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 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'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.

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.

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.