PLANET 51 CHARACTERS
LEM is a model kid. He never misses a class, is never late, and has certainly never been called to the principal's office. Kind of cute for someone with green skin but also a bit geeky, he always does the right thing. However, little by little, and with the help of Chuck, Lem learns that there is more to life than following the rules, especially if you're going to have to save the planet!
Age: 16
Occupation: High school junior by day, Junior Assistant
Planetarium Curator by night
Mission: To date his childhood sweetheart, Neera
Likes: Gazing at the stars
Dislikes: Anything out of the ordinary

CHUCK BAKER is not your average astronaut. On the outside he walks the walk. His appearance, smile and charm have made him the eternal Casanova, a hero of  millions, and gotten him voted as the 37th sexiest guy on planet Earth. He has traveled across millions of miles to plant a flag on a planet…which is already inhabited! Chuck will do everything he can to prove to himself that he has The Right Stuff!
AGE: Mid-30's
OCCUPATION: Astronaut
MISSION: To boldly go where no man has gone before
LIKES: The ladies, making headlines
DISLIKES: Space food

SKIFF, Lem's best friend,  is quirky and paranoid, always thinking that the government is telling lies and hiding the truth that aliens really do exist. He is desperate for someone that understands and loves him, and when he finally meets Rover he finds a true friend.
Age: 16
Occupation: High School Junior/Conspiracy Theorist Extraordinaire
Mission: To find 'Base 9' where he is sure the government is hiding aliens
Likes: Bowling and his new best friend, Rover
Dislikes: Aliens!

NEERA is pretty with a strong personality. She doesn't like to be told what to do, especially when it comes to who she should hang around with. She is a bit lost between her desire to be a rebel and her feelings for Lem, but will learn that virtue and bravery, as always, are tucked away in the heart, just waiting to be discovered.
Age: 16
Occupation: High School Junior/ Wannabe hippie
Mission: To make her planet a better world
Likes: To be surprised
Dislikes: Following the rules

GENERAL GRAWL, Strong, willful and intimidating,   is the most powerful person on Planet 51. As commander of the Army it is his mission to protect his planet from alien invasion. He is prepared to fight to the end, but is he prepared to meet Chuck?!
Age: 43
Occupation: Military Commander
Mission: To protect Planet 51 from any possible alien invasion
Likes: Order, discipline, control
Dislikes: Aliens, Alien collaborators, and last but not least... hippies!

PROFESSOR KIPPLE,  Bald, brilliant and impressive, but only half the size of a normal inhabitant, is the Einstein of Planet 51, an intellectual superstar, and the proud owner of the biggest brain on Planet 51. When the "alien" arrives Kipple insists it be taken alive so it can be studied. But he has a secret mission: to own the two biggest brains on the planet…the "alien's" and his own!
Age: 60
Occupation: Planet 51's resident genius
Mission: To collect the biggest brains.
Likes: Brains, creating mass hysteria
Dislikes: Beings of lesser intellect (everyone!)

ECKLE: To be a boy who likes comics, sci-fi films, monsters and aliens, is not an odd thing on Planet 51, but when you are as fascinated by it as 6 year old is, you can drive your parents mad! So don't be surprised to see Eckle's mother dragging him out of the newest Humaniacs movie by his antennae!
Age: 7
Occupation: Sci-fi fan
Mission: To get an alien's autograph
Likes: Humaniacs I, Humaniacs II
Dislikes: Paying attention to anything other than sci-fi, aliens or monsters

ROVER was built for  roaming rough intergalactic terrain and his mission is to explore alien planets, collect samples and send images back home. A loveable robot,that likes nothing more than being tickled and once you've earned his trust you'll have a friend for life.
Age: Assembled in 2009
Occupation: Space exploration robot
Mission: To collect samples
Likes: Rocks (A lot!), Skiff
Dislikes: Vermin under rocks

CREATING  A NEW WORLD

Planetization!
Three basic patterns constitute the core of Planet 51's visual style: Circles, spheres and saucers: a template that was specifically designed to adapt all shapes and forms familiar to us to a more alien -yet recognizable- style, providing overall consistency and credibility.
Two of these patterns were extracted from classic icons of Sci-Fi pop culture and mythology - flying saucers and crop circles - while the third was derived from Googie Architecture, a futurist design style born of the post-WWII car-culture and thrived in the 1950s and 1960s and which was also highly influenced by the Space and Atomic Ages. The futuristic designs that typified Googie Architecture inspired the notably retro look of Glipforg. Thus a term was unofficially coined whenever facing the design of any new prop and having to adapt it to Planet 51's circular and rounded aesthetics… 'let's Planetize that telephone!
'This retro sci-fi vibe was reinforced when conceptualizing the landscape of the town: the idea was to have flying saucers on top of the city, and consequently, roofs were shaped like flying saucers so that when looking from above you would get the impression of an invasion.
Conceptualizing the 'Planetization' of all visual elements was one thing, but implementing it was an entirely different story, constituting a most formidable feat that struck at the heart of production, according to Sets & Props Supervisor Fernando Huelamo: "The greatest challenge that we faced was creating circular objects in 3D - very, very difficult. 3D objects are by definition essentially cubes!" But the fact that it was a challenge didn't make it any less enjoyable. In fact, quite the opposite!!
"It was a lot of fun to redesign all these things." says co-director Marcos Martinez, "If I was an alien and everything in my world was round, how would I design a chair, a telephone, or a gun? When we think of aliens: they have ray-guns, they have flying saucers - let's filter it through our world's design. This is a very rich world where nothing is spared that design."
Another crucial if not immediately noticeable quirk that has become a landmark of 'planetization' and that affects almost all props in Planet 51 is an extraneous circular area in one corner that renders the object asymmetric. According to Art Supervisor Fernando Juarez: "It was simply to provide a small but pointed difference to Earth Signs. If it was perfectly round, then it would be the same."  And if it were the same, that would defeat the purpose of creating a different world.
As can be expected in a world designed by sci-fi lovers, even food, which floats and glows,  does so paying homage to another sci-fi movie from the 80's, Coccoon: "In that particular film, the aliens have an inner energy, immediately indicating they are more advanced. So, I thought that all the food would have this element too and it would make it glow!" Juarez says.
One curious thing to note, is that while all Planet 51's military weapons strongly resemble the typical 50's B-movie alien ray guns, they don't actually behave as ray guns, but as bullet-based earth weapons. "In all the 50's movies where the military are persecuting the aliens," notes Fernando Huelamo, "these kinds of weapons are the most prevalent, so you have to keep that in mind. We didn't want to have it appear different from those films". So, on the one hand we have regular guns and rifles like the ones we have on Earth, and on the other hand, they are 'planetized' in such a way that they remind us of the typical alien ray guns.

Landscaping a Planet
If Planet 51 is indeed based on the America of the 1950's, then it might be easy to picture Glipforg as an alternate Southern California. "Yes, that's one notion," asserts Art Supervisor Fernando Juarez, but for the landscapes surrounding Glipforg, "The Grand Canyon and Colorado" were clear inspirations, he adds. "Our references were not just fifties movies, but the reality itself - it had to be very recognisable."
Glipforg was anchored in what co-director Marcos Martinez labels "a very classical vision of 50's America, even if it's not real - it's the collective image we have of those years. We can see that image of America in a great many things and that's what we wanted to put in to the film. We looked at all the films that possessed that vision."


Where to Hang Around When Visiting Glipforg?


Observatory
Of all the various locations in Glipforg, this is the one which draws more clearly from a specific real-world reference: "Everything in the movie has a reference and this particular location came quicker that we anticipated because of The Griffith Observatory, which features these big windows." Says Visual Production Designer Julian Romero. The world-famous Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles built in 1935, with its distinctive Art Deco Style made it the perfect choice for inspiration.

Comic Book Store
With a 3-D Humaniac reaching  malevolently over entering customers and its insanely detailed interior, Haglog's Comics might very well be the single, most unique and design-rich location in Glipforg. The entire place reeks of  50's Sci-Fi B-Movies, and embodies the very essence of Planet 51. "Everything you can imagine about Planet 51 is in that shop. It's a world inside a world. We put such an effort in to it that it feels that the entirety of the Planet 51's tone is essentially condensed into that one location, via the posters and the books, the small toys, tables, lamps etc."

Places to go with your friends
HUMANIACS II  is the film within the film, (and a huge event in itself) it opens the movie and introduces us to Planet 51's inhabitants deepest rooted fear: to be invaded by us -sort of-. All this takes place inside Glipforg's cinema, where the retro stylings and Art Deco motifs accompany an oval-shaped screen. Once we move outside, we have the chance of admiring the building itself, with its saucer shape and teeming with spires and antennae, possessing a massive central dome over the main auditorium and a Space Age radio mast perched atop the main entrance.
If however, you feel more interested in some action, you can always check out the Bowling Alley. If there is a building closest to resembling a full UFO mothership, this will be it. The interiors are splendidly garish, from the chequered floors to the bowling balls that are shaped like ringed planets.

The Picket Fenced Nirvana
The clearest expression of the myth of  the white-picket fenced nirvana of 1950's America rests serenely in the outskirts of Glipforg, where you'll find the residential area. Much like the rest of the town, the residential area is defined by streets of concentric circles filled with saucer-shaped buildings. Here, the impending invasion theme is also present, " The recurring aerial image of flying saucers flying over the rooftops of a city," explains Visual Production Designer Julian Romero, "serves as a constant reminder of an invasion." and even more so strengthened since in the residential areas this reminder would clash effectively with the overall sense of being secure.

Mid-Town Area
"We never lost the vision that someone watching the film wouldn't recognize what they are looking at. Even though it was a saucer shape, you could easily identify a building and the type of building it was." explains director Jorge Blanco, and it becomes apparent when you view the sheer diversity of buildings that, while keeping the same flying saucer motif, adopt very unique and distinctive shapes and forms, which make them all individually recognizable. At Main Street, you can catch glimpses of Glipforg's largest municipal buildings, one of which would be the White House-inspired Town Hall, complete with white stone and pillars, but of course, having a roof composed of three flying saucers, one larger flanked by two smaller ones.
Glipforg's High School is not any less magnificent, also reminiscent of a huge mothership due to its sheer size, but less accented in its Flying Saucer shape than the Bowling Alley, so one could almost picture this building existing in our world. Right outside the High Shool and in front of the entrance stands a statue of Glipforg's founder Pacifier Glipp (intended to be a sly wink at Isaac Newton).
It's the Gas Station that features the most original application of the saucer motif: the saucer constitutes the overhead cover of the station's forecourt, an area lit by fluorescent lighting located on the underside of the saucer section. There is a slight difference with the rest of saucer motifs found in the rest of the buildings, though: here, the saucer section looks as if it had been directly plucked from a 50's B-Movie!
One exception to the general design rule would seem to be the Hot Dog restaurant, the only building in Glipforg not to feature a saucer-like theme, but instead a giant U-shaped hotdog. Even if this might fit within the Googie category, could it be a design oversight? Not at all, confirms Visual Production designer Julian Romero, for it's in fact Planet 51's most difficult to get homage: "There is one very obscure film reference in that the giant curved hot dog is in fact the crashed ship in Alien."

How to Move Around in Planet 51
It's quite easy to single out one of the aspects of Planet 51 that most stands out in the eyes of everyone. "Our turning point was the saucer-shaped 50's cars and that informed the entire twist of PLANET 51." Says director Jorge Blanco. The moment the suggestion arose of a Cadillac shaped like a flying saucer, it was as if someone had set off a fuse…the film gained a considerable boost that served as catalyst for all design-related decisions. More so, according to co-director Marcos Martinez it was an aesthetic choice that was a dream to design: "The easiest thing to design was the cars. We had that idea from the very beginning and that was one of the best things to work on." The opportunities seemed endless, there were so many recognizable brands/models out there which still retained their identity after being 'planetized', and they all fitted flawlessly in to the film's vision of the 50's America. The fact that so many disparate and distinct vehicle designs - from municipal vehicles like the police cars, school and public buses, taxis, fire trucks et al to familiar, classic period car designs - are converted in to the rotund and bubble-like shape of alien craft so successfully amply shows off the sheer malleability of the concept. Likewise for the military vehicles, which convert Sherman tanks, jeeps, trucks and, memorably, a spider-legged crane with seeming effortless ease. One thing about these vehicles, of course, is that they don't move on wheels; they hover!
"All the cars are references to actual cars of that period." Martinez adds, noting that the various vehicles have been at the forefront of people's appreciation of the film's look. "I've known people who have looked at the film who have been amazed at what they have seen. They recognize all the vehicles in the movie."  The film's producer, Ignacio Perez Dolset comments: "The element of Cars that are flying saucers is the one that we are most proud of in this production. It is what we enjoyed creating the most and it's one step beyond what we have seen before."

NEXT

BACK

HOME