Rating: 7/10

Writer: Joe Stillman
Director: Jorge Blanco, Javier Abad (co-director), Marcos Martinez (co-director)
Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Jessica Biel, Seann William Scott, Justin Long, Gary Oldman
Studio: TriStar Pictures

I went into PLANET 51 short on expectation, due to my history with animated features. Let’s face it, generally they are dumbed down to the point where they’re condescending to kids and hard to enjoy for adults. I’m pleased to report, though, that PLANET 51 is a bit of an exception.

The movie cleverly turns the conventions of the 1950s alien-attack B-movies on their head. There is the normal, suburban community, filled with kids playing on the street and dads cooking up some burgers on the grill and there is the alien spaceship that threatens to destroy society as we know it. Except, in this case, we are the aliens.

At no point during the film do we get a glimpse of Earth. Instead, the film follows the story of Lem (voiced by Justin Long), a little green teenager living on Planet 51, a place where the 1950s rule (right along with malt shops and early rock n’ roll music) and the rain is made of rocks. Lem is a normal kid in a normal town. He watches movies, reads comics, has a crush on a girl, and dreams of outer space, which he and his entire planet believe is only 500 miles long. Definitely not big enough to sustain extraterrestrial life.

Then, out of the sky comes Captain Charles “Chuck” Baker (voiced by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson), an astronaut from Earth whose spaceship lands in Lem’s backyard in the middle of a cookout. The duel culture shock causes Baker to flee as a crowd and the army surround his ship. He ends up at the local museum, where Lem has just gotten a job and the two form an unlikely partnership (despite not being able to decide which of them is the alien) to get Chuck back to his ship before it leaves for Earth, leaving him stranded forever.

It’s in their partnership that the movie truly shines. The voice-acting by Dwayne Johnson is really great. One of my favorite parts of watching him when he does his SNL appearances is his cockiness, which he has always been able to use for comedic effect. Working with the animators, Charles “Chuck” Baker’s “God’s gift to women” mentality is perfectly captured, only in this case, he’s also God’s gift to aliens.

Justin Long, on the other hand, does his usual nerd-boy routine. He’s unsure of himself and lacks most of Baker’s suave moves, but together they make a pretty terrific team and the obvious message of diversity and acceptance never becomes overly sappy.

The script is from Joe Stillman, who also wrote the first two SHREK movies, but it is surprisingly devoid of annoying pop culture references. Instead, most of the funny references come from Chuck, who is an obvious fan of STAR WARS, and 1950s B-movies. Most of these will go over kid’s heads, but for a movie nerd like me it was very enjoyable.

PLANET 51 is short on explanations. Why is this planet stuck in the 1950s? Why do the inhabitant’s scary monster movies have to do with humans attacking? How do they even know of the existence of humans? Most mind-boggling of all, how do they speak English despite being light years away? Normally little things like this would bug me, but the movie is so engaging and the characters are so delightful that I found myself not caring, right along with all the families in the theater with me.