Escape From Planet Earth parents guide

Escape From Planet Earth Parent Guide

With an all-star cast of voice talent and decent animation, "Escape from Planet Earth" could have been so much more.

Overall B-

Scorch Supernova (voice of Brendan Fraser) may have universal superhero status, but there is one place he hasn't tried his feats of dare-doing: Earth. After his rescue mission to the blue planet goes wrong, his brother (voice by Rob Corddry) sets off to try and rescue him.

Release date February 14, 2013

Violence C+
Sexual Content B-
Profanity B+
Substance Use A

Why is Escape From Planet Earth rated PG? The MPAA rated Escape From Planet Earth PG for action and some mild rude humor.

Run Time: 89 minutes

Official Movie Site

Parent Movie Review

The conventional image of the little green alien is passé. Now they are blue. But don’t let the color change fool you into thinking Gary Supernova (voice by Rob Corddry) and his arrogant younger brother Scorch (voice by Brendan Fraser) offer anything different than the norm. Escape from Planet Earth is bedeviled with stereotypical characters: bad military personnel, bad government agents, bad Americans, bad human beings. According to the historical literature on planet Baab, earthlings are the only race that is devolving rather than evolving.

One has to wonder about that when the only good guys Gary meets on his mission to rescue his brother from the aforementioned bad military people are two 7-11 employees (voices by Steve Zahn, Chris Parnell). Their peace offering to Gary is a blue Slurpee. (And yes, aliens suffer from brain freeze as well.)

General Shanker (voice by William Shatner) certainly isn’t interested in fostering intergalactic relations. Instead he captures out-of-this-world visitors and mines them for their technological ideas. (Apparently Apple, Google and Facebook are all the brainchildren of extraterrestrials.) Shanker’s latest quest is to create the universe’s biggest weapon inaptly called a peace gun. And to do so, he is in cahoots with someone from Gary’s planet. Scorch unknowingly becomes the stool pigeon that transports the final element for the gun when he flies to Earth in response to a SOS call.

After Scorch is captured and incarcerated by Shanker, the faint-hearted Gary has to leave the safety of his desk at mission control in order to save face with his son Kip (voice by Jonathan Morgan Heit). Once on Earth, Gary discovers other aliens Shanker has imprisoned in an old warehouse in the Area 51 compound.

Expect the typical kind of cartoon violence, punching, threats, food fights, tranquilizer darts and frequent gun usage by a bunch of faceless brutes in yellow hazmat suits. And though the aliens believe they are higher up the evolution ladder, familial fights, nastiness on the job and competition between working women and stay at home moms happen on their planets too. (Maybe they are not as smart as they think.) These messages might be subtle but one has to wonder why storytellers can’t come up with a more creative plot that doesn’t rely on the same hackneyed characters.

With an all-star cast of voice talent and decent animation, Escape from Planet Earth could have been so much more. Fortunately this script focuses on positive family relations and parental role models, instead of the usual know-it-all offspring we see in earthling movies. While Kip steps up to help his papa in a pinch, Gary becomes his son’s hero in this adventure. Maybe aliens are more advanced after all!

Directed by Callan Brunker. Starring Brendan Fraser, Sarah Jessica Parker, James Gandolfini, Jessica Alba. Running time: 89 minutes. Theatrical release February 14, 2013. Updated

Escape From Planet Earth
Rating & Content Info

Why is Escape From Planet Earth rated PG? Escape From Planet Earth is rated PG by the MPAA for action and some mild rude humor.

Violence: Characters engage in frequent cartoon violence including punching, threats, shooting, kicking and hitting. A man is repeatedly hit in the face with a broom. Characters use blast tape to blow things up. A man is surrounded by armed characters and hauled off to jail. Vehicles are blown up. A woman is tied up. Characters are shot with tranquilizer darts and jailed, or frozen in glass containers. Characters fall from the sky without parachutes. A man creates a huge weapon designed to blow up planets. A character is chased by a throng of angry animals. A scorpion bites a character on the lip. After punching a man in the face, the attacker says it feels great to punch.

Sexual Content: A painting of a nude couple hangs in a man’s office. A couple kisses. A man misrepresents himself in an online dating service. Brief sexual jokes include comments about probing and don’t ask don’t tell. A man is seen wearing only a towel. Later the towel blows away.

Language: The script contains a couple of terms of Deity.

Alcohol / Drug Use: None noted.

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Escape From Planet Earth Parents' Guide

Since aliens aren’t the only ones to suffer from an ice cream headache, here are five steps to stop brain freeze.

What would be the best reaction to an alien visitor? How could you tell if they were coming in peace or not? Would you want to meet an alien?

How does General Shanker misrepresent himself on the Internet? Why is it important to be cautious about information you find on the web? How can you substantiate the truthfulness of information you find there?

What are the positive family interactions portrayed in this movie? How are you alike or different from your siblings? How can dads be heroes to their children? How does this movie pit working women against stay at home moms?

Home Video

The most recent home video release of Escape From Planet Earth movie is June 4, 2013. Here are some details…

Home Video Notes: Escape From Planet Earth

Release Date:  4 June 2013

Escape From Planet Earth releases to home video (Blu-ray 3D/Blu-ray/DVD/Ultraviolet Digital Copy) with the following extras:

- Commentary with director Cal Brunker

- The Making of Escape From Planet Earth

- Alternate Takes and Deleted Scenes

- Music Featurettes from Delta Rae, Owl City and Cody Simpson

Related home video titles:

A conspiracy to keep secret the existence of extra-terrestrial life is also at the heart of Monsters Vs. Aliens and Men in Black 3. In Megamind, two powerful aliens stranded on Earth try to out do each other by demonstrating their superior mental and physical powers.