An astronaut emerges from his landing module to plant an American flag on a distant, alien world, only to find himself stared at by a city full of startled green-skinned aliens in 1950s garb. It's an amusing setup, and it's enough to keep Planet 51 reasonably entertaining all the way through.
The planet (unnamed, despite the film's title) is populated by an alien society virtually identical to mid-20th-century Earth, a civilization proud enough of its accomplishments to be slightly ignorant of the progress it can still make (the aliens inexplicably believe that the universe is only “500 miles long”). The paranoia and conformity of the ’50s are lampooned by the attitudes of the aliens, who are quite unprepared to handle the shock of finding a human visitor in their midst. They call in the military, which fences off the space capsule and warns everybody about the human invader, who they are convinced intends to eat their brains or turn them into zombie slaves. The hapless astronaut, Charles “Chuck” Baker (Dwayne Johnson), is a harmless blowhard who seeks the assistance of an alien teen named Lem (Justin Long) in order to sneak back onto his ship without causing a panic. Other aliens (and their pets) complicate things, and general wackiness ensues.
The best thing about Planet 51 is the production design, which displays an incredible amount of imagination and looks terrific. Each of the aliens is distinct, appealing and recognizable, despite being smooth, green and dappled with head tendrils. Every detail of this world, from the white picket fences to the saucer-shaped cars, looks simultaneously alien and retro. Perhaps Pixar will notice this and steal some of the design team so that these artists can work their magic on better scripts.
What Planet 51 lacks is wit. None of the characters are fleshed out enough to be amusing on their own, so the film relies on gags to keep the audience smiling, and only about one in four of these gags actually work. Those are adult statistics; I was once young enough to laugh at most of the gags in this movie, so the target audience of youngsters should eat it up, and even the parents will find this stuff pleasant and painless. At least the jokes aren't based on pop culture references that kids won't get (I'm looking at you, Shark Tale). Mind you, some of the gags are a bit on the scatological side — I hope you like jokes about an alien puppy's acidic urine, because there are three of them here.
The fact that this distant planet has a breathable, oxygen-rich atmosphere is acknowledged, but not explained. The same goes for the fact that this planet's inhabitants all happen to speak English. If that doesn't bother you (and it shouldn't), and if the idea of a bunch of aliens in bow ties and poodle skirts appeals to you (and it should), you'll probably get a kick out of Planet 51.
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