"Entertaining enough for a family trip to the theater."

Glipforg is just how you might imagine an idyllic American town in the 1950s: neighborly citizens greeting each other by name, driving Thunderbird-esque hovercrafts to their saucer-shaped homes, flipping floating burgers on their backyard barbecues...

The perfect portrait of 1950s-'60s U.S.A. -- on another planet, far from Earth.

But really, other than being green, antennae-d and pant-less, the folks on Planet 51 are just like us. Or as you might have imagined us, i.e. humans (actually, Americans), over 50 years ago. They jive to the same sock-hop-style tunes, shiver at the same aliens-attack, sci-fi films (The Humaniacs!) breathe oxygen, speak English, and react with the expected degree of hysteria and paranoia when a real alien rockets into their community. Parents will be able to spot the parallel world's moral punchline, "there's no need to fear the unknown," long before it hits.

The alien in Shrek writer Joe Stillman's space invader story is U.S. astronaut Captain "Chuck" Baker (Dwayne Johnson), a self-proclaimed "button-pusher" and self-demonstrated stereotype of a narcissistic meathead jock. Baker flees at first contact and subsequently expects the first friendly Glipforg-ian he encounters, planetarium junior assistant curator Lem (Justin Long), to help him get to his ship before the local military, led by General Grawl (Gary Oldman), get to him first. A monkey astronaut would have made a better, or at least more intelligent, first impression. (What does Chuck's buffoon-ery say about U.S. astronauts, or the good ole' U.S.A. in general? It's best not to think too much about it and simply surrender to the Whoville-ish Back-to-the-Future fun and ambiance.) Also along for the ride are Lem's friend Skiff (Role Models' Seann William Scott), Lem's love interest Neera (Jessica Biel), and Glar, the hippie thorn in Lem's side who won't stop chronicling Lem's life with folk songs.

Planet 51 speaks not only the slightly altered language of an era ("make like not war"), but also the language of a genre (sci-fi cinema). Like many animated family adventures of late, it borrows from extraterrestrial encounters that may only be familiar to parents (or grandparents). In addition to Glipforg's alien-crazed, B-movie mentality there are so many sci-fi throwbacks it's almost hard to keep track: a War of the Worlds" TV announcement; an E.T.-over-the-moon scene; defense manuals for an "attack of the 50-foot woman"; a Wall-E cuddly, canine-like robot, Rover; and Star Wars one-liners ("this is SOOO Luke Skywalker"). And of course there are the zombies, the soulless minions who are held up by the military, prompted by mad scientist Professor Kipple (John Cleese), as examples of what will become of victims of the alien astronaut's mind control. It's all the potentially nostalgic comic glue (and "right stuff" cheesiness) that holds the retro space spoof together as an entertaining package for its kid audiences' Space Odyssey-weened adult chaperones. Kids, of course, can indulge their cinema cute tooth on the sea-monkey-like Glipforg-ians and Rover, the ridiculously adorable robot that wags its antennae, chases rocks, and pees a puddle of oil when frightened.

Planet 51 may not prove as memorable as Wall-E, E.T., War of the Worlds or any of the other movies it mimics, but it's entertaining enough for a family trip to the theater.

Grade: B-

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