Mars Needs Moms (2011)

I have to start out by saying that I enjoyed reading all of the obvious planted reviews about this movie. There is a reason that hardly anybody went to see this movie, and it isn't just because it was released around the same time as a couple of other "family" movies. Those reasons may include hideous character design, lazy animation (mo-cap), and a generic and unbelievable story. Not to mention an unmistakeably sexist trailer that leaves the audience groaning.

Who cares if Mars needs Moms? I don't. You won't, either, especially after watching this movie. The ensemble of unlikeable, repulsive characters will see to that.

Fmovies: In Mars, the female babies are nursed by robots while the male babies are dumped in the junkyard under the command of Supervisor. They research Earth and finds that the boy Milo is raised by his Mon with love and discipline.

The Martians come to Earth and abduct Mon, to use her brain to instruct the robots about how to raise children. However, Milo slinks into the spaceship and comes to Mars. He meets Gribble, a young man that behaves like a child and together with the hippie Martian Ki and Gribble's friend Wingnut, they try to rescue Mon and bring her back to Earth. But Supervisor will give her best efforts to stop Milo and his friends.

"Mars Needs Moms" is a delightful underrated animation about that crazy love thing and a tribute to the mothers and to the families. There is no explanation of how the Martians breed but the wonderful story can be easy enjoyed by those that have the concept of family, and not hatchery. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Marte Precisa de Mães" ("Mars Needs Moms")

Due to the copious negative reviews about "Mars Needs Moms," I decided to write a quick positive one.

I've read a bunch of different kinds of bashing over this film; from sexism and hidden political agendas to poor animation and a poorly timed release. Now, I think we can all safely agree that if the viewer really wants to find something negative about "Mars Needs Moms", they won't have to look very hard. Keeping this in mind, I went into watching this film with just one simple goal in mind, to be entertained, and I was. This film really isn't as bad as everyone says it is as long as you just go into it with the right mind set.

The animation is incredible, as well it should be with a $150 million dollar budget and over 6 minutes worth of end credits of people who worked hard creating it. Like Beowulf, the human characters look almost identical to the actor/actress voicing them and the surroundings like the space sequences, the garbage mountains, and the Mars tunnels are breathtaking. This simple animation element will be enough to entertain the open minded person. Yet, the overdone and predictable story is still heartwarming and I believe it served as a nice reminder of how special a mom really is. Though some of the dialogue isn't the greatest, and there are a few ominous notes played throughout (leaving me to recommend this movie to children over ten), wait for it to go down from a new release rental price and give it a try.

Mars Needs Moms fmovies. Like andrewj-lee wrote, how fun to read the obviously planted movie reviews here. Ranging from the ones in a journalistic style to the short and tear-jerking. That's the way to do it, Disney. As for the movie, it is terrible. Disney is dead. The people who now control the corporation have nothing in common with its founder. Walt Disney had a vision, his movies had a soul. "Disney" today has only calculation, with movies made of plastic.

For example: Who in his right mind would give a movie aimed at kids the tag-line "Mom needs a little space."? It means that children's' mothers want to get away from them. Is this heartwarming? Is it truly what children should hear? Or is it just something a movie producer thinks is a clever play on words? Few parents will pay to see a movie with a tag-line that insults them.

The characters look freaky. Aliens with bloated heads that would make their tiny necks snap are not a welcome sight. The anteater-like "Wingnut" character is outright disturbing. I am reminded of the creepy Australian children's show "Dirtgirlworld". (If you want to be freaked out, look it up in YouTube.) At the end you have to wonder where the people went who could make Lady and the Tramp and put true feeling in it, with way less technology than today. Now we get do-it-by-the-numbers productions: "Let's find a Heartwarming Subject. Let's throw in Funny Sidekicks (loved that Jar-Jar Binks). Let's have a Mean Enemy Boss. Give him a mean name too. In the end the kid Saves The Day. With lots of special effects."

What could go wrong? You did it by the numbers, right? Took it from A to Z. Why doesn't it work? Like when you survey people about what they like to see on a car, and put it all together to make the perfect vehicle. How could it be a flop? (It was, it's a marketing disaster classic.) Or when you hire a decorator to decorate an apartment in an "eclectic" style, choosing only the most expensive parts and the most appreciated objects in the catalogue. How could it be awful? Or when you go to the gym and pump up your muscles, targeting exactly those muscle groups that people are said to look at the most. How could people think you look fake?

How do you explain soul to a Hollywood executive - and do they care?

The average rating for this movie by professional film critics is about 3.0 out of 5 stars. That average is realistic. I would probably give it 6.5 out of 10 if I could, but I didn't feel it was as bad as movies I've given 6 out of 10 stars, so I gave it a 7 out of 10.

The movie uses motion-capture computer animation to apply more realistic textures and movements to its characters, following movies like A Christmas Carol (which wasn't as good), Beowulf (which was much better), and The Polar Express (also much better).

Mars Needs Moms features a plot that wasn't demographically targeted correctly. It features a boy who needs to rescue his mother from awkwardly humanoid-looking Martians, but boys that age are working very hard to separate themselves from needing their mothers. It is a very natural consequence of a male's life. So while the movie might appeal to mothers, I'm not sure it will appeal to boys.

The next problem, which exacerbates the previous one, is its timing. The studio made a big, big mistake trying to release it at the same time as Battle: Los Angeles, and only a week after Rango. Parents already took their kids to Rango the weekend before, and the dads really wanted to see Battle: Los Angeles (especially after being sorely disappointed with the similarly themed Skyline last Fall).

A lot of movies in January through March have been juggled around recently, causing all sorts of problems. Many movies were yanked from their original release dates and moved out later in the year. But Mars Needs Moms should have been released in early January. It would have fared a lot better. As it is, the movie has been a complete disaster at the Box Office. I fault Disney for the poor release strategy (they were only the distributor, not the actual producer of the movie), and Simon Wells for the rest.

There is also the point that a lot of viewers were troubled by the Martians themselves. I think Simon Wells could have had his animators design them a little more intelligently. They seemed awkward to me -- they were humanoid, but slightly differenced to a degree that some people found disagreeable: legs too far apart, butts too big, and legs like they were inflated with air. Mr. Wells also made the mistake of giving the male Martians dreadlocks-like hair, which has accidentally incited a lot of racist remarks, although racial nods was not intended. (People really need to stop being oversensitive. Grow some skin, please!)

There is an army of people flaming the movie, however, and the computer animation is at the core of their argument, which is very curious. One critic said, "Mars Needs Moms stands as the potentially final Zemeckis-produced motion-capture effort, and, like The Polar Express, Beowulf, and A Christmas Carol before it, its characters boast the waxy complexions, unreal movements, and dead eyes of mannequins..." (Nick Schager, The Village Voice)

What the...? I'm confused here. What standard is this critic holding computer animated features to? I don't recall any waxy complexions or unreal movements or dead eyes of mannequins in any of these movies, or at least nothing that distracted me from the otherwise near photo-realistic computer animation that has only been around a few years. While they fall short of the realism of characters inserted into live action movies such as Peter Jackson's King Kong and Gollum, or George Lucas's Yoda in Star Wars episodes II & III, and certainly not the characters in Avatar, it didn

Easily the biggest flop of 2011, and pretty close to of all time, this Disney motion-capture film is about a young boy, Milo, who must save his mother (Joan Cusack) from Martians. In Martian society, females rule the world. They discard the males (who then live on the trash-strewn surface world) and the females are raised by nanny-bots. They need the Earth mothers in order to program these nanny-bots, and the process they use leaves the Earth mothers dead. With the help of another human (Dan Fogler), who was brought up to Mars in the same fashion as Milo (trying to rescue his own mother, he stowed away on their ship), and a rebellious female Martian (Elisabeth Harnois), Milo sets out to save his mother. A lot of viewers get stuck on the film's gender politics. I admit they do seem a little backward, especially with the shrill, feminist stand-in villain (played by Mindy Sterling, whom you may remember as Frau Farbissina from the Austin Powers movies). However, I think that Ki, the Martian girl who helps Milo, is a positive enough female character that she should make up for the villain (the remainder of the female Martians are more or less faceless soldiers). If you can get past that stuff, the film is actually a lot of fun. Simple and straightforward, but a lot of fun. It's fast paced and beautiful to look at (thankfully, now that it's on video, you don't have to see the colors diminished in 3D), and it's very funny. Fogler and Harnois are both very good. Fogler's character, Gribble, is easily the best looking motion capture character I've ever seen. Gribble is an 80s kid and Ki has fallen in love with humanity after watching sitcoms about hippies, so they both talk in idioms from those eras, bugging modern kid Milo the whole time. I think most kids will love this movie, and it imparts a nice moral (respect your damn mother!). This fits in with the late crop of severely undervalued Disney films of the past several years, which includes The Princess and the Frog and Meet the Robinsons. None of these films are masterpieces or on par with Pixar's best, but they're excellent films nonetheless.