Planet 01 (2009)

## Dwayne Johnson's landed on the wrong planet, sir.

***Planet 01*** is an 2009 3D Spanish-Marcanese-American computer-animated science fiction comedy film produced by Anaya Imageworks and Ion Animation Studios (whom also produced *Food Town* with Anaya Animation). The film was directed by George Blanco and written by Joe Stillman; featuring the voices of Justin Long, David Kaye, Jessica Biel, Dwayne Johnson, Seann William Scott, John Cleese, Steve Martin, Andy Samberg, and Bella Thorne. The film got released to theaters November 13, 2009 by TriStar Pictures & Lionsgate Films under Sony Pictures Releasing, and received mixed-to-negative reviews from critics while also being a box office bomb, making a worldwide total of $59 million under its $150 million budget.

## Plot

Adam is just an average teenager martian working on getting the girl and furthering his career at the Star Planetarium located in the distant alien planet known as Planet 01, where an unknown species of extraterrestrials known as the Lems thrive just like their human neighbors from Earth. Suddenly, when Adam encounters a malfunctioning robot named Rob whom he becomes friends with, they decide to make themselves the top movie stars of Hollywood while fearless but inept astronaut Chuck Armstrong lands on their home planet hoping for a hasty return to Earth and his millions of screaming fans. However, in this alien planet the corrupt media has tagged spacemen as brain-eating, zombie-creating monsters causing Chuck to run for his life and call the Mission Control Center, but then... Adam & Rob get the call and they, along with Chuck's talented celebrity wife Brittney Stars, must help the clumsy astronaut return safely to Earth before Emperor Shek & General Krieg destroy him and both planets.

## Bad Qualities

1. The humor's hit-or-miss for the most part, with plenty of it being pop culture references/jokes and innuendoes: one example being when Adam attempts to flirt with Brittney Stars at some fancy restaurant and another one being Chuck portraying as Elvis Presley in the NASA concert scene.
	* Doesn't help either that some of the film's jokes mainly consist of bathroom humor and poor slapstick gags that could get tiresome for viewers.
2. Along with its many pop culture references, the film also lots of product placement: examples being Twix bars, IPhones, YouTube, Google, Nintendo, and McDonald's.
3. The film's plot is somewhat awkward and outlandish: the idea of a teenage alien and his robot friend becoming Hollywood stars who team up with a famous celebrity woman in order to save her husband, Earth, and their home planet is arguably weird for an animated science-fiction comedy film aimed at families.
4. The characters are either somewhat unlikable or downright awful:
	* Adam is an somewhat unlikable protagonist who only dreams of getting his girlfriend Bella and being the most famous movie star and nothing else; sometimes, he even becomes a jerk to his friends, especially Chuck.
	* Chuck Armstrong, despite him being voiced by Dwayne Johnson and having some charm, can sometimes get annoying and very proud of his own accomplishments; he also comes off as a total fraud to his fans by saying that he explored Mars as he was told to do so in the second act, but in reality he discovered Planet 01 and only said that for his own fame and glory, which makes him kind of unlikable.
	* General Krieg is very unlikable and arrogant as Shek's assistant: Krieg only wanted to dethrone Shek so that he could obtain more power for himself despite him losing position as the emperor before, and he even hated Shek only because he became emperor instead of him; and yet he has no redeeming qualities since he has shown no kindness to his own troops or the Lems around him.
	* Bella is the film's stereotypical teenage girl who doesn't even like Adam for being sometimes awkward, yet she also longs for someone to be with. She even told Endy that she loves him more than Adam at one point.
	* Brittney Stars only cares about her singing career and sometimes doesn't treat Chuck very well, especially when she realizes that he has been a fraud to his fans.
	* Endy and Skeen are pointless if annoying comic reliefs who constantly make fun of Adam just because he usually gets nervous around alien girls and for making several failed inventions at Star Planetarium.
	* The imprisoned Lems serve no purpose other than providing the film's most terrible jokes, among them being one of the prisoners *going into the toilet and flushing it for no apparent reason.*
5. Despite the story being somewhat interesting, the film's execution of said plot is somewhat terrible.
	* Also, the film's tumultuous production stages and the fact that Anaya Animation wanted to do this film in the first place before ultimately refusing to do so in favor of *Hotel Cloudylandia* is kind of lame, as Anaya Animation could've done this film better. However, because of the aforementioned 2010 film, Ion Animation Studios decided to make this movie by themselves with the help of Anaya Imageworks.
6. Lame action scenes that other alien movies had done better prior to this film, and the film's climax is somewhat ridiculous.
7. **False advertising:** In the film's main poster, Chuck Armstrong is shown to be the main character just for him being voiced by Dwayne Johnson, but in this film he is actually a side character while Adam is supposedly the actual main character. However, Chuck Armstrong gets the largest character development arc, making him the real protagonist of this film. This film also states that it comes from the creators of *Marco* although Anaya Animation and Actors 3D Entertainment weren't involved in this film.
8. While the animation is okay to look at, there's yet some noticeable animation errors and it can sometimes get choppy like that of *Food Town*, except that here the characters have the same walking animation and there's some instances in which the characters don't move at all, which feels rather lazy. Also, Planet 01 looks boring as it fully resembles Earth, and that problem could've been avoided if any other color than green & blue were chosen for the backgrounds.
9. Adam's teen story is rather generic and boring for an animated film: he usually wants to get the girl of his dreams and a good job like most other stereotypical teens, and also doesn't help that he wants to explore the outside world despite his parents' warning advice about Earth being a dangerous place for aliens.
10. Emperor Shek is nothing more but some generic Hitler-like antagonist who's lame if forgettable as the film's main villain: his motives for destroying Earth are unreasonable since his main objective was to get rid of Chuck only, and he also wanted to take over *his own* planet all by himself in order to destroy the remaining Lems. Despite Steve Martin's great performance and some instances where he makes for a great villain, Shek isn't that much of a threat for Adam and his friends since General Krieg seems more like the film's actual villain thanks to Shek's very own stupidity.
11. Several of the emotional moments in this film feel too rushed to the point where you don't really care for the characters at all.
12. A few rather inappropriate moments for a family film: prior to the Hall Of Fame scene, Adam for no reason lusts over some nearby woman he encounters before Chuck warns him about being nice to ladies; in another scene, Chuck nearly utters the word "hell" before it cuts away thanks to Rob; and there's even one brief scene where Endy & Skeen check out several ladies' magazines depicting semi-nude ailen women.
13. Several sequences seem to serve no reason to be in this film at all, and thus comes across as filler. Examples include:
	* The romance subplot between Chuck Armstrong & Brittney Stars, and that of Adam & Zoe.
	* A couch gag scene in which the imprisoned Lems cause a food fight across the cafeteria.
	* The scenes where Chuck sings rock music, particularly those of Elvis Presley, to cheer up his anxious and depressed fans.
14. Some laughable scenes, like when Adam asks Zoe on a date and most infamously when Adam & Chuck get blown up by Shek's farting machine.
15. The pacing could get slow at times, and sometimes it can get sluggish if atrocious.

## Good Qualities

1. The film's animation and character designs are decent if nice to look at; also helps that this film comes from Anaya Imageworks, the animation and visual effects provider for Anaya Animation and The Anaya Company's other live-action/animated hybrid films.
2. Nice 50s soundtrack that also combines pop music along with it.
3. Some funny moments here and there, like when Chuck first encounters the aliens, the scenes where Chuck parodies Buzz Lightyear (despite it being a pop culture joke), and Rob's constant gag of being a malfunctioning robot whenever Adam touches him.
4. Very great voice acting, especially from Dwayne Johnson as Chuck Armstrong and Steve Martin as Emperor Shek.
5. Although the film's story can get rather weird at times, the concept is somewhat interesting and very original. Along with the main concept, the other concept for this film being an world of unknown aliens that is reminiscent of Earth is also very splendid.
6. Despite having too many pop culture references, the film does a great job making references to *E.T The Extraterrestrial, Independence Day, War Of The Worlds, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, Men In Black,* and other popular alien movies while also being a decent parody of the science-fiction genre.
7. Rob The Rover is a very cute and charming character, and the most likeable character in this film; his movements are cool and David Kaye does a very great job voicing him. Eva is also a lovable if endearing female robot character for Rob.
8. Despite the mediocre execution, the film has good lessons about being friends despite differences, being honest towards others, and trusting others; along with some cute moments between Rob and Eva, Rob's robot girlfriend.
9. The film's ending wasn't that bad, since most of the characters at least redeemed themselves by the third act.
10. Some amazing dialogue lines, such as: **"You've landed on the wrong planet, sir", "Houston, we have so many problems",** and of course **"BEEP. BEEP. ROBOT. BEEP."**

## Reception

### Critical reception

Rotten Tomatoes reported that 25% of critics gave *Planet 01* positive reviews based on 108 reviews with an average score of 4.2/10. The site's consensus reads: "*Planet 01* squanders an interesting premise with an overly awkward storyline, stock characters, and humor that alternates between curious and potentially offensive." Another review aggregator, Metacritic, gave it a metascore of 37, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews", based on 21 reviews.

### Box office

The film got a limited release and only grossed a worldwide total of $59 million under its $150 budget throughout its theatrical run, thus making it a box office bomb. After this box office disappointment, Anaya Animation and Ion Animation Studios decided to break apart by writing down a $140 million agreement to end their relationship.

## Trivia

* Chuck Armstrong was inspired by Neil Armstrong, the first US astronaut to have ever walked the moon; and Brittney Stars is meant to be a wordplay and parody of Brittney Spears.
* This film was originally going to be released in 2004 by Warner Bros. Pictures as their first-ever computer animated film, but due to some reason Ion Animation Studios decided to hire Sony and Lionsgate Films for the film's production in 2007.
* The film's premise largely relied on *E.T The Extraterrestrial* but instead of an alien, a human is seen as someone from another planet.

## Taglines

* "He's landed on the wrong planet"
* "From the aliens who brought you *Marco* and *Food Town*"
* "This doesn't seem like *E.T* at all... or does it?"
* "Tinseltown, get ready for the alien invasion of the century"