Amazing things can be done with animated movies these days — just turn on a Pixar film or check out some of the amazing 3-D films being released this year.

That doesn't mean, however, that less ambitious, lower budget, not-completely-thought-out animated films aren't still going to leak into the marketplace.

"Planet 51," for instance.

There's nothing particularly wrong with "Planet 51." It's perfectly acceptable family fare — breezy and mostly enjoyable — but it features second-rate animation and a run-of-the-mill story.

The premise is that an American astronaut has landed on a strange planet and finds that, rather than a harmless chunk of rock, it is inhabited by lovable green aliens who are stuck in their own extraterrestrial version of "Happy Days" and the 1950s.

Dwayne (formerly "The Rock") Johnson is the surprisingly bland voice of astronaut Chuck Baker — sort of a more pompous, less endearing Buzz Lightyear — who finds that the populace has an unnatural media-inspired fear of alien beings, who are thought to be bent on world domination and able to turn average citizens into zombies with nothing more than a steely glare.

The main character, however, is nerdy alien Lem (Justin Long), who just wants to live his life and date his next-door neighbor Neera (Jessica Biehl, who is not half as sexy as an animated alien voice), but finds himself helping the astronaut escape instead.

Think of it as a reverse "E.T." without all the wonder and warm fuzziness. Throw in a little "WALL-E" too: A lovable lunar rover named Rover is sort of a poor man's version, scurrying about in various cute and helpful ways.

The chief bad guys are Gary Oldman as the deadly General Grawl and John Cleese as a mad scientist who acts like he understands human aliens but really has no clue.

The animated beings look to me like rubber bath toys, but that wouldn't matter as much if the script were a little better and the jokes a little funnier.

Written by Joe Stillman, who did much better with "Shrek," "Planet 51" definitely has some laughs but isn't quite sure what it wants to be. It feels like pure kids fare, but a satire of the '50s ("Singing in the Rain"? "Greased Lightning"?) goes right over young heads — and there are at least a couple of unnecessary off-color jokes that might give pause to some parents.

Don't be scared of "Planet 51" but don't go out of your way to get there.

Rental Recommendation: "The X-Files: Fight the Future," the first movie based on the series, was pretty good. The 2008 sequel, not so good. Grade: B

E-mail Steve Ouellette at: ouellette1918@gmail.com