When the animated film Escape From Planet Earth arrived in the United Kingdom last month, March 2014, it had been almost exactly a year and a month since the film was originally released in the United States. Not only was I furious back in February 2013 that a UK release date had not been announced, and was not announced for a long time, but I was incredibly frustrated when it did come out that we had been forced to wait so long for the film. And the same thing has happened again, with the animated film The Nut Job, released in January in the US but will not appear here until August. And I thought the days of films taking a long time to get to the UK were over. Apparently not.
However, you will be happy to hear that Escape From Planet Earth is worth the wait. It is wonderfully fun animated sci-fi with a good bit of humour and well written and designed characters. The animation is fresh and lovely while the story is creative. The script by Bob Barlen and director Cal Brunker is funny and zips along at a very nice pace. There is also an incredible cast providing voices, with the likes of Jessica Alba, Brendan Fraser, Sarah Jessica Parker, Ricky Gervais, Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson, William Shatner, George Lopez, Sofia Vergara and Jane Lynch turning in some appealing vocal performances.
I was very impressed with Escape From Planet Earth, despite the mixed reviews it has recieved. Interesingly, I managed to pay my compliments to writer/director Cal Brunker via Twitter who thanked me for it. It makes for great entertainment for both adults and children who love animated films. It reminds me a little of the other animated alien film of recent years Planet 51, which was also a very entertaining cartoon, but Escape From Planet Earth probably wins the battle of better script, nicer and more colourful animation and better voice cast. In fairness, Planet 51 had a great voice cast too, including the likes of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Justin Long, Gary Oldman, Jessica Biel and Sean William Scott. I would recommend Escape From Planet Earth to any fan of animation of any age.
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