Fun for the family

It doesn’t matter how old you are - everyone loves cartoons! Sometimes you just need to enjoy a little youthful amusement.

Escape From Planet Earth may, at times, be a little immature (especially to anyone over the age of six), but if you leave your adult world for 89 minutes and just enjoy it - you’ll laugh, you’ll smile and you may even start to feel for these cartoon aliens.

However, this movie is certainly not one of the best-animated features of the year. Escape From Planet Earth is a typical, moderately funny family film that will most likely be forgotten minutes after the credits roll.

The animation and effects are pretty impressive for a non-Pixar movie, but the film’s weaknesses lie in its stereotypical characters and script.

The characters lack depth and although the filmmakers put in effort to entice emotion out of the audience, it all seems a little forced and misguided. If they really wanted me to care for a little blue alien, then they shouldn’t have waited 30 minutes for the real action of the movie to start!

Another chink in the armour for this movie is the soundtrack. Although the songs used are chart hits, they felt disconnected and at times I had to double check that it was the right audio for the film.

Having said all this, the voice actors were spot on, the movie didn’t run too long and in its defence, it’s targeting a much younger crowd than me.

The story follows two blue alien brothers who live on planet Baab, the ‘genius’ Gary Supernova (Rob Corddry) and the ‘hero’ Scorch Supernova (Brendan Fraser).

Gary works for BASA, an organisation that deals with rescue missions, where he is the brains behind his idiot brother. Scorch is the most famous out of the aliens, entering the room with his own taglines, saving adorable babies from danger and fighting enemies. Together they team up and go on missions to keep their planet safe.

When Scorch is lured to the Dark Planet, AKA Earth, on a fake rescue mission, he is captured and imprisoned by the evil Shanker (William Shatner).

Shanker has been tricking aliens into coming to Earth for years so he can steal their technology and now he plans to destroy the universe.

Now Gary, who usually sits behind his computer, must save the day. He travels to Earth, is caught and thrown into the same alien jail as his brother.

There are many lessons to learn throughout this movie for kids, especially concerning family, but with the majority of the characters being poorly portrayed it makes it hard to imagine they would be valuable lessons.

Gary’s son, Kip (Jonathan Morgan Heit), doesn’t respect his father at first because he’s a geek and his wife Kira (Sarah Jessica Parker) has left her career behind to look after Kip … it all just seems a little obvious and ill-advised for a younger audience.

However, the voice actors all did a great job. Corddry had the same annoying pitch to portray the skinny and nerdy brother perfectly.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen Fraser in any movie, let alone an animated feature, but seems as though he has finally found his true calling as a dim-witted jock.

However, it was the supporting cast that produced the best moments in the film. Although they didn’t have much to work with, they did the best they could.

My favourite alien character was Doc, voiced by Craig Robinson. Doc is one of Gary’s prison mates and is an inter-galactic radio talk show therapist. He’s probably the coolest dude in the prison. But then again, Robinson doesn’t need to do much to be cool.

In conclusion, Escape From Planet Earth may not be the best film out there, but it is a bearable distraction.