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Mars Needs Moms

4–Disc Blu/3D/DVD/Digital Combo I 2–Disc Blu/DVD Combo I DVD

Director: Simon Wells

Writer: Simon Wells, Wendy Wells

Starring: Seth Green, Seth Robert Dusky, Dan Fogler, Joan Cusack, Elisabeth Harnois, Mindy Sterling, Tom Everett Scott, Kevin Cahoon

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment

Release Date: August 9, 2011

Having the very unfortunate disposition of costing $150 million to make, and only bringing back $38 million worldwide in return, Walt Disney's Mars Needs Moms can be considered one of the biggest flops of all time...and that, my friends, is not a good thing to have hovering over you. But is the movie really as bad as this monumental flop indicates, or are there redeeming qualities worth seeking out?

The movie follows Milo, (performance captured by Seth Green, voiced by Seth Robert Dusky), a normal everyday boy who has a bit of an argument with his mother (Joan Cusack). As most boys would,...

Chicago – Sometimes all a film needs is a bad title to repel audiences. “Mars Needs Moms” is based on the Berkeley Breathed picture book of the same name, which derived its own title from the 1966 film, “Mars Needs Women.” Even as an obscure homage, the title falls flat, and most certainly could’ve been replaced. Yet that’s not the only reason why this woefully overlooked film became one of the biggest box office bombs in history.

“Moms” was the last film released by the Disney-owned studio ImageMovers Digital run by Robert Zemeckis, who broke ground with his early motion capture efforts beginning with 2004’s “The Polar Express.” Yet Zemeckis and his team have never been able to compete with the vastly superior work from Weta Digital, the studio behind “Lord of the Rings” and “Avatar.” Whereas the features on Zemeckis’s characters often appear embalmed, there actually seems to...

It may have seemed like a good idea at the time, but the release of Mars needs Moms turned out to be a disaster of epic proportions. It led to the dissolving of ImageMovers Digital, the company that birthed it, but the results aren.t that bad. They.re not anything extraordinary, but nothing like the reputation that the film might carry. Milo (acted by Seth Green and voiced by Seth Dusky) is your typical youth. He doesn.t want to take out the trash for his mom (Joan Cusack) or eat his broccoli. When he is bribed with watching a zombie movie, he pretends to eat his broccoli but really feeds it to the cat. When the cat barfs...

The Movie Pool was pleasantly surprised with the Blu-ray and DVD release of Disney's Mars Needs Moms!

This review is based on the 2-Disc 2D Blu-ray and DVD set.

Blu-ray Specs

Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1

Running Time: 88 minutes

Rating: PG

Audio: English 7.1 DTS-hd Master Audio, English Descriptive Video Service 2.0 Dolby Digital, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, French

Subtitles: English Subtitles for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired, French, Spanish

Special Features: Extended Opening, Deleted Scenes, "Life on Mars" motion capture experience, Martian 101, "Fun with Seth" featurette.

The technical specs for the DVD are the same as the Blu-ray with the following exceptions: the non-high definition video transfer is enhanced for 16X9 television, the audio is 5.1 Dolby Digital, and the only special features included are the "Martian 101" and "Fun with Seth" featurettes.

The Set-up

After seeing his mother being abducted by aliens, a young boy (Seth Green and Seth Dusky) stows away on a spaceship and travels to Mars.

Mars Needs Moms ** ½

Stars: Seth Green, Joan Cusack, Dan Fogler, Elisabeth Harnois | Written by Simon Wells, Wendy Wells | Directed by Simon Wells

The last film from Robert Zemeckis’s Image Movers Digital (the studio that gave us Beowulf, A Christmas Carol and the very creepy The Polar Express), Mars Needs Moms is a lacklustre family sci-fi which unfortunately ensures that the studio goes to its rest with a whimper rather than a bang.

Milo (Seth Green, with Seth Dusky’s voice) is a typical nine year old who resents taking the garbage out, tidying his room and eating broccoli. After been scolded by his long-suffering mum (Joan Cusack), he blurts out that his life would be much better without her but quickly changes his mind when she gets whisked away in an alien spacecraft. Managing to stow away on board, he teams up with a hyperactive human hacker named Gribble...

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Having amassed a middling critical reception as well as a fair amount of controversy upon its U.S. release almost a month ago, Mars Needs Moms stands presently as one of the largest box office bombs in film history. While Robert Zemeckis‘ performance capture technology remains a contentious issue in the film community, it has seen some success, namely the solid box office posting of Zemeckis’ A Christmas Carol and the astronomical returns of James Cameron’s Avatar. Ironically, while Mars Needs Moms is a fair visual improvement over Zemeckis’ previous, his latest work (as a Producer) has struggled to find much of an audience.

It’s a shame, for this odd little sci-fi may not be great, but it’s sure not bad either.

Touted as a silly sci-fi B-movie of sorts, the film begins with 9-year-old Milo (whose likeness “borrows” from Seth Green, while...

Do kids really need to be reminded -- in IMAX 3D! -- that Mom loves you and has your best interests at heart when she tells you to eat your broccoli and gets mad when you feed it to the cat instead? I guess someone at Disney figured this was the case. For the spectacularly mediocre Mars Needs Moms posits just this scenario: If you’re a nine-year-old brat of a boy and you wish your mom away, she just might get kidnapped by aliens who really appreciate her momness, and then you’ll be sorry... and then you’ll be forced to go and rescue your mother from another planet. I anticipated lots and lots of gendered ickiness here, but I’m, er, pleased to see that there isn’t much more than usual amount (if you’re an ugly male, you’re a cool, wacky hero type; if you’re an ugly female,...

Actor Seth Green has cleared up confusion surrounding his new Disney movie Mars Needs Moms after fans discovered his voice had been removed from the animation - even though he's given top billing on promotional posters.

The Austin Powers star helped producers capture the movements of the film's lead character, nine-year-old Milo, but studio bosses decided against using his vocals for the boy because he sounded too mature. Child actor Seth Dusky was brought in to voice the part instead.

Green's fans were baffled to find the star was still given prime credit in film ads and the funnyman has taken to Facebook.com to explain the reason behind the move and lavish praise on Dusky.

He writes, "The movie was made in the same way that Avatar and A Christmas Carol were, through performance capture filmmaking. The other actors and I performed the entire movie in skin-tight velcro suits in a massive empty volume with hundreds of cameras recording our digital information.

"Since I'm a 37-year-old man playing a 9-year-old boy, it was always expected we'd get a real kid to re-record (my character) Milo's dialogue, and that's what we did. A great young actor named Seth (great coincidence, no?) Dusky recorded every line over my vocal performance, using it as a guide for his. He did a fantastic job."

The 3D film revolves around young Milo, who only realises how much he relies on his mother after Martians kidnap her and take her to outer space to raise their offspring.

I believe that a successful animated film is able target an audience of all ages, not just children under the age of ten. Mars Needs Moms, directed by Simon Wells, is not enjoyable for any age group. The themes are too dark and politically-charged for young children, and adults can recognize the politically-incorrect messages from a mile away.

Milo (mo-capped by Seth Green, voiced by Seth Dusky), a nine- year old boy, has to find his mom (Joan Cusack), who’s been transplanted to Mars. The aliens’ plan to use Milo’s mom’s mind to program the nanny-bots (yes, it is really called that in the film) to discipline the children of Mars. Milo meets another human, Gribble (Dan Fogler), and a subversive alien named Ki (Elisabeth Harnois). Together, they try to find Milo’s mom.

This sci-fi action animated movie is shallowly covered in glitz. The colors are brilliant,...

Somewhere within the useless mess of Mars Needs Moms lies a half-hearted message about the importance of the family unit and how, when it comes to raising children in an optimal environment, fathers are just as important as mothers. Oddly, Walt Disney Pictures chose to portray this essence of humanity by bringing its actors to life (in a manner of wishful thinking, anyway) through the performance-capture fetish of producer Robert Zemeckis (director of such hellish visual creations as The Polar Express, Beowulf, and A Christmas Carol) and his ImageMovers Digital studio. The end result is, at best, entirely creepy and, at worst, an utter disaster of filmmaking.

Director Simon Wells and his co-screenwriter, Wendy Wells, adapt the children's novel by Berkeley Breathed, but the story only outlines a threadbare foundation that serves to spur the plot into action. Like most human children, young Milo (based upon the movements of Seth Green...

Title: Mars Needs Moms Director: Simon Wells Starring: Joan Cusack, Seth Dusky (’Conan the Barbarian’), Dan Fogler (’Take Me Home Tonight’) A children’s story paired with computer animated sci-fi action in 3D seemed like it would be a perfect combination for Walt Disney Pictures when it first announced its new movie ‘Mars Needs Moms,’ particularly after the success of last spring’s ‘How to Train Your Dragon.’ However, the new Disney film unfortunately proves that not all similarly-themed movies fare the same. With its lack of creative graphics and a likable protagonist, ‘Mars Needs Moms’ proves that even animated action movies need unique effects and relatable characters to be enjoyable. ‘Mars Needs Moms’ follows nine-year-old [...]...

Screen Rant’s Sandy Schaefer reviews Mars Needs Moms

Mars Needs Moms is brought to life via the technical wizardry of the motion-capture technology championed by filmmaker Robert Zemeckis. Although Zemeckis sat in the director’s chair for his previous mo-cap features (The Polar Express, Beowulf, A Christmas Carol), with Mars he served only as producer, and handed over the reins to animation specialist Simon Wells (The Prince of Egypt).

Overall, Mars Needs Moms is a decent family-friendly sci-fi adventure that suffers partly from a muddled alien mythology -- but is debilitated by the same filmmaking technology meant to enhance its visually imaginative setting and characters.

The film revolves around nine-year-old Milo (played by Seth Green, but voiced by child actor Seth Dusky). He’s just your average pre-pubescent kid, more interested in watching ...

Click to continue reading ‘Mars Needs Moms’ Review...

Review in a Hurry: Adapted from a children's book by Bloom County artist Berkeley Breathed, Mars Needs Moms is visually inventive and occasionally emotionally potent, but feels overly padded in its attempt to stretch such a short story to feature length. The Bigger Picture: Following a thorough, broccoli-related scolding, young Milo (voiced by Seth Dursky, motion-captured by Seth Green) loudly opines that life would be better if he didn't have a mom at all. Little does he expect invaders from Mars to come and grant his wish! But before long, he's hitching a ride on the rocketship of malevolent mom-nappers, en route to the red planet, where her brain patterns will be transferred to disposable robot...

Rating: 1/5

Writers: Simon Wells & Wendy Wells (screenplay), Berkeley Breathed (book)

Director: Simon Wells

Cast: Seth Green, Joan Cusack, Dan Fogler, Elisabeth Harnois

Studio: Walt Disney Pictures

Milo is a mouthy kid who doesn’t like eating vegetables. Mom is a struggling homemaker attempting to get said mouthy kid to eat those damn vegetables and take out the trash without yet another sassy reply from her offspring. It’s a standard set-up, a nice slice of suburban life – that is, until a Martian spaceship lands in their backyard and abducts Mom to the red planet. In a desperate attempt to save his mother, Milo (Seth Green, as voiced by Seth Dursky) ends up inadvertently hitching a ride on that Mars-bound spaceship, and it’s up to Milo and some unexpected allies to save his mom (Joan Cusack) from the dastardly deeds the Martians are planning to exact on his mother, all...

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Did you know that Seth Green, despite his name appearing in all the marketing for the movie, doesn't actually voice the child hero in 'Mars Needs Moms'? After acting for all of the motion capture work, his voice track was redubbed by an unknown 11-year old named Seth Dusky.

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Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Movie News, Cinematical

Just Jared has the poster premiere for the R-rated Cameron Diaz comedy, 'Bad Teacher.'

Legendary Pictures has confirmed that Guillermo del Toro will next direct 'Pacific Rim' for a summer 2013 release.

Did you know that Seth Green, despite his name appearing in all the marketing for the movie, doesn't actually voice the child hero in 'Mars Needs Moms'? After acting for all of the motion capture work, his voice track was redubbed by an unknown 11-year old named Seth Dusky.

Universal is rumored to be "script scouting" for a new 'Doom' movie that will reboot the franchise in 3-D.

Speaking of big budget movies bound to be in 3-D, a bidding war has reportedly erupted for rights to a 'Voltron: Defender of the Universe' movie.

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It's a sad irony that many of us realize how much we need our moms only when they are taken from us, usually by death or serious illness. Most of us do not lose our moms through their emigration to Mars. In Simon Wells's "Mars Needs Moms," one lad who is furious with his mother.but only for a few moments when she orders him to eat his broccoli-wishes that his mom would disappear and that he doesn't need her, though he's eager to connect with his dad who is away on business and will miss taking him to a vampire movie. When the young man, Milo (Seth Green's motion, Seth Dusky's voice), suggests that he barfs on broccoli, a caveat which his mom, Lissa (Joan Cusack) ignores, Milo feeds the broccoli to his cat-who promptly barfs thereby getting Milo busted by mom and sent to his room.