Planet 51's tragedy is that it could have been a decent movie. It starts off with a neat premise: on a distant planet, there is an alien civilization that strongly resembles 1950s Americas — right down to everyone speaking English and grooving to The Chordettes. They even have a love for alien invasion movies, and, through a remarkable stroke of coincidence, the scifi franchise du jour is titled Humaniacs and features a monster that looks like an astronaut. Into this world plunges Captain Chuck Baxter, a middling US astronaut who has been sent to explore the planet (which NASA mistakenly believed was uninhabited) and suddenly finds that, on this world, he is the alien. Naturally chaos ensues. The movie also has some endearing and well-animated characters, especially in rock-craving robot Rover, and a Xenomorph-shaped dog that pees acid. The early clips promised a fun, if light, movie filled with cute science fiction references.

The problem is, Planet 51 has no idea what it's precisely about. Sure, it has a plot: a teenager named Lem has to help get Chuck back to his ship and off the planet before the military captures him and removes his brain (and, hopefully, without ruining Lem's life in the process). But it has the feel of a movie written by committee: too many ideas stuffed in and not enough fat trimmed off. Planet 51 tries to be about so many different things that it ends up being about nothing at all. Is it about the dangers of automatically attacking that which we don't understand? How the media makes us suggestible and paranoid? What it's like to learn that the universe is much larger than you ever imagined? Or is it about having the cojones to take risks and do the things you dream of doing? Okay, so the pants-less aliens have no visible cojones, but you get the point. And this lack of a center is symptomatic in the film's cast of predictable stock characters. Only the dog-like characters get any bite.

Even the jokes are just so much spaghetti thrown at the wall. Crude jokes about alien probes are mixed in with references to classic science fiction films, and great swaths of the film rely on forgettable sequences of slapstick. The odd joke hits, but when it does, it's just a solitary joke, and doesn't contribute anything to the movie as a whole. And, though it's a ostensibly kids movie, the rare jokes that elicited laughs went over the younger viewers' heads. During the viewing I attended, the audience laughed in unison just once — at a penis joke.

There are certain sins that children's films can sometimes get away with because they're geared toward younger viewers: being too busy or too cloying, or having a wearying or simplistic sense of humor. But Planet 51's problems are far deeper: it's a film that simply never engages, and for a science fiction film, leaves us with depressingly little to think about after it's over. Do yourself a favor and, instead of seeing Planet 51, watch these clips and pretend you've seen the entire movie. You'll be better off for it.

On October 28th, NBC is airing a Monsters vs. Aliens Halloween special, Monsters vs. Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space. Our heroes will return to Modesto when a new alien presence is detected just before Halloween. It being Halloween, they naturally find that the city's pumpkins have transformed into mutant aliens and are wreaking havoc on the town.

The video below contains five clips from the special, in which we witness the pumpkins' alien origins, learn what Susan dresses as for Halloween, and watch the Missing Link try to impress his fellow trick-or-treaters.

[Collider]

As part of its master plan to capture a greater male audience, Disney is looking to Double Dare You to create a darker slate of animated films than the usual Disney cartoon fare, as well as produce books and merchandising tie-ins. The plan is for Del Toro to produce all of Double Dare You's films, as well as direct some of the features.

First on the agenda is Trollhunters, based on an original story by Del Toro, which will introduce a mysterious aspect of his new brand:

The pics will all be tied together by "one feature that shall remain secret, but that you shall soon be very familiar with," del Toro said.

[Variety]
Image by *blix-it on Deviant Art.

We open, quite appropriately, with the tanks that once contained Hank and Dean's clones, emptied at the end of last season. They don't look quite empty. Is Dr. Venture growing new clones, or is there a new project running? And who'd this new bodyguard.
Now we're back to the season finale, with the Monarch's henchman running around the Venture Compound lawn, with the slaughtered Hank and Dean clones at their feet.
Rusty runs through the Venture Compound while pursued by a violet light, possibly from a certain flying cocoon?
Well, something is going down with those cloning tanks. Sadly, we still don't get a very clear picture of what's inside of them.
And there are Nazis in the cloning room. Are we having a Boys from Brazil moment? Are they looking to clone Hitler? Or Girl Hitler?
Oh, and Rusty's there, too. Hi, Rusty!
Oof. Whatever the Nazis are up to, it doesn't seem to end well for them. Or maybe it turns them into supermen in a glowy, painful way.
It looks like Rusty wastes no time replacing H.E.L.P.eR. An Astro Boy send-up kills a snake in Brock's old room.
The Sovereign of the Guild of Calamitous Attempt makes a return...
...and yes, he's still David Bowie.
An aged Phantom Limb (with his hands now clearly visible) plays the tuba. (Edit: Several commenters note that this is probably one of Phantom Limb's Fantomas ancestors, which makes much more sense given the presence of Buddy Holly. Good call, folks.)
And he appears to be trying to jam with Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper.
21 still lives with his mom. It's nice to know some things don't change.
And we take a moment while Pete White and Master Billy Quizboy dance and mix drinks. But what are those things around their necks? Evidence of spinal cord injuries, or mind control collars?
Evidently, Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer are channeling Avatar. I wonder if this could be anything other than a dream sequence, but in Venture Bros., anything is possible.
Finally, we see Brock, but what happened to his beautiful mullet?
Time has not been kind to hunchback Dean, but he still keeps around mementos of his prettier youth.
Seriously, who gave Hank a gun? I do dig the hair, though.
It looks like another showdown on the Venture lawn. Are those blotches of orange butterfly wings?
Rusty plummets from the top of the Venture compound, possibly in the same episode as image #3.
A somewhat udder-looking gun from the Cocoon. I wonder, do the different canons fire different materials?
What unholy slash fic did this come out of? Also, Billy looks kind of hungover.
General speculation is that this is Captain Sunshine, finally getting revenge on the Monarch for the death of Wonder Boy.
And there goes the Monarch screen.
Dean starts going off about how he loves Hitler. Commenter m-d suggests that he's talking about Girl Hitler, and I suspect he's right. Perhaps this is related to the Nazis in the cloning lab? Also, is that Sergeant Hatred? What is that on his face?
Hank is not only growing his hair to look like Brock's (or at least like Brock's used to), he's spending some questionable time with Dermott Fictel, who might be Brock's son.
Rusty meets 21's LARP crew. He seems less concerned about what 21 is doing there in the first place than all the graffiti on the X-1, making me wonder if he's Rusty's new bodyguard.
It looks like Sergeant Hatred is still hanging around the Ventures. Is he locked in that room to protect Hank and Dean from his urges?
This may take place after Captain Sunshine's attack, as the Monarch screen is now resting on a makeshift stand. Also, the casual way Rusty asks Dr. Mrs. Monarch for 21 suggests that whatever 21 is doing with Rusty, it's no secret from his employers.
The Monarch asks 21 to kill the cab driver downstairs. Funny, the Monarch used to just kill cab drivers himself.
Also, grief has not treated 21 kindly.
Dean really had no chance when Rusty put him in that first speedsuit. Now he's going to be wearing those things for the rest of his life. And Rusty seems be telling Dean about arch-nemeses like he's explaining the Facts of Life. At least he seems to be paying attention to one of his kids.
Commenter tnmnsquare wondered if this was a Spider Jerusalem reference, but I think the bald head just makes it look that way. Those are ordinary 3D glasses — from the future.
I have no words for what is going on here.
Really, none.
Dean's body withers into dust, and we're out. Can't wait for November.

I have to say the new animation style doesn't look quite as succesful as the slightly warmer look the Doctor got in the "Infinite Quest" animated series a while back. Still, every last dose of David Tennant is precious at this point, weird computer-generated face or otherwise.

After "Dreamland" appears via the red button thingy, it will be on BBC2 as part of their children's programming block.

According to the release, "Dreamland" sees the Doctor landing in "the infamous alien hot spot" Roswell in 1958:

During a visit to a local diner he stumbles upon a mysterious alien artefact that leads him on a mission to rescue Rivesh Mantilax from the threat of the Viperox and the clutches of the American military.

Joining David Tennant will be Georgia Moffett (Doctor Who, Spooks) in the role of Cassie Rice – the Doctor's new animated companion.

David Warner (Wallander, Hogfather) also stars as the leader of the ruthless Viperox.

The BBC's Doctor Who site will be hosting a "Dreamland" blog, featuring images, interviews and behind-the-scenes stuff in the run-up to the show appearing.

When last we left The Venture Bros., Hank and Dean's clones had been sacrificed during an all-out assault on the Venture compound, Brock had quit his job as the Ventures' bodyguard, and Henchman 21 was holding the decapitated head of his bosom buddy, Henchman 24.

The creators have promised that now that their clones have been destroyed, Hank and Dean will actually age past their perpetual sixteen years, physically if not mentally. Dean may be harboring sympathetic feelings for fascist dictators, but at least now Hank has better hair.

Now that Brock has quit the bodyguarding business, it looks like Rusty will be employing a new bodyguard (Brock will reappear, but it may be a few episodes before we see him). With all of the interactions between 21 (or Gary, if you prefer) and Rusty, I can't help but wonder if 21 is Rusty's new bodyguard, perhaps moonlighting when he's not working for the Monarch. Also, I wonder how far we have to get into the season before Sergeant Hatred decides Master Billy Quizboy is the perfect outlet for his pederastic urges. Sadly, we'll have to wait until November for the full episodes to begin.

[via AICN]

Watch it in high-definition here.

That weird cyborg bug with the decoy/lure creeps me the hell out, and I don't rate 7's chances very highly in its grasp. In case you missed our earlier coverage of this film, 9 takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where humans are gone, but we've left behind nine mechanical ragdolls, named 1 through 9. And they're struggling to survive against a host of killer robots. The newest ragdoll is named 9 (Elijah Wood), and he asks a bunch of questions the other dolls have long since stopped asking, about their world and the way it's organized.

9 opens on Sept. 9 (or 9/9/09). And by the way, we reported a while back that another movie, called Nine, was also slated to come out on that date. The other film seems to have blinked (nine times, even) and now will come out

[MTV Movies]

Bender's Game should hit the shelves at the end of 2008 and the fourth and final Futurama DVD, Into the Wild Green Yonder doesn't have a set release date as of yet.

It's a good thing the glowy ball turns up, to tell Orin he doesn't actually need his magic sword-hilt to make his shiny blade... he can spurt it out of himself like a giant white spurty thing. The people of Mineworld have been taught to worship Zygon, and told that there's nothing but Hell and damnation above their little cavernous world, and if they don't keep digging out the shiny red crystals, they'll starve. (Even though they don't actually eat the crystals.) But Orin goes on a hero's journey kind of thing and discovers the truth, not unlike the City of Ember and a million other stories including that Star Trek episode that Orin almost names the title of. Those red crystals are actually fueling Zygon's war machine, allowing him to conquer the rest of the humans. And afford lots of bitchin red skull insignias.

The rest of 1985's Starchaser is a pretty blatant Star Wars rip-off, complete with a desert planet populated by racist Arab stereotypes. It does have an awesome break-dancing soundtrack, that sounds like Herbie Hancock's "Rockit." And the Han Solo character smokes a gigantic cigar and says things like, "That bot's about to get a laser enema." What more could you ask for? Oh, and it features some of the first computer animation, mixed in with the regular kind.

We already featured a promo reel for this Animatrix-style tie-in with The Dark Knight, but this trailer gives more of a feel for the range of styles in the finished product. We'll be seeing six different visions of the Bat here, but it looks like they mesh pretty well, partly thanks to consistent voice talent across all the films. [HD trailer at Yahoo Movies]

Here's the official plot synopsis:

When a $5 billion NASA probe disappears into an intergalactic wormhole, the agency recruits Ham III, the grandson of the first chimpanzee in space, to help retrieve the wayward craft. But Ham is a free-spirited circus performer, more interested in in zero gravity hijinks than living up to his illustrious heritage. The simian slacker becomes a reluctant hero and and learns the true meaning of courage as he and his crewmates, the fearless Lt. Luna and their uptight commander, Titan, risk everything in an effort to save the peaceful inhabitants of a distant planet from an evil dictator.

[Kung Fu Rodeo]

The story starts out in the 1950s, and heroes like Superman and Wonder Woman are fighting in Korea and Indochina, but she takes a mucher harsher stand than he does, letting victimized women deal out there own brand of murderous justice. He warns her that's the reason Batman is now a fugitive and the Justice Society is disbanded.

We're also introduced to both The Martian Manhunter and Hal "Green Lantern" Jordan in short order, long before they become the heroes we've come to know. We find out how the Manhunter comes to Earth, and how Hal loses his nerve during the Korean war and spends time in a psych hospital. While the Manhunter is trapped on Earth and spends his time watching television (there's an amusing scene where he emulates Groucho Marx and Bugs Bunny), Jordan tries to get into the space program, and eventually gets hired by the Ferris company, run by the boss' wife Carol Ferris.

Over the course of the film, while Jordan develops into a stand-up test pilot and gets drafted into a mission to Mars (sans ring), and the Manhunter fights crime as detective John Jones, different heroes begin unraveling a plot by something called The Center. At first it's not clear if it's a cult, some form of mind-control, or an alien invasion. Additionally, certain heroes like The Flash are being sought by the government, who want to unmask them and expose them and have them register, just like in the recent Civil War series from Marvel. The trouble is, it feels tacked on and cheesy, even though it's the most interesting idea in the film.

In the climactic ending, a whole slew of heroes including Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Martian Manhunter, Adam Strange, the Blackhawks, and a ton of others do battle with the Cthulhu-like Center. When things are at their bleakest, Hal Jordan finally accepts the role of Green Lantern, and the ring he was given by the dying alien Abin Sur comes to his aid and gives him a little instruction manual brain-video lesson. They triumph over the dinosaur-spewing baddie, and thus the Justice League is formed. Montages of many more heroes (including the Teen Titans) and villains scroll by as portions of John F. Kennedy's 1960 Democratic National Convention speech play in the background.

Darwyn's art-style is retro-vintage hipster cool, and the heroes are extremely well voice acted (by a pretty impressive list of stars including everyone from Kyle MacLachlan to Lucy Lawless to Neil Patrick Harris... who aren't distracting), but the plot feels mish-mashed together, and needed to be either a miniseries, or a two-part movie. The Flash's "the government is oppressing us!" speech on television could have been the start of a terrific storyline about the persecution of heroes, but it ends up feeling like it was excised far too early.

Also, there are a lot of heroes tossed into the mix who aren't given any lines at all, like Green Arrow and Ted "Wildcat" Grant, and fleeting scenes of folks like Adam Strange. There's a lot of DC comics history being presented in only an hour and a half, and as a result it feels lacking. Some of the animated scenes feel a bit like afternoon cartoons, but other sequences (especially those in space or with planes in flight) are extremely well-done, which add to the feeling that the whole project is uneven.

It'll be interesting to see this when it comes out on DVD, seeing as how they excised certain scenes and changed the story from the graphic novel. There are a slew of extra materials and interviews on the disc, which will hopefully fill some holes. While it's not perfect, it's much preferable to the nothing, which is all we've had in the form of original animated films based on DC Comics properties. If they could spend some more time hammering out the stories and improving the animation, this could be a series that lasts for years. Just give us some Kingdom Come pretty darn soon.

Sadly, the above video contains a few boring interviews, saying things like "Most of Batman's adventures take place at night." But the animation itself is great. The direct-to-DVD Batman anime is similar to The Animatrix, the DVD which tied in with Matrix sequels. Warners is also working on a version called Termination in tandem with Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins. The segments are written by Josh Olson, David Goyer, Brian Azzarello, Greg Rucka, Jordan Goldberg, and Alan Burnett, and will each have their own distinctive look. Just think of it as an animated version of Batman: Black and White except you know, with color.

In fact, it would really be worthwhile to see DC just hand over the reins to anime directors like Satoshi Kon, to see what they could do with characters ranging from Green Lantern to Captain Marvel. In fact, maybe the entire Justice League film that's been put on hold could be saved, just by making a big-budget anime version. As excited as we are about Darwyn Cooke's The New Frontier DVD, it's still a very Western style of animation. Bring on the anime heroes.

Thanks to decades of tangled comics continuity, there are multiple backstories that this version of Hawkman could have. Is he based on the original version (reincarnated Egyptian royalty) or the later version (policeman from the planet Thanagar)? Let's just hope he's not the WTF 1990s version. (Thanks again RRich for the heads up!) [TV Guide]

Vanguard Entertainment, who produced Valiant and Happily Never After, is animating the film, and Brash Entertainment is making the game. They're also working on games based on Saw and 300, so you've got visceral gore and bloody battles on one end, and happy-go-lucky flying space monkeys on the other. We think the monkeys should just rebel against what the humans have put them through and they create a supercool simian space rocket and use it to fire missiles containing their own poo at the planet.

News-Space Chimps Movie Game Confirmed [Pariah's Guild]

Fans contacted Lucasfilm to ask them about this rumor. Lucasfilm executives managed to respond before the Hasbro investor call was even over. They didn't deny that a theatrical release for Clone Wars was a possibility, but said no decisions had been made yet. But given that no TV network has yet picked up the PG-13 rated animated Star Wars, a high-profile movie launch could make sense.