Tellur Aliens
Common Sense says
- NR
- 2016
- 67 minutes
Parents say
Kids say
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A lot or a little?
The parents' guide to what's in this movie.
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that Tellur Aliens is a low-quality short animated feature about students on the planet Telluria trying to save their world from an evil destroyer. The plot is jumpy, seemingly stitched together from pieces that might have been created as television episodes. Cartoon violence can be a bit scary, but only for the youngest viewers. Aliens battle using laser swords and other techie weapons. Large ants try to capture the students. Singulord wants to destroy Telluria by shutting down its core.
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User Reviews
- Parents say
- Kids say
Awful, disjointed tale with stilted animation and terrible dubbing
Great movie to look at!
Dull
What's the story?
In TELLUR ALIENS, three Tellurian students use their individual skills to help save their planet from destruction by the gloomy Singulord, a rock-like monster with a Darth Vader voice and a yen to bring darkness wherever he goes. Vic, a failing robotics student, Zag, a tech genius, and Ellie, a galactic language interpreter, alternate hot pursuit of Singulord with taking exams and playing video games. They are chased by giant robots, giant ants, and other bad guys. They also explore scary caves and fall down enormous holes in the ground, all supposedly in the name of preventing Singulord from taking their planet's core, except when they just want to have adventures. There are frequent blackouts, presumably designed to showcase commercials when shown on television.
Is it any good?
This isn't the worst cartoon out there, but nothing here -- not the conception, the script, the animation -- hasn't been done before elsewhere at a much higher level of quality. The message is generic: Don't give up on your dreams. The English dialogue feels alien itself, just shy of normal idiomatic speech, and the actors, whose accents are good, repeatedly put the emPHAsis on the wrong sylLAbles. This endeavor seems to have started as a television idea with a final product that looks like disjointed episodes stitched together to create the illusion of a feature film. Cartoon violence and forces of evil in this stilted animated tale may frighten the youngest audiences, but the tendency for Tellur Aliens to endlessly explain everything that has already happened and then foretell everything that is about to happen makes young kids the only audience this won't bore to death.
Talk to your kids about ...
Families can talk about what makes an animated film good. Some computer-animated movies and television shows are seamless and lifelike, but Tellur Aliens isn't. How might that add or detract from the viewing experience?
How does this compare to other alien movies you've seen?
Do you believe aliens are real? Why or why not?
Movie details
- On DVD or streaming: December 1, 2016
- Director: Einar Gabbassov
- Studio: Netflix
- Genre: Family and Kids
- Run time: 67 minutes
- MPAA rating: NR
- Last updated: May 25, 2020
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Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.
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