Most computer animation studios don’t actually aspire to be Pixar. Pixar turns out one entertaining, moving, visually spectacular, critically acclaimed, and ridiculously profitable animated film after another, and that’s a task no sane studio would ever assign itself. No, most fledgling animation houses would prefer to be Blue Sky Studios, the company that made Robots and the Ice Age pictures — formulaic, visually ugly cartoons that nevertheless made hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office without even having to be any good. Which brings us to Ilion Animation Studios, a new computer-animation factory that Sony Pictures has set up in Spain, and to Planet 51, their debut feature, an uninspired sci-fi spoof that will delight no one, but which will probably turn a modest profit in theatres before being promptly forgotten by everyone who sees it, and probably many of the people in the voice cast too.
The premise is a twist on 1950s alien-invasion movies: it’s set on a faraway planet that resembles the United States in the ’50s in every way, right down to the backyard barbecues, the black-and-white TV sets, and the rockabilly music on the jukeboxes — except the inhabitants have green skin, they ride in hovercars, and they keep miniature Giger-esque aliens as pets. (I forgot to check whether these creatures appear on the girls’ skirts instead of poodles.) But this peaceful world is thrown into chaos when a spaceship lands in the middle of town, and an “alien” emerges — actually, a square-jawed human astronaut named Charles (voiced by Dwayne Johnson). With the alien army looking to capture him, Charles convinces a teen named Lem (Justin Long) to hide him until he can sneak back onto his rocket and return to Earth. Low-grade hijinks ensue, as do several lame movie spoofs and a bunch of already-stale jokes about iPods, Facebook, and the macarena.
Even though he seldom appears in good movies, I’ve always liked Dwayne Johnson as an actor, but here’s he stuck playing an obnoxious character (think Buzz Lightyear without the charm) that prevents him from using any of his considerable natural appeal. Meanwhile, Lem — whose name appears to be an unwelcome tribute to the author of Solaris — is a thoroughly generic character, bizarrely more interested in asking Charles for romantic advice than getting information about life on other planets.
The most obnoxious scenes, though, deal with an alien hippie named Glar who keeps singing protest songs and organizing peace demonstrations. The last time we see him, he’s getting a Rodney King-style beatdown from some alien cops — a moment the movie plays for slapstick laughs. The tastelessness of that gag is the only thing about Planet 51 that pierces the stratosphere.
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