Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

Mars Needs Moms Blu-ray Movie Review

"Mars needs moms, so the aliens are stealing them from Earth to raise their own kids!"

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown August 2, 2011

If you spend your sunsets curled up in the bottom bunk of a bunk bed reading bedtime stories to a captive, young audience, be sure to add "Bloom County" cartoonist Berkeley Breathed's children's books -- "A Wish for Wings That Work," "Goodnight Opus," "Red Ranger Came Calling," "The Last Basselope: One Ferocious Story," "Flawed Dogs," "Mars Needs Moms" and "Pete & Pickles" -- to the teetering stack of books on your kids' nightstand. The rich, layered wit, humor and resonance of some of the tales may sail over the heads of pre-schoolers, but slightly older children (and their enthusiastic moms and dads) will be entranced by Breathed's stories and illustrations, and find themselves returning to his books week in and week out. Yes, they're really that good. "Mars Needs Moms" has been a particular favorite of many an avid bedtime reader (three of which reside in my house) and seemed like a perfect candidate for an animated adaptation... just not this animated adaptation. Mars Needs Moms jettisons Breathed's breathtaking art, sense of endless wonder and indispensable characters in favor of the motion captured work-in-perpetual-progress animation of Robert Zemeckis' ImageMovers Digital; vast, unsettling uncanny valley and all. But even if your family isn't familiar with Breathed's beautifully penned story, Mars Needs Moms is too generic and uneven a film to stir up much excitement.

Seth Green, circa 1983 and 2011

To be fair, writer/director Simon Wells and co-writer Wendy Wells' adaptation isn't a failure so much as it is an ellipses attached to a beloved children's story. (Whoever thought the lifelike avatars of Zemeckis' now-defunct ImageMovers Digital would be able to somehow convey or surpass the magic, expressiveness and awe of Breathed's lush illustrations is largely to blame for the film's shortcomings anyway.) Fortunately, the fundamentals of the tale are intact -- a young boy named Milo (mo-cap performer Seth Green and voice actor Seth Dusky) hitches a ride aboard a spaceship after his mother (Joan Cusack) is kidnapped by Martians desperate for moms -- if only just. The remainder of the film is an exercise in expanding a short tale into an eighty-plus-minute family-friendly adventure. Inevitably, some of it works, some of it doesn't. Milo befriends an older, not-so-much-wiser Mars-stranded Earthling, a subterranean survivor named Gribble (Dan Fogler), and soon discovers that the Martians, led by the villainous Supervisor (Mindy Sterling), are preparing to transplant his mother's maternal instincts into a fleet of robots tasked with rearing their unruly children. To Milo's dismay, though, the process will kill dear ol' Mom. And as much as he hates eating broccoli and cleaning up his room, he certainly doesn't want to see the source of his misery come to any harm. Of course, Milo soon learns that he's been taking his mother for granted all along and, in the race to save her life, learns a little something about himself and growing up as well.

But in filling out Breathed's otherwise simple story, Mars Needs Moms loses its focus. Gribble slowly comes to terms with painful memories and ghosts from his past, the Supervisor's sinister role in her planet's social structure is revealed, a free-spirited Martian named Ki (Elisabeth Harnois) uncovers shocking secrets and races to enlighten her people, the Martian males are oppressed from birth and banished to the lower levels of the city... there are subplots aplenty, and then some. Milo's personal plight isn't just one of many; the poor kid is given as much attention as the next guy (or Martian as it were). What should be the planet-traipsing adventure of a boy rescuing his mom turns into an adventure, a liberation story, an empowerment fable, a tear-stained tragedy, a generation-gap comedy, a morality tale and an at-times frightening Mother-in-Peril thriller all mashed into one. And, oh, how younger viewers will cower. After seeing one mother vaporized in a Martian machine by the rising sun, little kids are sure to bury their heads as far under the covers as they can anytime a character is in danger. It's a bit mean-spirited, actually. A memory is triggered of a devastating event (grab those tissues), a boy sits helpless in a ravine as the clock ticks down, an electrified needle extends towards a mother's forehead (for what seems like an eternity) as her terrified son tugs at a jammed latch, and a broken helmet spells doom for one (then two) characters as each one gasps for air that isn't there (again, for what seems like an eternity). I'm all for toughening kids up with darker themes and what not, but Mars Needs Moms almost enjoys torturing the kiddies; in the case of my six-year-old son, to nearly unbearable ends. The film's sense of humor doesn't help much either, as the vast majority of the jokes -- many of which hinge on '70s and '80s pop culture references -- are aimed squarely at the adults in the audience, leaving children with slapstick gags, Martian hijinks and little else.

Yet for all its missed opportunities and inconsistencies, all is not lost. Mars Needs Moms is decent family fare teeming with enough laser-blasting action, low-gravity heartstrings and roaring rocketship adventuring to entertain your brood, at least for the better part of a rainy evening. The actors' performances are fittingly infectious, even if their voices deliver far more emotion and energy than their motion-captured faces. Dusky is given the most challenging task (as he didn't have the chance to run around a set like everyone else), but the kid handles his mic like a pro, capping off what Green started without succumbing to the sleepy lull of the voiceover booth. The Wells' script is lively and sure-footed too, which is a godsend considering how often their adaptation gets bogged down by the hydra that is their seven-headed story. Yes, the screenplay is chunky. Contrived, crowded and saddled with exposition, no doubt. But, to their credit, it's rarely overwhelming. The two whip from scene to scene with ease, hone the mounting tension with laser-like precision, and tie up every loose end in quick, satisfying succession. Even their three-pronged endgame -- Save Mom! Get to the ship! Liberate the Martians! -- comes together nicely; so much so that the third act towers above the film's first hour (again, frightening as some of its scenes will strike younger viewers). And, while I'm not a big fan of the film's animation -- The dead eyes! The wooden appendages! The labored facial expressions! -- the Martians and their sprawling underground complex send a much-needed spark of life surging through the production. Even Milo looks pretty good (for a virtual incarnation of a pre-teen Seth Green), meaning Cusack and Fogler are the only players forced to bear the brunt of the mo-cap curse for any substantial length of time. Milo's mother is, to quote my son, "creepy, Dad. Creeeeepy."

It's impossible for me to watch Mars Needs Moms in a vacuum. Breathed's story and illustrations are so clear in my mind's eye that I have a hard time seeing anything but the film's squandered potential. That said, even those unfamiliar with the original tale will struggle with everything from the animated adaptation's plotting to its pacing to the animation itself. I would recommend renting Mars Needs Moms and buying the book. Your money and time will be better spent.

Mars Needs Moms Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Say what you will about ImageMovers' motion-capture animation, it doesn't have any bearing on the quality, or rather the perfection, of Disney's 1080p/AVC-encoded video presentation. Alright, alright. "Perfect" may be a bit hyperbolic. I did notice some exceedingly minor, arguably negligible banding, but it's so faint and fleeting, so innocuous, that I hesitate to even mention it. Mars Needs Moms is stunning, and color, contrast and clarity are impeccable. Mars' palette is substantially darker than most computer animated films (shadows lord over the Martian fortress and darkness drapes over the underground reaches of the planet), but there's a richness to the colors; an arresting fullness that, uncanny valley notwithstanding, bolsters the relative realism of the sun-dusted planet, its dazzling underground caverns, Ki's vivid graffiti paints, the blue glow of Gribble's command consoles, the stark white corridors of the sterile halls, and the lush, green respite of Earth. Every pixel is on point as well, and the encode is wonderfully proficient. Detail never falters, fine textures are as refined and precisely-resolved as they should be, and artifacting, aliasing, noise and other alien invaders are held at bay. Simply put, I can't imagine Mars Needs Moms could look much better than it does here.

Mars Needs Moms Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

All systems go. Disney's DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 surround track fires up the rockets, takes the fight to the Martians and liberates the oppressed in engaging, enveloping succession, delivering a dauntless sonic experience more immersive than the adventure it accompanies. Milo's misadventures with broccoli and early arguments with his mother fail to impress -- flat and front-heavy as they are -- but the moment the boy stows away aboard a spaceship bound for Mars, the mix doesn't relent. LFE output is weighty, able-bodied and authoritative, yet not so domineering that it overwhelms lighter elements in the soundscape. Rear speaker activity is nimble and aggressive, filling the soundstage with painstakingly accurate directional effects (whooshes, whizzes and weens), involving ambience and convincing acoustics. (It isn't as consistently engrossing a lossless experience as, say, the one featured on How to Train Your Dragon, but then neither is the film's original sound design, which favors cramped spaces and underground expanses over sprawling, wind-swept vistas.) Moreover, the voice actors' dialogue is clean, neatly grounded and perfectly intelligible, John Powell's score surges and subsides naturally and effortlessly, and there aren't any issues to speak of. Mars Needs Moms sounds fantastic and tops off Disney's AV presentation magnificently.

Mars Needs Moms Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The Blu-ray edition of Mars Needs Moms touches down with a Picture-in-Picture Bonus View experience, an audio commentary, a series of deleted scenes and other lesser goodies. The package isn't exhaustive by any means (a behind-the-scenes motion-capture-shoot documentary would have gone a long way), but most families will come away satisfied.

• Life on Mars: The Full Motion-Capture Experience (HD): Disney's Picture-in-Picture motion-capture experience can be viewed two ways: with or without audio commentary featuring writer/director Simon Wells and actors Seth Green and Dan Fogler. With the commentary engaged, Wells, Green and Fogler deliver a chatty, informative overview of the production -- from script to motion-capture stage to computer animation to screen -- while a PiP window showcases the cast's live performances and the animators' early animatics. With the commentary disengaged, fans are treated to the same PiP content, albeit with the actors' actual on-set voices, meaning it's Green's words, not those of young Seth Dusky, that stream out of Milo's mouth. The only downside? There's no way to listen to the audio commentary without viewing the PiP experience. I doubt many will complain, but it's a limitation nonetheless.
• Deleted Scenes (HD, 29 minutes): Wells introduces seven deleted and extended scenes, some of which are presented via finalized animation, others comprised of early animatics, and still others that utilize both. Cuts include "Begonia Attack," "Ad-libs from Gribble's Lair," "Swinging Bride," "Angry George Ribble," "Gribble Growing Up," "Mars Memorial" and an "Extended Opening."
• Martian 101 (HD, 3 minutes): Wells and his cast discuss creating the Martians' language.
• Fun with Seth (HD, 2 minutes): Seth Green goofs off on set.

Mars Needs Moms Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

As much as Mars Needs Moms will throttle the hopes of anyone longing for a true-to-its-source animated adaptation of Berkeley Breathed's absorbing children's book, the film and its filmmakers' hearts are at least in the right place. That comes as little consolation, of course, but moms and dads looking to entertain their kids could certainly do much worse. Thankfully, Disney's Blu-ray release isn't hindered by the film itself. With a near-perfect video presentation, an equally impressive DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 surround track and a decidedly decent supplemental package (complete with a Picture-in-Picture experience and an audio commentary), Mars Needs Moms justifies the cost of a rental with a series of spectacular sights and sounds.