History YMMV / Planet51

* MisaimedMarketing: The trailers focus more on Chuck than Lem, which may confuse viewers.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: Music/Blink182's "Aliens Exist" was used in the marketing that perfectly captures the tone of the film, with memorable lyrics and a hardcore riff.

** Furthermore, the alien’s ignorance on the size of outer space could have been an interesting commentary on the close-mindedness of humankind, but it is ultimately thrown away after Lem attempts to make his speech.

%% * ClicheStorm: Deliberately, and a common criticism of the film.

* SignatureLine: "That's a funny place for his antenna."

* ValuesDissonance: Sorta subverted, since, despite the film was created and produced in Spain, the scriptwriter was [[WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}} Joe Stillman]], who is American. It's possible that Stillman decided to write the script based on how Americans perceive animation, rather than aiming at how Spaniards did at the time -- while the AnimationAgeGhetto had long since fallen in America and elsewhere, Spain was among the last holdouts for such attitudes towards animation.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: They could have done so much more with the HumansThroughAlienEyes concept, thrown in some weird alien biology, a few alien customs, and it wouldn't spoil the 1950s gags excessively, but the alien world is almost identical to Earth, making the "alien invasion role-swap" premise little more than a matter of swapped aesthetics.

* HumorDissonance:
** The presentation of the jarred brains and their original owners post-removal may qualify as this.
** The PoliceBrutality against Glar is PlayedForLaughs, which led to controversy on Wiki/{{this very wiki}}.

* ClicheStorm: Deliberately, and a common criticism of the film.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: They could have done so much more with the HumansThroughAlienEyes concept, thrown in some weird alien biology, a few alien customs, and it wouldn't spoil the 1950s gags excessively, but nope, its just cliches, ToiletHumor, and a weak copy cat Earth all the way through.

* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: This movie looks well done for a rather small budget.

* HilariousInHindsight:
** Creator/{{Disney}} and Creator/{{Pixar}}'s ShowWithinAShow, ''WesternAnimation/BuzzLightyearOfStarCommand'', did a very similar premise for one of their episodes way before this movie was made. The {{irony}} being that ''Planet 51'' is a CGI movie made by another company.
** This and ''WesternAnimation/HotelTransylvania3SummerVacation'' are two Sony animated films that feature the Macarena in one scene.

* PropagandaPiece: Humanity is portrayed as a monstrous group of aliens who want to enslave everything else. It's used as a scare tactic to the public much the same as actual sci-fi movies did back in the 1950s. Special mention that the scare tactics were being used before anyone even knew that life existed beyond their world.

* ValuesDissonance: Sorta subverted, since, despite the film was created and produced in Spain, the scriptwriter was [[WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}} Joe Stillman]], who is American. It's possible that Stillman decided to write the script based on how [[AllAdultAnimationisSouthPark Americans perceive animation]], rather than aiming at [[AnimationAgeGhetto how Spaniards perceive animation (at least at the time)]].

** Furthermore, the alien’s ignorance on the size of outer space could have been an interesting commentary on the close-mindedness of humankind, but it is ultimately thrown to the wayside after Lem attempts to make his speech.