Escape from Planet Earth
Director: Cal Brunker
Actors: Jessica Alba, Ricky Gervais, Rob Corddry
Release Date: Monday 30th November -0001
Genre(s): Animation
Running time: USA, Canada minutes
When genius alien Gary Supernova (an oddly unfunny Rob Corddry) finds out that his celebrity hero younger brother Scorch (Brendan Fraser, clearly having a blast) has been taken captive on the Dark Planet, aka Earth, he must up and leave his comfort zone - as well as his home world - in order to rescue him. Once he gets to Earth however, he finds that his own boss Lena (Jessica Alba) is in cahoots with an evil human General (William Shatner) to take over the entire universe.
Released in February 2013 in the States, and already available on US Netflix, the delayed release is never a good sign. Also, aside from Monsters VS Aliens, extra-terrestrials and animation never seem to mesh well, with the likes of Treasure Planet and Mars Needs Moms being two of the biggest box office bombs in recent years.
In truth, Escape From Planet Earth isn't very good, but it's also not without merit. The vaguely impressive voice cast - aside from those already mentioned above, there's also the likes of Ricky Gervais, Sofia Vergara, Steve Zahn, Craig Robinson, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jane Lynch and more besides - bring a decent energy to proceedings. Which is for the best, since the movie zips along at warp speed, with barely a second of silence or stillness to be found.
Kids will dig the colourful visuals and adorable creatures, and parents aren't completely forgotten about, with a few references thrown in just for them. Plus the message of the movie - love your family, and have respect for nerds - is as basic as they come.
Which is also the case for the movie as a whole. Escape From Planet Earth is not attempting to do anything new, and fails to do anything all that well, but as a very basic form of family entertainment, it gets a pass.
