Published: March 07, 2011
Mars Needs Moms, a PG-rated film, is not nearly as bad as one might expect. The title of the new 3-D computer-animated movie, released by Walt Disney Pictures, gives anyone over the age of 9 a sense the movie that just started may not have been the best choice.
The film, directed by Simon Wells (Prince of Egypt), returns to animation once again to adapt the book by Berkeley Breathed.
The plot of the movie is given away in the title. Being a children’s movie, there is no deep meaning hidden beneath the surface. Basically, Mars needs moms.
The beginning of the movie sees “The Supervisor,” voiced by Mindy Sterling (Austin Powers), spying on a suburban neighborhood somewhere in the United States. Her goal is to find a mother that keeps her children in line.
She spots Milo’s mom, voiced by Joan Cusack (Toy Story 3), and decides she is a perfect candidate to be abducted and brought up to Mars to be used as an example of how to keep children in line.
The audience gets a sense of the typical suburban home. Milo, voiced by newcomer Seth Dusky, is about to hit his teenage years, and he and his mom go head-to-head about everything.
Pretty much every parent could relate to the constant arguments about cleaning and eating your vegetables.
After a particularly bad fight, Milo is sent to bed. Later he feels bad about what he had said and goes to apologize. He enters the room just in time to witness his mother being taken aboard the Martian spaceship. Milo accidentally sneaks onto the spaceship, and that is when the adventure begins.
Milo gets rescued by Gribble, voiced by Dan Fogler (Balls of Fury), who has been on Mars since his own mom was kidnapped during the 1980s. Milo finds out the Martians are all women and they are horrible mothers.
They assign a nanny robot to each new hatchling, that for some strange reason comes out of the ground (good way to get around children asking where babies come from). The Nanny robots need to be programed with disciplinary ideas. That is why Milo’s mom is there. Her memories will be extracted in order to have them used to program the robots.
Milo has only a short time to save his mom. With Gribble helping to guide him (with many good ‘80s catch phrases), Milo comes into contact with all sorts of characters.
The male Martians, it turns out, are sent down the garbage shoot because they are thought of as unnecessary (talk about hidden sexism). Yet we find the females are not bad, they are just controlled by the Supervisor. Ki, voiced by television actress Elisabeth Harnois, is a Martian street artist who decides Milo is right and aids Milo and Gribble in their quest to save Milo’s mom and return them to Earth.
The subtle messages are a little askew with this film. For a child, this is not a bad movie, nor is it one of those films that wastes the life of an adult. There are several film references thrown into the equation that only a grown-up would catch. Films such as Close Encounters and Star Wars are referenced along with many 1980s terms and expressions.
Overall the film is not that bad, it is just not a top pick for anyone over the age of 9. Motion capture technology was used to make the story as life-like as possible, which makes the effects subtle and well done.
The script is well written and keeps the audience interested in the movie, and even a grown-up finds many occasion to laugh.
No comments:
Post a Comment