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Clive meets his favorite author Adam Shadowchild (Jeffrey Tambor) and introduces his sci-fi comic book, whose cover design is cleverly scripted throughout the film.
After the convention, Clive and Graeme make their way across the southwestern states in their RV to see the widely known alien activity in Roswell and Area 51 in Nevada.
The alien activity they have been hoping for becomes true in the Nevada desert where they meet a big head, big eyed, foul mouth and three foot alien named Paul (voiced by Seth Rogen). Rogen’s performance as an animated character was brilliant and amusing because he brought his usual goofy personality in the alien.
Paul has been around since 1947 and has told the Feds (Federal Employee Defense Services) everything he knows and is now concerned they will dissect his brain to learn how he can make himself invisible and transfer thoughts and healing to others through his touch.
Just like E.T., Paul has a mission to go back home with the help of Clive and Graeme and escape the dopey detectives (Bill Hader from SNL and Joe Lo Truglio from Reno 911!) and a tenacious federal agent (Jason Bateman) who are taking commands from “the big guy”, whose character’s identity is not revealed until the end of the film.
This film has a target audience and even though the animated alien character might have parents assuming this is a children’s film, it is certainly not intended for a younger audience because of the adult humor, sexual references and drug use.
Clive’s, Graeme’s and Paul’s journey has several references from classic science fiction characters from movies, TV shows and books. One famous sci-fi director, Steven Spielberg makes a cameo appearance.
Co-stars and co-writers of Paul, Pegg and Frost are real life friends who have made several hilarious films like zombie spoof, “Shaun of the Dead” and an action comedy, “Hot Fuzz”.
Even though a few jokes were overused, their screenplay was both witty and entertaining for an animated filmed targeting an older audience, that’s why it deserves four stars.
You do not have to be a science fiction geek to appreciate this film but with all the references to other alien film classics it does help for a lot of laughter.
