"Planet 51"

Post by **Dacey** » February 18th, 2008, 3:03 pm

From the main page:

According to Variety, Jessica Biel has joined Dwayne Johnson, Justin Long and Seann William Scott as the lead voices in Planet 51, New Line Cinema’s first venture into the world of CGI-animated films. Written by Joe Stillman and directed by Jorge Blanco, Planet 51 tells the story of a planet whose inhabitants live in fear of an alien invasion. Their paranoia is realized when astronaut Charles Baker arrives from Earth. Befriended by a young resident, the astronaut has to avoid capture in order to recover his spaceship and return home. The film will be completed by March 2009 and is currently scheduled for a July 24th, 2009, release date.

Does anyone else feel like this sounds an awful lot like "Tera"? Or is this actually what "Tera" has evolved into?

Post by **Meg** » February 18th, 2008, 3:58 pm

This sounds an awful lot like about five different animated films coming out, actually. Sci-fi....It's gonna be big!

Anyway, I do like the look of this so far, though. Could be fun.

Post by **Dacey** » February 18th, 2008, 8:34 pm

I'm guessing that New Line is going to back this one a lot, too. They need a hit after some of the flops they've had lately.

Post by **James** » February 9th, 2009, 7:35 pm

The trailer for this one is pretty funny! Doesn't mean the film will be but we'll see...

http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/planet51/

Post by **Daniel** » February 9th, 2009, 10:09 pm

Cough...

Thanks for the link! Yes, it did seem funny and I liked how they had the tune from Beethoven in the beginning! Animation looks very fluid. Up until a little after the half way point, I was wondering where the laughs were, but they came. Last joke was a good one!

Post by **Ben** » February 10th, 2009, 3:55 pm

Watched this earlier on after James prodded me to see the new Potter trailer.

TriStar? I thought New Line had dibs on this?

I love the look...all clean and shiny, and the Alien dog is a nice nod. I guess more trailers will expand on the story, but this indeed does look fun: I'm getting a better vibe here than for Aliens Vs. Monsters, which is just too self-conscious for me right now. Maybe we'll see more in the trailers but that one just feels like someone actually wants to just get up and keep pointing out all the references on the screen (between all the shouting).

Planet 51 is feeling fun and looking good: it's going to be better than Space Chimps anyway, right?

Post by **Rodney** » February 10th, 2009, 4:03 pm

It looks cute. I like the idea and I like the name. I hope I eventually like the execution. I'm curious to see a new trailer with the story.

Post by **starlioness** » February 11th, 2009, 2:55 pm

eh, I dunno.. I think I'm getting tired of the Space Race.. we've had Wall-e, Space Chimps,Fly me to the moon, Space Buddies. (not animated but still).. now Planet 51 and Monsters and Aliens..

but then there's been a lot of dog movies too this past year so I dunno *shrug*

Post by **Wolf** » July 1st, 2009, 9:02 pm

Another trailer:

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809912816/video/14259558

Post by **ribbedebie** » July 5th, 2009, 7:10 am

This one actually seems fun. I like the concept. When it comes out I'm gonna see it =D

Post by **eddievalient** » July 5th, 2009, 10:42 am

This one looks good. I've always been a big supporter of animated sci-fi films and I like that so many are being made nowadays (Astro Boy, Battle for Terra, Planet 51, Monsters vs. Aliens, Wall-E, etc). Personally, I'd love to see an Isaac Asimov story get made as an animated film (The Caves of Steel would be perfect for it).

Post by **Dacey** » December 6th, 2009, 12:26 pm

Already posted my short thoughts on this in the "Mr. Fox" thread, but figured that I'd go into a bit more detail here.

Basically, while it's not nearly as unbearable as some reviews claim it is, there is really nothing too special about this movie. You can literally predict everything--and I mean everything--that happens in it long before it actually happens. And this isn't just because they gave a lot of stuff away in the trailers. It's because of the way the movie plays out.

For instance, there's one scene where Chuck is giving Lem (the alien who he teams up with) some over-the-top romantic tips so he can win the love of a girl he likes. The instant this happens, you know that Lem is going to try using said romantic tips on said girl later on the film, with predictably disasterous results. And by this point in the movie, you can also predict something else: That it won't be very funny when he does so.

There are also some "character moments" that come into play that seem to pop out of nowhere. Towards the end, Lem is trying to convince the alien general that he can understand why he wants to destroy the astronaut. "You fear what I fear. You fear the unknown. I've always had that problem, but guess what? The unknown is nothing to be afraid of!" I then tried to figure out exactly where in the story it had been even hinted at that this character feared the unknown, or that he even feared anything. And I couldn't come up with anything, no matter how hard I tried.

The voice actors also don't get to do as much as you might like them to. John Cleese is very funny, but when is he not? Gary Oldman is good, but when is he not? Aside from those two always dependable actors, no one really got to bring anything special to their roles. In fact, the most memorable character in the movie is probably Rover, and he doesn't even talk!

I'm probably making it sound as though I hated the movie here. I didn't. There's just nothing about this movie that really makes it a "must-see" by any standards. It's more of a rainy afternoon killer, a pleasant enough way to spend 90 minutes but nothing much beyond that. And considering the very, very clever concept it had, that's a real shame.

American_dog_2008 · Post by **American_dog_2008** » December 6th, 2009, 12:56 pm

Looks Oscar worthy, but hopeful not a winner.

Post by **Dacey** » December 6th, 2009, 1:58 pm

Actually, I'm placing all of my bets on this movie. Not only is it going to win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, but it will almost certainly get a Best Picture nomination as well.

Actually...no, it won't.

Post by **EricJ** » December 6th, 2009, 3:09 pm

Started noticing how most of the marketing was now focusing more on selling "Rover", the little comedy relief sidekick, as the "breakout" character of the movie, rather than the main story:
Gee, a little poor sympathetically-expressive comedy-relief utility robot on wheels who never says anything, that sounds like a great idea for an animated movie!...I'd pay to see that!