Hey everyone. Capone in Chicago here.
Harmless enough as a story (adapted from the book by Bloom County creator Berkley Breathed), but far more interesting on a technical level, the latest 3D animated work MARS NEEDS MOMS is a science fiction adventure built around the premise that Martian moms (and their "nanny bots") are no good at taking care of their own children (men are dispensed with for reasons and by means that I won't ruin). As a result, Martians come to earth to steal the essence of motherhood from a select few moms to inject into the robots raising Martian children.
What's cool about the film is how lost you'll get in the weirdly lifelike animation (courtesy of some great motion-capture technology), especially in the faces. It should come as no surprise that the film was produced by Robert Zemeckis, who seems to do nothing but mo-cap animation lately (BEOWULF, THE POLAR EXPRESS, A CHRISTMAS CAROL), and directed by animation veteran Simon Wells (THE PRINCE OF EGYPT, BALTO), who also adapted the book with Wendy Wells.
It just so happens that nine-year-old Milo (Seth Green, whose voice was altered to sound more childlike) wasn't getting along much with his mom (Joan Cusack), when she is taken by aliens. Milo manages to stow away on the Martian ship and is transported to the red planet in the hope of saving her with the help of fellow human Gribble (Dan Fogler) and a sympathetic Martian, Ki (Elisabeth Harnois). She's rebelling against the evil leader of the Martians, known as the Supervisor, who bears a weird resemblance to E.T. and is voiced by Mindy Sterling.
MARS NEEDS MOMS certainly has a peculiar charm, even if it does feel a bit simplified (or even dumbed down) for younger audiences. But there's an admirable spirit of adventure and fun that borders on infectious most of the time. I don't know how much of author Breathed's dark humor was in the original book, but the movie could have used some of it either way. The film also reeks a bit of people trying maybe a little too hard to entertain us, due to the story being pretty thin. Fogler is guilty of this in his live-action roles on a regular basis, but he clearly inspired others to perform the same.
There's a lot of yelling, action, destruction, and bright lights that all attempt to distract us from the fact that this is a silly film with a message about how great moms are. Nothing wrong with that sentiment at all, but I'm guessing there might have been more interesting ways of conveying that without involving goofy-looking Martians. The movie isn't bad, but it's not especially worthwhile either. A closer call than I thought, but I still can't quite recommend you spend the extra money (it's in 3D, y'all!) to see MARS NEEDS MOMS.
-- Capone
capone@aintitcool.com
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