Luis and the Aliens is a children’s animation that follows a young boy named Luis, the son of the neighbourhood weirdo and Ufologist. While trying to warn his dad about child services potentially taking him away, he gets roped into aiding three aliens on their journey to purchase a product off TVSN.
After a slow start, the story that ensues after 30 minutes creates out-of-this-world moments that children will enjoy. It hits the notes, specifically physical humour, that will make the kids laugh, along with beautifully popping colours to keep them fixated to the animation.
However, this is a film that parents will put on for their children and not watch themselves. Disney, Dreamworks, and other major companies have mastered the fine line of children’s entertainment with witty mature humour. Luis and the Aliens aims to deliver similar laughs, but instead more often leaves the viewer questioning its necessity. This may be due to its European origin and mistranslations.
Although line for line the audio could be translated to a ‘t’, but the mistranslation is more about the social differences between countries. The mistranslation is more about how the same joke could sound cruder in another language or country.
That isn’t to say there aren’t some quips that will catch the parents’ attention, but it’s definitely not enough to earn reruns.
Again, possibly due to mistranslations, there is the character Marlon who sounds like he is a bully from a 2000s Power Rangers episode. He uses words such as ‘dog’, ‘cray-cray’, and ‘whack’ which all discredit him as a real threat.
The aliens themselves are what audiences have come to expect and could be transferred into almost any other B-movie alien flick. There’s the anxious one, the dumb one, and the narcissist. But, among the film’s clichés, the three aliens were worked perfectly to entertain its target audience.
Luis and the Aliens is a B grade film with enough guts to keep the kids entertained in the afternoon. The clichés and flat jokes might not rope in the parents, but it’s unclear if this is truly due to the writing or mistranslation.
