Original sci-fi backed by a major Hollywood outfit with a decent-sized budget is getting harder and harder to come by unless there’s an A-list filmmaker or a couple of big-name stars attached to the project, so we should at the very least commend Aliens in the Attic for the mere fact that it managed to make it through the studio system at all.
The initial story was conceived by Aardman veteran Mark Burton and polished by Adam F. Goldberg for John Schultz to direct, and as you can no doubt surmise, the premise does indeed revolve around intergalactic outsiders who find themselves dwelling in the rafters of a suburban home, with the tiny critters misguidedly intent on conquering the planet.
Assimilating human hosts with which to enact their scheme, the mind control methods of the aliens only works on adults, which naturally forces the younger cast of the film to band together and try and save the world from being enslaved by a quartet of otherworldly antagonists voiced by J.K. Simmons, Thomas Haden Church, Josh Peck, and Kari Wahlgren.
If Aliens in the Attic sounds mind-numbingly bland and inoffensive based on that summation, then you’ve hit the nail right on the head. Respective Rotten Tomatoes scores of 34 and 43 percent is not great for a $45 million fantasy designed to appeal to a broad audience, and neither were the box office takings of $58 million that left it firmly in the red by the time marketing and distribution costs were factored in.
And yet, proving once more that it’s open season on anything and everything on-demand, Aliens in the Attic has returned with a vengeance on streaming. Per FlixPatrol, even though the mid-credits scene teasing potential sequels was a laughable addition in hindsight, Disney Plus subscribers have still taken it to their hearts.