. To protect Lem, Chuck pretends to "release" him from his control. Lem is proclaimed a hero, and Chuck and Rover are taken away.

At Base 9, General Grawl interrogates Chuck, and an accidental gunshot starts a complicated chain reaction with soldiers shooting at each other. General Grawl thinks Chuck is resisting his demands and allows Professor Kipple to have a go at dissecting Chuck's brain. Lem gets his job back at the planetarium and is permitted to speak about the incident on TV, but he cannot truly accept the honor. He feels terrible about Chuck and decides to do the right thing. While he's hot-wiring a car, Neera, Skiff, and Eckle join him to go off to rescue Chuck. The teens know luck is on their side when Rover shows up on the edge of town—he unscrewed the bolts holding together the armored vehicle in which he was imprisoned.

Rover sniffs out Chuck's trail and leads them to an abandoned gas station in the desert. They look around, and Skiff sees a soda bottle in an old refrigerator. When he tries to take it, it opens up the entrance to Base 9. Lem has Glar distract the soldiers guarding the base with his protest group while the rest of them sneak into the base. They find Chuck strapped to a laboratory table, and Professor Kipple getting ready to remove his brain. Lem and his friends break in through the ceiling while Rover scares away the scientists, technicians, and guards. They release Chuck but set off alarms.

Rover helps the group find Chuck's spacecraft, which was in a hangar. General Grawl warns that, if the "alien" tries to leave, the hangar will blow up. The "alien" does try to leave and, in the resulting firestorm, the General is knocked unconscious. Most of the soldiers flee. The teenagers and Rover get into the module, but Chuck rescues the General from the fire. Chuck pilots the ship into orbit around the planet, allowing the teens to experience outer space. Skiff and Eckle enjoy the weightlessness; General Grawl realizes Chuck hasn't turned him into a zombie; and Lem asks Neera out on a date. Chuck returns to the planet's surface. Although the soldiers are ready to shoot anyone who appears, the General stops them. Finally, the inhabitants of Planet 51 see that Chuck came to their planet for peaceful purposes. Chuck lets Rover stay with Skiff and says his farewells to Planet 51. Chuck then leaves Planet 51 peacefully, accompanied by the pet dog that is owned by an alien seen throughout the film (Xenomorph alien), who had sneaked aboard his ship.

During the credits, Professor Kipple emerges from a manhole cover and faces two former patients who drag him off, telling him that he will "love" brain surgery.

Cast

• Justin Long as Lem, a teenage boy living on Planet 51.
• Dwayne Johnson as Captain Charles "Chuck" T. Baker, a NASA human astronaut.
• Jessica Biel as Neera, a teenage girl and Lem's love interest.
• Gary Oldman as General Grawl, afraid of an alien invasion and is convinced that Chuck is an evil, mind-controlling alien who turns people into "alien zombies".
• Seann William Scott as Skiff, Lem's best friend, who works at a comic store.
• John Cleese as Professor Kipple, a phony scientist on Planet 51, determined to study Chuck's brain.
• James Corden and Mathew Horne as two rather gullible soldiers who believe they have been turned into zombies.
• Freddie Benedict as Eckle, Neera's younger brother who is a huge fan of the "Humaniacs" comic books and movies
• Alan Marriott as Glar, a famous ukulele man

Production and release

Planet 51 finished production by June 2009.^[6] In November 2007, New Line Cinema had picked up the United States distribution rights; the studio itself was to release the film in the summer of 2009.^[3] However, TriStar Pictures became the film's home after New Line Cinema sold the rights to them through Sony.^[4] According to the Variety magazine, "Warner decided to let the pic go after the producers insisted on a November release, when Warner is releasing its sixth Harry Potter pic."^[4] The new distributor moved the U.S release date from the summer of 2009 to November of that year.^[4]

Planet 51 is based on the original idea by Jorge Blanco, Marcos Martínez, Ignacio Pérez Dolset and Javier Abad.

Reception

Critical reaction

The film has received mixed, but mostly negative reviews from critics.^[7] Rotten Tomatoes reported that 22% of critics gave Planet 51 positive reviews based on 103 reviews with an average score of 4.2/10.^[8] Another review aggregator, Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating from 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, gave it an average score of 39% based on 19 reviews.^[7]

Adam Markovitz of Entertainment Weekly graded the film a B, as it "delivers a few pleasant surprises, including a smart story".^[9] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave 2½ stars out of 4 and positively wrote of the film being "perfectly pleasant as kiddie entertainment, although wall-to-wall with pop references to the American 1950s."^[10] However, some critics such as Markovitz,^[9] Steven Rea of the Philadelphia Inquirer,^[11] and Brain Miller of Village Voice^[12] acknowledged Planet 51 as "an E.T. in reverse".

Box office

Despite mostly negative reviews, the film performed decently at the box office. The film was released in 3,035 theaters, grossing $3.2 million on its opening day and $12.6 million over the weekend, resulting in the number four position at the box office behind 2012, The Blind Side and New Moon respectively.^[13]

Home media

The film was released on Blu-ray and DVD on March 9, 2010.^[14]

Video game

A video game based on the film was announced in November 2009. The game was published by Sega and was released on Nintendo DS, Wii, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on November 17, 2009.^[15] The console versions was developed by Pyro Studios and the Nintendo DS version was developed by Firebrand Games.^[16] Zed Group, a long-time customer of Trinigy's, worked on the online version of the game with the Vision Engine.^[17]

There are also official games for iPhone,^[18][19] mobile devices and Facebook, developed by Zed Worldwide, which belongs to the Ilion's owner's brother.

Planet One name change issue

The name change from Planet One to Planet 51 was a result of the demands made from another entity branded Planet One, which produces children and teen TV programming. They made contact with the film's producers early on to resolve the trademark and brand confusion issues. The Spanish film company made an offer to Planet One for all ownership rights to their "Planet One" trademarks and related website URLs. Planet One chose not to take that offer and to protect their brand and trademarks that have been active for many years. As a result, the film's producers chose to rename the film Planet 51. Coincidentally, the number 51 in the name also refers to the name of high top secret military base Area 51.

References

External links

• Official website
• Planet 51 at the Internet Movie Database
• Planet 51 at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Planet 51 at Rotten Tomatoes
• Planet 51 at Metacritic
• Planet 51 at Box Office Mojo