Only in an animation movie can Rob Corddy be the lead! Escape From Planet Earth is a 2013 Canadian animation movie produced by Rainmaker Entertainment, and directed by Cal Brunker. This is the debut film for Rainmaker Entertainment. The movie stars the voices of Rob Corddy, Brendan Fraser, William Shatner, Jessica Alba, Sarah Jessica Parker, Craig Robinson, Jane Lynch, George Lopez, Ricky Gervais & Sofia Vergara.
The movie is about two brothers Scorch Supernova – a flamboyant, swashbuckling, hero famed for his space adventures where he goes on missions – and Gary Supernova who works at the controls back on planet Baab at BASA (much like our own NASA). Although they actually work as a team Scorch gets all the accolades for being the brawn, while super cautious and by the book nerd Gary sits and mans the controls and effectively is the brains behind the missions. After a daring mission rescuing a bunch of babies from a rival species and once again paraded as a hero, the head of BASA informs Scorch that he is respond to an SOS call from the Dark Planet (Earth) where no alien has ever returned from. Gary pleads to abort the mission and then asks for 3 weeks to prep but he is denied. After further arguing finally Gary says that he won’t be helping Scorch and quits BASA before Scorch can fire him. Gary then goes home to his wife Kira and son Kip only to find out that Scorch has already gone on the mission to the Dark planet, while Kip, who idolizes his uncle Scorch, is watching it on live TV in excitement.
Scorch lands on earth in the desert and finds a 711 store & mistakes an inflatable figure for a dying being. He is then tranquilized and captured by a secret part of the US military, headed by general Shanker Saunderson, and taken to Area 51. On seeing this young Kip wants to go rescue his uncle but Gary scolds him and makes him go to his room. Late at night, Gary finds Kip missing and rushes to BASA headquarters with Kira. They find Kip launching a ship to rescue Scorch on his own but after Kira takes her son aside, Gary decides to go on his own and save his brother. He soon arrives on the Dark Planet. As soon as he arrives his ship immediately activates a self-destruct sequence, but Gary manages to get out. He then arrives at the same store that Scorch arrived at earlier. Gary goes inside the store, but is spotted by two men inside named Hawk and Hammer. Both Gary and the two men get freaked out by each other and try to hide from each other. After the two men realize that Gary is not a hostile alien, they offer him a slushie. Gary takes the slushie but drinks it too fast and gets brain freeze. Afterwards, Shanker’s men break into the store and capture Gary, taking him to Area 51.
At Area 51, it is revealed that Shanker, disguised with a hair piece and looking a lot younger is in league with Lena, who has fallen in love with him. They had planed to smuggle a powerful source known as blubonium in Scorch’s suit and faked the SOS call. Lena, meanwhile, has captured Kira, who stayed at BASA to try to contact Gary in concern for his safety. Lena then reveals her plan to give a lifetime supply of blutonium to Shanker to power his ‘peace shield’ which he says is to protect earth against hostile aliens. Gary is placed in a cell hall with other alien geniuses named Doc, Io, and Thurman, who tell Gary that various human technology has been invented by them for Shanker to rip off and sell to the world so he will release them. Gary reunites with his brother, but is again annoyed by his conceited behavior. After Shanker reveals the blutonium, Gary unintentionally provokes Scorch into stealing it after stating it’s dangerous power and when being chased, Scorch destroys the blutonium, causing Shanker to freeze him. He orders Gary, a techo-whiz, to fix the peace shield & reveals that he’s going to destroy all of the alien planets with a laser ray the captured aliens have built due to 3 imprisoned aliens accidentally killing his dad when he was 6. Gary fixes it with help from his new friends, but Shanker goes back on his promise to release him and instead freezes him like his brother.
The other aliens realize Shanker’s true intentions when the general tries to destroy Baab with the laser ray, it is revealed that Gary rigged the blutonium to malfunction and destroy the laser ray, thereby releasing the captured aliens. With Gary and Scorch released from their icy prisons, the brothers, Doc, Thurman, and Io escape Area 51 and eventually find Scorch’s ship. Meanwhile back on Baab, Kip rescues his mother who stops and subdues Lena after the latter took off with the blutonium shipment and Kira learns that Shanker was using her. Kip guides his father to safety via mission control, but Shanker (wearing Scorch’s robotic suit that he wears on his adventures) uses a tractor beam to stop the ship, but Gary and Scorch jump on him and manage to get the suit off the villain, causing the latter and the brothers to plummet to their dooms. After reconciling, the aliens that killed Shanker’s dad rescue them and take Shanker away. After returning to Baab, Scorch marries a reporter named Gabby Babblebrook.
It was fun to watch, especially if you like good animation & scifi stuff. I thought it was ok even though the movie was panned by critics and it made $70 million against it’s budget of $40 million. It was good enough for me to give it a 7 outta 10.