Planet 51
Encyclopedia
Joe Stillman
Joseph Stillman is an American television and movie writer, producer and director.Before becoming a screenwriter he worked for several TV shows like Beavis and Butt-Head, King of the Hill, Doug and The Adventures of Pete & Pete....
, and starring Dwayne Johnson, Jessica Biel
Jessica Biel
Jessica Claire Biel is an American actress, model, and occasional singer. Biel is known for her television role as Mary Camden in the long-running family-drama series 7th Heaven...
, Justin Long
Justin Long
Justin Jacob Long is an American film and television actor. He is best known for his roles in the Hollywood films Galaxy Quest, Jeepers Creepers, Dodgeball, Live Free or Die Hard, He's Just Not That into You, Drag Me to Hell, and Youth in Revolt, and his personification of a Mac in Apple's "Get a...
, Gary Oldman
Gary Oldman
Gary Leonard Oldman is an English actor, voice actor, filmmaker and musician.A member of the 1980s Brit Pack, Oldman came to prominence via starring roles in British films Meantime , Sid and Nancy and Prick Up Your Ears , with his performance in the latter bringing him his first BAFTA Award...
, Seann William Scott
Seann William Scott
Seann William Scott is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for playing Steve Stifler in the American Pie film series...
, and John Cleese
John Cleese
John Marwood Cleese is an English actor, comedian, writer, and film producer. He achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on The Frost Report...
. Produced by Madrid-based Ilion Animation Studios
Ilion Animation Studios
Ilion Animation Studios is an animation studio based in Madrid . The studio was established by the founders of Pyro Studios, a video game development studio, to create state-of-the-art computer-animated movies for theatrical release around the world, using purpose-built technology enabling it to...
and HandMade Films
Handmade Films
HandMade Films is a British film production and distribution company. Through a series of sales, and acquisitions, the company now known as Handmade Plc owns all the rights and assets of the original HandMade Films Ltd...
, it was acquired for U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
distribution by New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema, often simply referred to as New Line, is an American film studio. It was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne as a film distributor, later becoming an independent film studio. It became a subsidiary of Time Warner in 1996 and was merged with larger sister studio Warner...
in November 2007. Planet 51 was released on November 20, 2009, by Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group
Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group
Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions is a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment. The company specializes in acquiring and producing films for a wide variety of distribution platforms, but the group's main focus is non-theatrical markets .SPWA was formerly a division of Sony Pictures Home...
via TriStar Pictures
TriStar Pictures
TriStar Pictures, Inc. is an American film production/distribution studio and subsidiary of Columbia Pictures, itself a subdivision of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, which is owned by Sony Pictures...
. It was originally titled Planet One. Produced on a budget of $70 million, Planet 51 is the most expensive movie produced in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
.
Plot
On Planet 51, green people with snail-like feelers and pointed ears live peacefully in a society reminiscent of 1950s1950s
The 1950s or The Fifties was the decade that began on January 1, 1950 and ended on December 31, 1959. The decade was the sixth decade of the 20th century...
America. In the town of Glipforg, Lem (Justin Long
Justin Long
Justin Jacob Long is an American film and television actor. He is best known for his roles in the Hollywood films Galaxy Quest, Jeepers Creepers, Dodgeball, Live Free or Die Hard, He's Just Not That into You, Drag Me to Hell, and Youth in Revolt, and his personification of a Mac in Apple's "Get a...
) is a teenage boy with a new part-time job at the local planetarium
Planetarium
A planetarium is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation...
and a long-time crush on his neighbor Neera. His best friend is Skiff (Seann William Scott
Seann William Scott
Seann William Scott is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for playing Steve Stifler in the American Pie film series...
), a big fan of the Humaniacs films.
At a barbecue
Barbecue
Barbecue or barbeque , used chiefly in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia is a method and apparatus for cooking meat, poultry and occasionally fish with the heat and hot smoke of a fire, smoking wood, or hot coals of...
Lem's family is holding for the neighborhood, Lem tries to ask Neera on a date; but her hippie friend, Glar, keeps interrupting with his protest songs.
A mysterious spacecraft
Apollo spacecraft
The Apollo spacecraft was composed of five combined parts designed to accomplish the American Apollo program's goal of landing astronauts on the Moon by the end of the 1960s and returning them safely to Earth...
goes into orbit around Planet 51 and sends out a signal. Down on Planet 51, under a secret Army base called "Base 9" (their version of Area 51
Area 51
Area 51 is a military base, and a remote detachment of Edwards Air Force Base. It is located in the southern portion of Nevada in the western United States, 83 miles north-northwest of downtown Las Vegas. Situated at its center, on the southern shore of Groom Lake, is a large military airfield...
), there is a basement filled with Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
artifacts including robotic satellites launched by the U.S. and the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. The spacecraft's signal activates Rover, a wheeled A.I.
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
probe. Rover escapes, following a program to locate the newly-arrived astronaut. The Planetary Army becomes suspicious after Rover's escape and begins to investigate.
At a barbecue, the mysterious spacecraft touches down in the backyard; and NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
Astronaut Charles "Chuck" Baker (Dwayne Johnson) emerges. As Chuck plants the U.S. flag, he steps on a "rubber ducky" someone left on the ground. Everyone stares, and Chuck tries to get back into his module; but Eckle is in his way, eager for an autograph. Shocked when he realizes he is on an inhabited planet, Chuck runs about wildly and hides at the planetarium as the Army arrives on the scene.
Planetary Army General Grawl (Gary Oldman
Gary Oldman
Gary Leonard Oldman is an English actor, voice actor, filmmaker and musician.A member of the 1980s Brit Pack, Oldman came to prominence via starring roles in British films Meantime , Sid and Nancy and Prick Up Your Ears , with his performance in the latter bringing him his first BAFTA Award...
) consults Professor Kipple (John Cleese
John Cleese
John Marwood Cleese is an English actor, comedian, writer, and film producer. He achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on The Frost Report...
) about the "alien invader." The Army quarantines the area and asks citizens start a local "civil defense
Civil defense
Civil defense, civil defence or civil protection is an effort to protect the citizens of a state from military attack. It uses the principles of emergency operations: prevention, mitigation, preparation, response, or emergency evacuation, and recovery...
" force to prevent the citizens from becoming "zombies."
At the planetarium, Lem discovers Chuck's hiding-place, and both are surprised to discover they speak the same language. Realizing this alien is no threat, Lem decides to help Chuck, hiding him in his bedroom for the night. Rover finds Chuck, who is very happy to see it.
As the General and his men search Lem's room, the group sneaks back into the planetarium with Chuck, who tells Lem he has "the right stuff". Chuck also shows Lem the star that Earth orbits
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...
and how the universe is much bigger than Lem had thought, which was that there were 1,000 stars in a universe 500 miles long.
The next morning, the Army takes Chuck's module to a secret location.
Lem and Skiff get an idea. The next night is the première of a new "Humaniacs" movie; and Lem, Skiff, and Chuck attend in costumes as fans. Chuck introduces some new music as part of the contest and teaches Lem to dance. Things go well until Rover arrives: chaos ensues. General Grawl arrives and points out Chuck's United States Flag insignia is a dead giveaway that he isn't a "local".
Chuck is captured and unmasked. When Lem tries to keep him from being taken away, General Grawl labels Lem a zombie, and Professor Kipple announces he will dissect both their brains. To protect Lem, Chuck pretends to "release" him from his control. Lem is proclaimed a hero, and Chuck and Rover are locked into armored vehicles and taken away.
At Base 9, General Grawl interrogate
Interrogation
Interrogation is interviewing as commonly employed by officers of the police, military, and Intelligence agencies with the goal of extracting a confession or obtaining information. Subjects of interrogation are often the suspects, victims, or witnesses of a crime...
s Chuck, and an accidental gunshot starts a complicated chain reaction with soldiers shooting at each other. General Grawl thinks Chuck is resisting his demands and allows Professor Kipple to have a go at dissecting Chuck's brain.
Lem gets his job back at the planetarium and is permitted to speak about the incident on TV
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
, but he cannot truly accept the honor. He feels terrible about Chuck and decides to do the right thing. While he's hot-wiring a car, Neera, Skiff, and Eckle join him to go off to rescue Chuck. The teens know luck is on their side when Rover shows up on the edge of town—he unscrewed the bolts holding together the armored vehicle in which he was imprisoned.
Rover sniffs out Chuck's trail and leads them to an abandoned gas station in the desert. They look around, and Skiff sees a Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines in more than 200 countries. It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke...
bottle in an old refrigerator. When he tries to take it, it opens up the entrance to Base 9. Lem has Glar distract the soldiers guarding the base with his protest group while the rest of them sneak into the base.
They find Chuck strapped to a laboratory table, and Professor Kipple is cheerfully getting ready to remove his brain. Lem and his friends break in through the ceiling while Rover scares away the scientists, technicians, and guards. They release Chuck but set off alarms.
Rover helps the group find Chuck's spacecraft, which was in a hangar; but General Grawl warns that, if the "alien" tries to leave, the hangar will blow up. The "alien" does try to leave; and, in the resulting firestorm, the General is knocked unconscious, and most of the soldiers flee. The teenagers and Rover get into the module, but Chuck rescues the General from the fire.
Chuck pilots the ship into orbit around the planet, allowing the teens to experience outer space. Skiff and Eckle enjoy the weightlessness; General Grawl realizes Chuck hasn't turned him into a zombie; and Lem asks Neera out on a date.
Chuck pilots the module back to the planet's surface; and, although the soldiers are ready to shoot anyone who appears, the General stops them. Finally, the inhabitants of Planet 51 see that Chuck came to their planet for peaceful purposes. Chuck lets Rover stay with Skiff and says his farewells to Planet 51. Chuck then leaves Planet 51 peacefully, accompanied by Lem's family dog (Xenomorph (Alien)
Xenomorph (Alien)
The Alien is a fictional endoparasitoid extraterrestrial species that is the primary antagonist of the Alien film series. The species made its debut in the 1979 film Alien, and reappeared in its sequels Aliens , Alien 3 , and Alien Resurrection , two crossovers Alien vs...
), which had snuck aboard his ship.
After the credits, Professor Kipple emerges from a manhole cover and faces two former patients who drag him off, telling him that he will "love" brain surgery.
Cast
- Dwayne Johnson as Captain Charles "Chuck" T. Baker, a NASA human astronaut.
- Jessica BielJessica BielJessica Claire Biel is an American actress, model, and occasional singer. Biel is known for her television role as Mary Camden in the long-running family-drama series 7th Heaven...
as Neera, a teenage girl and Lem's love interest. - Justin LongJustin LongJustin Jacob Long is an American film and television actor. He is best known for his roles in the Hollywood films Galaxy Quest, Jeepers Creepers, Dodgeball, Live Free or Die Hard, He's Just Not That into You, Drag Me to Hell, and Youth in Revolt, and his personification of a Mac in Apple's "Get a...
as Lem, a teenage boy living on Planet 51. Justin Long also voices Rover. - Gary OldmanGary OldmanGary Leonard Oldman is an English actor, voice actor, filmmaker and musician.A member of the 1980s Brit Pack, Oldman came to prominence via starring roles in British films Meantime , Sid and Nancy and Prick Up Your Ears , with his performance in the latter bringing him his first BAFTA Award...
as General Grawl, afraid of an alien invasion and is convinced that Chuck is an evil, mind-controlling alien who turns people into "alien zombies". - Seann William ScottSeann William ScottSeann William Scott is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for playing Steve Stifler in the American Pie film series...
as Skiff, Lem's best friend, who works at a comic store. - John CleeseJohn CleeseJohn Marwood Cleese is an English actor, comedian, writer, and film producer. He achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on The Frost Report...
as Professor Kipple, a phony scientist on Planet 51, determined to study Chuck's brain. - James CordenJames CordenJames Kimberley Corden is an English actor, television writer, producer and presenter. He is co-creator and star of BBC comedy shows Gavin & Stacey and Horne & Corden, and acted in the 2009 film Lesbian Vampire Killers....
and Mathew HorneMathew HorneMathew Frazer Horne is an English actor, stand-up comedian, television presenter and narrator best known for appearing on several BBC sketch shows and sitcoms, most notably Gavin & Stacey portraying Gavin Shipman, The Catherine Tate Show, Teachers and Horne and Corden.-Early life:Horne was born...
as two rather gullible soldiers who believe they have been turned into zombies. - Freddie Benedict as Eckle, Neera's younger brother who is a huge fan of the "Humaniacs" comic books and movies
- Alan MarriottAlan MarriottAlan Marriott is an English footballer, currently playing for Mansfield Town-Early career:Marriott began his career at Tottenham Hotspur, signing a professional contract in the summer of 1997 following the completion of his two-year youth training scheme.Released by Spurs at the completion of the...
as Glar, a Famous ukulele man
Production and release
The film, which cost approximately $70 million, finished production by June 2009. It was scheduled for release on November 20, 2009 by Sony Pictures Worldwide via their TriStar Pictures division. In November 2007, TriStar Pictures had picked up the film's domestic distribution rights; the studio itself was to release the film in the summer of 2009. However, the film’s producers insisted on a November release. TriStar PicturesTriStar Pictures
TriStar Pictures, Inc. is an American film production/distribution studio and subsidiary of Columbia Pictures, itself a subdivision of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, which is owned by Sony Pictures...
became the film's home after New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema, often simply referred to as New Line, is an American film studio. It was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne as a film distributor, later becoming an independent film studio. It became a subsidiary of Time Warner in 1996 and was merged with larger sister studio Warner...
became a division of Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
Planet 51 is based on the original idea by Jorge Blanco, Marcos Martínez, Ignacio Pérez Dolset and Javier Abad.
Critical reaction
The film has received generally negative reviews from critics. Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
reported that 22% of critics gave the film positive reviews based on 103 reviews with an average score of 4.2/10. Another review aggregator, Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, which assigns a normalized rating from 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, gave the film an average score of 39% based on 19 reviews.
Adam Markovitz of Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
graded the film a B, regarding the film "delivers a few pleasant surprises, including a smart story". Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
of the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
gave the film 2½ stars out of 4, but positively wrote of the film being "perfectly pleasant as kiddie entertainment, although wall-to-wall with pop references to the American 1950s
United States in the 1950s
During the 1950s in the United States, manufacturing and home construction were on the rise as the American economy was on the upswing. The Korean War and the beginning of the Cold War created a politically conservative climate in the country, and the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the...
." On the November 23rd episode of WordGirl at the Movies
WordGirl
WordGirl is an American children’s animated television series for children aged 6-12, produced by the Soup2Nuts animation unit of Scholastic Entertainment for PBS Kids...
, Emily of a May I Have a Word? segment and Eli said this is their worst animated films of 2009. However, some critics such as Markovitz, Steven Rea of the Philadelphia Inquirer, and Brain Miller of Village Voice acknowledged the film as "an E.T.
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is a 1982 American science fiction film co-produced and directed by Steven Spielberg, written by Melissa Mathison and starring Henry Thomas, Dee Wallace, Robert MacNaughton, Drew Barrymore, and Peter Coyote...
in reverse".
Box office
Despite mostly negative reviews, the film performed decently at the box office. The film was released in 3,035 theaters, grossing $3.2 million on its opening day and $12.6 million over the weekend, resulting in the number four position at the box office behind 20122012 (film)
2012 is a 2009 American disaster film directed by Roland Emmerich. It stars John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, Thandie Newton, Danny Glover, and Woody Harrelson. It was produced by Emmerich's production company, Centropolis Entertainment and was distributed by Columbia Pictures...
, The Blind Side
The Blind Side (film)
The Blind Side is a 2009 American semi-biographical drama film. It is written and directed by John Lee Hancock, and based on the 2006 book The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game by Michael Lewis. The storyline features Michael Oher, an offensive lineman who plays for the Baltimore Ravens of the NFL...
and New Moon
New Moon (2009 film)
The Twilight Saga: New Moon, commonly referred to as New Moon, is a 2009 American romance fantasy-vampire film based on Stephenie Meyer's 2006 novel New Moon. It is the second film in The Twilight Saga film series and is the sequel to 2008's Twilight. Summit Entertainment greenlit the sequel in...
respectively.
| US Gross: | $42,194,060 |
| Spain Spain Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula... Gross: |
$15,762,612 |
| International Gross: | $47,462,560 |
| Gross Worldwide Takings: | $105,419,232 |
Video game
A video game based on the film was announced in November 2009. The game was published by SegaSega
, usually styled as SEGA, is a multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, with various offices around the world...
and was released on Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
, Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
, Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
and PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
on November 17, 2009. The console versions was developed by Pyro Studios
Pyro Studios
Pyro Studios is a video game developer based in Madrid , that was founded in 1996 with the purpose of developing quality video games. A consequence of this commitment was the development of Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines, which was released in 1998...
and the Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
version is developed by Firebrand Games
Firebrand Games
Firebrand Games is a video game development company with studios in Glasgow, Scotland, Florida, USA, and Baton Rouge, USA. The team specialises in the production of racing games. Firebrand Games was founded and is run by Mark Greenshields who has been in the games industry his entire career...
. Zed
Zed
Zed , in Commonwealth English, is the name of the twenty-sixth and final letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet Zed may also refer to:- Living persons :*Zed Shaw, US computer programmer...
Group, a long-time customer of Trinigy
Trinigy
Trinigy is an independent company focusing on the development of advanced 3D graphics technology with its headquarters based in Southern Germany, with offices in Austin, TX and Seoul, South Korea....
's, worked on the online version of the game with the Vision Engine.
There are also official games for iPhone, mobile devices and Facebook, developed by Zed Worldwide, which belongs to the Ilion's owner's brother.
Planet One name change issue
The name change from Planet One to Planet 51 was a result of the demands made from another entity branded Planet One, which produces children and teen TV programming. They made contact with the film's producers early on to resolve the trademark and brand confusion issues. The Spanish film company made an offer to Planet One for all ownership rights to their "Planet One" trademarks and related website URLs. Planet One chose not to take that offer and to protect their brand and trademarks that have been active for many years. As a result, the film's producers chose to rename the film Planet 51. Coincidentally, the number 51 in the name also refers to the name of high top secret military base Area 51Area 51
Area 51 is a military base, and a remote detachment of Edwards Air Force Base. It is located in the southern portion of Nevada in the western United States, 83 miles north-northwest of downtown Las Vegas. Situated at its center, on the southern shore of Groom Lake, is a large military airfield...
.