Mars Needs Moms (2011)
Certified: U
Duration: 88 minutes
Directed by: Simon Wells
Starring: Seth Green (motion capture), Seth Dusky (voice only), Joan Cusack, Tom Everett Scott, Elisabeth Harnois, Dan Fogler, Mindy Sterling, Kevin Cahoon, Ryan, Robert and Raymond Ochoa, Liam and Edgar Wells.
KRS release
Mars Needs Moms uses the same kind of capture animation that was such a striking feature of The Polar Express (2004), Beowulf (2007) and A Christmas Carol (2009).
The film is directed by Simon Wells who is the great-grandson of H.G. Wells, one of the grandfathers of science fiction who wrote, among other works, the classic War of the Worlds. That book had aliens from the Red Planet invading Earth only to be destroyed by a virus. Here the Martians are again invading Earth, but only to steal the best human “moms”.
Milo is your average nine-year-old boy: he likes comic books, thinks zombies are cool, doesn’t like vegetables and thinks his mother is a controlling tyrant! Well, his mother is dead set on getting him to eat his broccoli and take the trash out and that is what leads to him wishing that he did not have a nagging mother.
Unwittingly enough, his wish is granted as his mom is targeted by a Martian spaceship that kidnaps her. The Red Planet is not the deserted place it is believed to be. Under the crust there lives a race of technologically advanced aliens under the tyranny of The Supervisor. These have been stealing mothers from Earth to provide their skills to the nanny-bots that this matri-archal militaristic society needs. The males here are segregated in other strata where they form communities that are more fun-loving than the society in which the women live.
Milo sneaks on board the spaceship that kidnapped his mother and tries to save her. But time is running out because she will soon have her mind obliterated and will be used as fodder for the nanny-bots.
Help is provided through Gribble, another stowaway from years before who had also tried to save his mom. Than there is Ki, a Martian who discovers that her society had once been run by human parents and not robots.
The film’s animation looks good: the 3D effects are nice and will please the young boys for whom this film is aimed. The capture motion animation developed by Robert Zemeckis still has a problem with the glazed look that the characters seem to possess.
The character of Milo is played by two different actors: one for the voice and another to capture the animation movement. Containing scenes of nifty and zippy action, the film however lacks real emotion beneath all the eye candy.
It’s a pity that the film, based on the book by Berkeley Breathed, lacks punch in its content and never succeeds in the zany 1950s feel that it is aiming for. The title in itself is a reworking of the 1966 TV movie Mars Needs Women.
The characters in this film never seem to pass beyond the caricature phase, and this leaves the characters in a seemingly-dark scriptwriting limbo. The result is a very undemanding story that is darker than the usual Disney picture – one that will be mostly remembered for its action sequences rather than the characters that inhabit it. In fact, the Martians present in the film would be more at ease in a science fiction film as these are quite different from the usual cuddlesome Disney creatures that are the stable’s norm.
While the gender political battles will fly right over the young boys, the end lesson is: Moms are the best, which is simply no secret at all. Even the Martians seem to know that.