![]() Maybe aliens are more advanced after all! While Kip steps up to help his papa in a pinch, Gary becomes his son’s hero in this adventure. Fortunately this script focuses on positive family relations and parental role models, instead of the usual know-it-all offspring we see in earthling movies. With an all-star cast of voice talent and decent animation, Escape from Planet Earth could have been so much more. (Maybe they are not as smart as they think.) These messages might be subtle but one has to wonder why storytellers can’t come up with a more creative plot that doesn’t rely on the same hackneyed characters. And though the aliens believe they are higher up the evolution ladder, familial fights, nastiness on the job and competition between working women and stay at home moms happen on their planets too. Once on Earth, Gary discovers other aliens Shanker has imprisoned in an old warehouse in the Area 51 compound.Įxpect the typical kind of cartoon violence, punching, threats, food fights, tranquilizer darts and frequent gun usage by a bunch of faceless brutes in yellow hazmat suits. Scorch unknowingly becomes the stool pigeon that transports the final element for the gun when he flies to Earth in response to a SOS call.Īfter Scorch is captured and incarcerated by Shanker, the faint-hearted Gary has to leave the safety of his desk at mission control in order to save face with his son Kip (voice by Jonathan Morgan Heit). And to do so, he is in cahoots with someone from Gary’s planet. (Apparently Apple, Google and Facebook are all the brainchildren of extraterrestrials.) Shanker’s latest quest is to create the universe’s biggest weapon inaptly called a peace gun. Instead he captures out-of-this-world visitors and mines them for their technological ideas. General Shanker (voice by William Shatner) certainly isn’t interested in fostering intergalactic relations. (And yes, aliens suffer from brain freeze as well.) Their peace offering to Gary is a blue Slurpee. One has to wonder about that when the only good guys Gary meets on his mission to rescue his brother from the aforementioned bad military people are two 7-11 employees (voices by Steve Zahn, Chris Parnell). According to the historical literature on planet Baab, earthlings are the only race that is devolving rather than evolving. Escape from Planet Earth is bedeviled with stereotypical characters: bad military personnel, bad government agents, bad Americans, bad human beings. But don’t let the color change fool you into thinking Gary Supernova (voice by Rob Corddry) and his arrogant younger brother Scorch (voice by Brendan Fraser) offer anything different than the norm. Ward.The conventional image of the little green alien is passé. Producers: Catherine Winder, Luke Carroll, Brian Inerfeld.Įxecutive producers: Marvin Peart, Tony Leech, Radenko Milakovic, Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein.ĭirector of photography: Matthew A. Production: GRF Productions, Rainmaker EntertainmentĬast: Brendan Fraser, Rob Corddry, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jessica Alba, William Shatner, Ricky Gervais, Jonathan Morgan Heit, Sofia Vergara, Jane Lynch, Craig Robinson. Opens: February 15 (The Weinstein Company). Nevertheless, the creatures and the human villain provide the necessary spice. Toward the end of Escape, we are treated to sentimental re-affirmations of brotherly bonding that add very little to this adventure. What’s disappointing about so many of today’s animated movies is that even though they run 90 minutes or less, they usually seem padded. A couple of chase sequences take advantage of the 3-D technology. Canadian director Cal Brunker provides an amiable spirit for this caper. Visually the film offers modest if colorful pleasures. On Earth, Scorch and Gary encounter a bevy of other aliens, voiced by performers like Jane Lynch, Craig Robinson and George Lopez, with Steve Zahn and Chris Parnell providing additional comic relief as a couple of trailer-park stoners eager to help the aliens. Corddry and Fraser do well with their roles, though Sarah Jessica Parker and Sofia Vergara are wasted as their love interests back home. Ricky Gervais has some droll moments as the voice of the computer assisting the mission, though he’s underutilized. A documentary shown to Scorch and Gary to illuminate the backward nature of life on Earth is a highlight, though the film should have tried to incorporate more of this puckish social satire. The story lurches forward in fits and starts, but there are welcome bursts of humor along the way. There’s a complication in the form of a traitorous bigwig on Baab ( Jessica Alba), who is having a very long-distance romance with the general, at least as long as he wears his Elvis toupee. From that point on, the plot is predictable and undernourished. ![]()
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