Battle for Terra

A pallid outer-space animated adventure sporting an ecological message, Battle for Terra finds the civilization of a peace-loving race of creatures (who look like talking tadpoles with oval faces) threatened by the arrival of an armada of spaceships carrying refugees from a polluted planet (guess where?), who are looking for a new home. The invading humans are divided about what to do with Terra, which can be transformed into a supportive environment, but the necessary process would doom the planet's current inhabitants. Fortunately, Mala (voiced by Evan Rachel Wood), a sweet but adventurous young alien heroine, teams up with Jim (Luke Wilson), an injured “enemy” pilot she's befriended, to save the day. What follows is a big air battle—shades of Star Wars!—in which a Terran fleet tries to destroy the Death Star (I mean, Transformation Machine). Being a family film, the carnage here is minimal—lots of explosions, but little loss of life—and a cross-species rapprochement is eventually reached. Battle for Terra wants to deliver a warning about environmental destruction, while also making a plea to reject violence in favor of cooperation and mutual respect, but it ultimately feels preachy instead of exciting. Not a necessary purchase. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include audio commentary with director Aristomenis Tsirbas, screenwriter Evan Spiliotopoulos, and editor Jim May, deleted scenes (7 min.), a “making-of” featurette (5 min.), a “Mala's Escape” animatics segment (3 min.), an “Aristomenis Tsirbas: Pulling the Strings” featurette (2 min.), the brief segment “From Storyboard to Final Render: Mala Sneaks Around,” production design stills, and trailers. Bottom line: a decent extras package for an uneven film.] (F. Swietek)