Hoping to ride on the success recent animated films, like “Brave” and “Wreck-it Ralph” director Cal Brunker and the Weinstein Company recently released the kiddie action movie “Escape from Planet Earth”.
Competing with the recent Die Hard and Nicholas Sparks films, Escape failed to take the box office its opening weekend, taking fourth place instead and not without good reason.
While the animation of the film itself was relatively streamlined and clean, the plot was bland and unoriginal. Even some of the jokes that were made seemed a bit crude or stupid for a kids movie.
This cute looking comedy tells the story of two brothers, Gary, voiced by Rod Corddry and Scorch Supernova, voiced by Brendan Fraser.
Scorch is the hero of his home planet, Baab, while younger brother Gary coordinates all his missions and lives in his brother’s shadow.
When Scorch goes missing on the mysterious Dark Planet (a.k.a Earth), Gary must muster up the courage to save him from his detainer, General Shanker, voiced by William Shatner.
As is expected in most kids films, underlying morals about teamwork, family and friendship are constant throughout the film.
While separated by their differences at first, Gary and Scorch come together to escape. They value each other and what they can accomplish.
What was unexpected was the message that only the older audience would catch on to.
By using the military as the movie’s villain and Scorch’s not so subtle line of “Nothing says peace like a gigantic gun,” the film seemed to suggest that those who are meant to keep peace might prevent us from achieving it.
Older members of the audience could also count on numerous references to other science fiction classics, including numerous Star Trek jokes as a nod to Shatner’s role as Kirk in the original series.
With adequate voice acting, with the exception of Fraser who seemed to be out of his league, and a cute premise, the movie is sure to entertain children for its hour and a half run.
However, it fails to separate itself from any other kids movie out there because the plot and overall outcome of the movie is expected from the very beginning.
