ViewGuide

Created Nov 26, 2009 08:34PM PST • Edited Dec 20, 2009 01:36AM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Barely OK 2.0

   A solid concept, turgidly executed make this an acceptable way to pass the time with kids at the movies. Barely. Good jokes are few and far between in this slow movie about a Buzz Lightyear-like astronaut who lands on a 1950s planet of green aliens.

4. Acting

   Barely OK 2.0

   It takes deep acting talent to successfully voice animated characters. A few of P51’s players have what it takes. Most don’t.

   Amongst the former, Justin Long (“I’m a Mac.”) livens up the proceedings as the teen hero. Amongst the latter, Dwayne (“The Rock” Johnson and Jessica Biel – the other primary leads – disappoint. Perhaps being known more for their physical than their vocal talents has retarded development of the latter.

   Fortunately, Gary Oldman (as a bad guy General) and John Cleese (as an addled scientist) energize things when their characters are on screen.

5. Male Stars OK 2.5

6. Female Stars Barely OK 2.0

7. Female Costars Pretty Bad 1.5

8. Male Costars Good 3.0

10. Film

    Barely OK 2.0

    Slow moving and only sporadically funny, the story further suffers from preachiness about how paranoid America was way back in the day.

11. Direction Pretty Bad 1.5

12. Play Barely OK 2.0

13. Music Good 3.0

14. Visuals Barely OK 2.0

    Traditionally animated 2D movies can still connect with post-Pixar audiences, but not when they suffer from story, humor and pacing deficits as P51 does.

15. Content

16. Edge

    Tame 1.2

17. Sex Innocent 1.0

18. Violence Gentle 1.3

19. Rudeness Polite 1.2

21. Reality

    Supernatural 3.5

    Some reviewers have taken P51 to task for its idiosyncratic mix of reality conceits. For instance, the aliens have 1950s radios and TVs, but hovercraft cars.

    So what. It’s a family oriented cartoon. Animators get to make the rules, so long as the story works and the jokes hit their marks. Thus the movie fails on basic theatrics, not reality factor inconsistencies.

22. Circumstantial Supernatural 3.7

23. Biological Fantasy 4.1

24. Physical Surreal 2.6