Escape from Planet Earth Information

Escape from Planet Earth is a 2013 Canadian 3D computer animated family film produced by Rainmaker Entertainment, and directed by Cal Brunker. The film was released on February 15, 2013. This was the first Rainmaker Entertainment film theatrically released. It was based on a story written by Tony Leech and Cory Edwards.

Plot

The film starts out with Scorch Supernova on a mission to rescue captured babies from a rival species. Scorch then returns back to Planet Baab where he is known as a famous hero, while at BASA his brother, Gary and Gary's son Kip are. Soon, Gary and Scorch receive a message from Lena the head of BASA, that Scorch will be sent to the "Dark Planet" (Earth) due to an SOS call. Scorch decides to go on the mission to the Dark planet, but Gary strongly discourages him from going. 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 Kip only to find out that Scorch has already gone on the mission to the Dark planet, while Kip is watching it on live TV in excitement.

Scorch arrives on Earth and lands in the desert and finds a 7-Eleven convenience store but mistakes a inflatable figure for a dying being. Scorch is then tranquilized and captured by General Shanker Saunderson, the malevolent general of the US Army, and is taken to "Area 51" where aliens from other planets are held. After finding that this has happened, Kip wants to go rescue Scorch but Gary discourages him and he himself doesn't want to go. Kip is furious and goes to his room. Gary goes to Kip's room to apologize and admit he is sorry that Scorch has been captured. When Gary flips Kip's blanket open, instead of seeing Kip, he sees his dog and sees that Kip's window is open. Knowing that Kip is going to try and save Scorch, he rushes to BASA with Kira wearing his rocket boots. They arrive to find that Kip is about to take off in a ship.

Gary manages to cancel the launch sequence, but he re-activates the sequence so Gary himself can rescue Scorch. 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.

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 a food fight in the cafeteria, it is revealed that Lena is an ally of Shanker's as she has sent him a powerful source known as blutonium and is in love with him as he puts on an Elvis Presley-like wig when contacting her. Lena, meanwhile, captures Kira, who has stayed at BASA to contact Gary in concern, and reveals her plan to give a lifetime supply of blutonium to Shanker.

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 to fix the blutonium and 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 discover Shanker's true intentions when he 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 there icy prisons, the brothers, Doc, Thurman, and Io escape Area 51 and eventually find Scorch's ship in a trailer park.

Meanwhile, back on Baab, Kip frees his mother, who stops and subdues Lena after the latter took off with the blutonium shipment (and in the midst of the battle, learns 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.

Cast

• Rob Corddry as Gary Supernova, Scorch's older brother and the head of mission control at BASA
• Brendan Fraser as Scorch Supernova, Gary's younger brother, an arrogant but benevolent space pilot
• Sarah Jessica Parker as Kira Supernova, Gary's wife and Kip's mother
• Jessica Alba as Lena, a BASA's no-nonsense chief who's later revealed to be an ally of Shanker
• William Shatner as General Shanker, the villainous head of Area 51
• Joshua Rush as Young Shanker, the younger version of General Shanker
• Craig Robinson as Doc, a Mouse-like alien who Gary befriends and weds Scorch and Gabby at their wedding
• George Lopez as Thurman, a 3-eyed slug-like alien with 4 arms who Gary befriends, and becomes his roommate at Area 51 until they escape
• Jane Lynch as Io, a giant cyclops-like alien who Gary befriends with anger management issues
• Sofía Vergara as Gabby Babblebrook, a anchorwoman on Baab who has a crush on Scorch
• Jonathan Morgan Heit as Kip Supernova, Gary and Kira's adventurous son and Scorch's nephew
• Ricky Gervais as Mr. James Bing, a sarcastic talking computer.
• Steve Zahn as Hawk, a human working at 7-Eleven who Gary befriends
• Chris Parnell as Hammer, a human working at 7-Eleven who Gary befriends

Development

The film has been in development at The Weinstein Company at least since 2007. The film was first announced in a press release from The Weinstein Company, which announced that the film was in full production and also announced most of the cast.

The film's director is Cal Brunker, who previously worked as a storyboard designer on Despicable Me, Horton Hears a Who! and Ice Age: Continental Drift. The film was originally set for release on February 14th, but was eventually changed to February 15th due to conflicting schedules.

Lawsuit

Writer-director Tony Leech and film producer Brian Inerfeld sued the Weinstein Company, claiming they signed a deal whereby they were to receive at least 20 percent of Escape's adjusted gross profit, which they estimated would be worth close to $50 million in back end participation alone. But the film languished in development, and the plaintiffs claimed that the Weinsteins repeatedly unlocked the script, forcing rewrites at least 17 times, which they say "eviscerated" the movie's budget by keeping 200-plus animators on payroll. With the film pushing its budget, the Weinsteins went outside for fresh capital. The Weinstein Company entered into a Funding and Security Agreement with JTM whereby the financiers agreed to provide new money and, in return, get 25 percent of the film's gross receipts and 100 percent of all foreign gross receipts. Leech and Inerfeld were upset, alleging that the agreement had mortgaged their own financial upside and said the Weinsteins advised them that if they wanted their past due money, they would have to agree to this arrangement. Instead, Leech and Inerfeld went on the legal attack against TWC even claiming that they were paid $500,000 in hush money to keep the dispute quiet on the verge of the Weinsteins' The King's Speech Oscar victory in 2011. As for JTM, the plaintiffs demanded a declaratory judgment that their contractual rights to share in the profits were superior to JTM's security interest in profits from the film. Leech and Inerfeld continued to pursue The Weinstein Company directly.

On February 15, 2013, the same day the film was released. In a document filed in the New York Supreme Court, lawyers for both sides filed a motion of discontinuance in the case, effectively ending it. No details of the settlement were made available but because the motion was filed "with prejudice" both sides will be paying their own legal costs.

Music

Soundtrack

Escape from Planet Earth: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the soundtrack of the film and was released on February 19, 2013. The following 13 songs are on the official film soundtrack.

Track listing

Score

Escape from Planet Earth: Original Score By Aaron Zigman is the soundtrack of the film scored by Aaron Zigman and was released on February 8, 2013.

Track listing

• All songs written and composed by Aaron Zigman.

Reception

Critical response

Escape from Planet Earth received mostly negative reviews from critics. Based on 30 reviews, the film currently holds a rating of 26% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 4.2/10. Among the site's "Top Critics", it has a 50% rating. Another review aggregator, Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, calculated a score of 35 based on 11 reviews.

Stephen Farber of The Hollywood Reporter commented on the film by saying "The picture has enough entertainment value to tickle its target audience and even offers a few chuckles for accompanying adults. A strong cast and bright -- if uninspired "? animation help to offset a thin story. Decent box office returns seem likely." Tasha Robinson of The A.V. Club gave the film a C, calling it a "Mild-mannered CGI animated film that consists largely of broad conflicts, broadly resolved. It's unchallenging fun for a younger crowd, but adults might feel like they're staring down a colorful 24-piece board puzzle, trying to figure out how such a simple activity could be drawn out over 90 minutes." Mack Rawden of Cinema Blend panned the film by saying "Every single facet of the film is at best, slightly below average and at worst, downright terrible." Stephen Whitty of the Newark Star-Ledger said "It provides a few smiles, and a decent amount of rainy-day, kiddie entertainment." Neil Genzlinger of The New York Times called it "A children's movie about space-traveling blue beings that has lots of high-flying escapades but fairly low aspirations." Jordan Riefe of the Boston Phoenix said "This might please young kids but torment discerning parents."

Peter Howell of the Toronto Star gave the film 2 and a half stars and wrote, "No matter whether you call Escape from Planet Earth sincere homage or cynical thievery, it goes down well in its brisk 89 minutes." Gregg Katzman of IGN gave the film a 4.5 out of 10 saying "Escape From Planet Earth looks fantastic and is sporting some commendable voice acting, but these qualities can't overcome a stale script and significant lack of laughs. Unless you have a young kid that wants to see it, I just can't recommend this one at all." Sheri Linden of the los Angeles Times Said "It never discovers new worlds, but "Escape From Planet Earth" is, in its genial way, escape enough." Tom Russo of The Boston Globe gave the film two stars saying " If "Escape" figures prominently into your February staycation plans, you won't feel like you've thrown your money away, but the kids won't still be buzzing about it when they get back to school, either." Roger Moore of The Seattle Times gave the film two out of four stars saying "The animation is what sells "Escape from Planet Earth," with rich, textured surfaces "? check out the fishnet webbing on Scorch's spacesuit, the paint worn off the hardware and the perfectly rendered 7-Eleven, where even the Slurpee (product placement in a cartoon?) shimmers like the real thing. But it's not worth paying 3D prices".

Box office

As of March 21, 2013, Escape from Planet Earth has grossed $52,540,938 in North America, and $2,741,152 in other countries, for a worldwide total of 55,282,090.

In North America, the film opened to #4 in its first weekend with $15,891,055, behind A Good Day to Die Hard, Identity Thief and Safe Haven.