Battle for Terra

San Francisco Chronicle Justin Berton

The plot is an obvious parable for modern dilemmas, yet in the hands of the film's creators, and with their graceful use of 3-D, viewers feel as if they're watching how the future might actually unfold, glimpsing a conflict that's destined to take place 300 years from now.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The animation is nicely stylized and the color palette well-chosen, although the humans are so square-jawed, they make Dick Tracy look like Andy Gump. The voice performances are persuasive. The obvious drawback is that the film is in 3-D. If you can find a theater showing it in 2-D, seek it out.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

On one level, it's a down-market Star Wars-inspired shoot-'em-up for kiddies; on another, it's a radical alien invasion story where the HUMANS are the aliens.

Variety John Anderson

As original and convincing a feature as the better Japanese animes of recent years --"Tekkonkinkreet" comes to mind, along with the slightly older "Metropolis."

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

The animation is splendid on what must have been, since this is not a studio film, a modest budget.

Los Angeles Times Robert Abele

Director/co-writer Aristomenis Tsirbas, expanding his own short film, unveils a classically devised invasion yarn à la H.G. Wells, but with the twist that humans are the aggressors.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Tentle, dreamy animated sci-fi tale.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Battle for Terra boasts impressively executed battle sequences that, frankly, are light-years beyond anything found in the recent Star Wars animated add-ons.

USA Today Claudia Puig

It's an unconventional premise: that aliens live in harmony and humans are the warmonger invaders. But it's not that simple.

TV Guide Tracie Cooper

The good news is that Battle for Terra's moments of unbalance ultimately right themselves into a surprisingly earnest, engaging film.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

A tiresome, didactic and, once the novelty of the graphics has worn off, charmless film.

The New York Times Neil Genzlinger

The movie's messages are delivered with a heavy hand, but some of the scenes are eye-popping, especially -- sorry, peace-loving Terrians -- the battle sequences.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

All in all? A curious preachment yarn for peace, one which makes you wonder if the filmmakers couldn't wait to get to the climactic aerial dogfights.

Washington Post Dan Kois

It doesn't do much for the film's pacifist message that, as spacecraft zip across the screen and fire lasers into your popcorn, you may find yourself wishing that Tsirbas had replaced the movie's poorly written dialogue and implausible plot with more battle scenes. War! What is it good for? Awesome animation!

Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall

The exotic plant and animal life is enhanced by the 3D process--which makes the two-dimensional screenplay all the more disappointing. With its weighty dialogue the movie becomes depressing well before the final violent showdown.

Boston Globe Ethan Gilsdorf

Please, moviegoers, time is running out for us. Our civilization (and bottom line) depend on fast-food kiddie meals stuffed with toys. In this way, we conquer the solar system.

Charlotte Observer Roger Moore

Naive but ambitious, it comes across as a "Battlestar Galactica" vetted by pacifists, "Clone Wars" neutered for Saturday morning kids' TV.

Village Voice Vadim Rizov

Terra, to be fair, looks fairly clean, and the 3-D is totally passable, but watching it will be no fun for either kids or adults.

New York Post Kyle Smith

Aggressively ugly and intergalactically boring, the dismal sci-fi kiddie cartoon Battle for Terra is too weak to be shown anywhere except maybe on the next flight to Saturn.