Mars Needs Moms

I wasn't going to watch this movie at all because of the terribly low score (4) on IMDb. Luckily, my kids talked me into it, and I was very pleasantly surprised indeed.

I am amazed that this movie scored so low. Yes, granted, its nothing groundbreaking; there are plenty of well-worn formulas applied. But its far from unusual in this regard, and the story is full of fun situations and characters.

Visually, its very nice to look at, and I found myself thoroughly enjoying the time I spent watching it. So did my kids, 8 and 10, who both thought it was great! I don't usually review movies here, but I often check the ratings before watching films. In this instance, I am amazed at the low rating this film received, and feel its unrepresentative of the actual quality.

So 7/10 from me, and really at a loss as to how almost 30% of viewers could have possibly thought 1/10 was a fair rating!

This was quite a surprise: A Disney family movie rated PG with creepy animation, lots of dark scary scenes, aliens, homicides and attempted homicides and more! Why make a movie about children's mothers being abducted by aliens and murdered in some kind of giant laser machine? I guess it will grab kids' attention, but it will also scare them to death.

Aside from the crazy story line, which is not child-friendly, we have a new kind of animation that makes computerized characters look very much like real people. So, for example, the supposed 11-year old boy was modeled by a 35-year-old man, so that the kid looks like a cross between a kid and a middle-aged man. The forehead is expressive, but in a 35- year-old-man kind of way. You have to see this to understand. It is weird and a little scary.

Frightening, realistic aliens and robots chase a child while shooting at him with their ray guns, trying to kill him. They also try to kill his mother. They attempt to execute his friend in a firing squad. This all takes place in a dark and scary world where people run through long tunnels and dive into dirty chutes to spend some time in a giant fiery trash dump. The dump is inhabited by a monkey-like species of "stupid" creatures who wear primarily yellow, red and green clothing and have their hair in dreadlocks. I'm not kidding.

The character called Gribble, played by Dan Fogler, was an exception to the general drudgery of this film. He had a strange part to play in a weird script, but he brought a lot of energy and enthusiasm and a really unique style. It wasn't enough to save the movie, but he added at least two stars to my rating. The animation quality is good, but these days it's hard to count that for much. The story is just terrible and that's what really matters. Sorry, Disney, but I know you will overcome this setback.

I'm a mom. Milo looked and acted just like my 12-year-old son. ... I was touched by the film. Was it perfect? No. The '60s slang and cultural references bugged me. As a woman who grew up during the women's movement in the 1970s, I knew some people would be offended by the vaguely antifeminist themes. But it could be argued that there were some underlying "liberal" themes, too (antiestablishment politics, guerilla art, individuality, education, a sense of true history, anthropology, science, and other "revolutionary," anti-religious ideas).

It could be argued that women have made so much progress in our culture that they are fair targets as the "oppressor," too. It's important to note, that the flipside message of this film is that Mars needs dads, too. Though I really could not stand the way the men were portrayed in this film (mangy, goofy, dancing thingies in '60s hippie rags.) I'm not familiar with the book, but the cultural references seemed really, really out of synch with several generations, and I was alive in the '60s (as a child).

In the end, though, my geek side loved the motion-capture appearance of the film. We saw it in iMax 3D (the only way to watch these films), and were blown away by the animation. We are not offended by Disney technology and storytelling. We've seen the good side of Disney in so many ways at their theme parks, cruises (Castaway Cay!!!), etc. ... So, it saddens me to see a touching family film go down in flames because of a few storytelling defects, bad timing, and anti-Disney sentiment.

This was better than some, no worse than others. I love Seth Green, and if he hadn't been listed in the credits you would have known in two seconds it was him. It looked almost too real, as every facial expression and reaction shot seemed too real. I think cartoons should be more cartoony--does that make sense? If you strive so hard to make cartoons look like real images, then why not just make a movie using real objects? That being said, the story wasn't horrible, and it is just repeating the title to tell you that mom is kidnapped by horrible aliens who wish to learn from her how to be a mother. There are reasons that will be explained. What I didn't like was that the idiots in the movie seem to be stereotyped from blacks from jamaica. So, getting past that, my recommendation is this: don't be a daddy in the theater. If you are going to watch this with your 3-7 year old crowd, it is a mommy son movie and can be touching. When it comes out on TV, i am sure the wife will enjoy watching it with her little men. As for me? Well, 8 bucks for the ticket and to keep the kids quiet for 88 minutes? Sure, not a bad trade off.

I saw it with two of my little cousins and i was not looking forward to it atall after hearing how it bombed in box office and everyones reviews were really bad. It turns out I kinda liked it, the animation was very cool in 3D, which it must be seen in 3D or not nearly as cool.

It was simple family friendly entertainment, very vibrant and original with very creative digital technology behind it. It was fast paced and kept the kiddies smilin'. More than I was expecting definitely, and overrall not that bad, I would definitely recommend if you are looking for a film to bring some kids to. As a small bonus at the end they shows behind the scenes of how they filmed it with live action actors, very cool.