Mars Needs Moms!
Encyclopedia
Mars Needs Moms is an animated
science fiction
action-comedy film co-written and directed by Simon Wells
, and based on the Berkeley Breathed
book of the same title. The film is centered around a nine-year-old boy who after being grounded, realizes he was wrong to be rude to his mother, and has to rescue her after she is abducted by Martians. It was released on March 11, 2011 by Walt Disney Pictures
. The film stars both Seth Green
(performance capture) and newcomer Seth Dusky (voice) as the main character Milo, and was the final product of Robert Zemeckis
' studio ImageMovers Digital
as the film was both a critical and commercial failure. The title is a twist on the title of American International Pictures
' Mars Needs Women
(1966).
, voice-over by Seth Dusky) is a nine-year-old boy who constantly rebels against his homemaking mother (Joan Cusack
) and workaholic father (Tom Everett Scott
), who himself is leaving for a business trip. Summer is just beginning, and while Milo wants his summer to be fun, his mother assigns him chores. When Milo's mother catches him breaking her "no broccoli, no TV" rule, she grounds him and sends him to bed early. After a heated disagreement with his mother, Milo wishes that he never had a mom. Later that night, his wish comes true when his mother is kidnapped by Martians who plan to steal her "momness" to rear their own young. The Martians, led by their villainous supervisor (Mindy Sterling
) have been observing Earth mothers, passing up those who are too indulgent or unable to control their children. They select Milo's mother based on her ability to command Milo to take out the trash.
To rescue his mom, Milo stows away
on a spaceship
. Upon arrival on Mars, Milo is locked up in a jail cell, but manages to escape down a garbage chute where he meets a tech-savvy subterranean
-dwelling earthling
named Gribble (Dan Fogler
). Gribble helps him devise a plan to save Milo's mom and get her back to Earth before Earth's night is up. Unfortunately, the plan goes awry at a Martian checkpoint, when Milo is exposed and the troops raid Gribble's hideout, but Milo is able to escape. While hiding from the guards, Milo meets a rebellious Martian girl named Ki (Elisabeth Harnois
). Milo makes it back to Gribble's hideout and Gribble confesses to Milo on how he wound up on Mars: twenty five years ago, the Martians selected Gribble's mother as a fine example to program their nannybots. Like Milo, Gribble stowed away, but failed to rescue his mother in time and was stranded on Mars.
After Ki manages to locate Milo and Gribble in an untouched part of the Martian underground world, they come across an ancient cave painting that showed Martian families were like Earth families in the past. After evading the guards and capturing a spaceship, Milo manages to wake up his mother, and save her before the download destroys her, but in the process of escaping out onto the Martian surface, Milo trips and breaks his space helmet. As Milo begins to choke in the unbreathable Martian atmosphere, Milo's mother gives him her space helmet. Although Milo's life is saved, the life of his mother has now been put at stake. Before the eyes of the Martians, Gribble (not wanting to see another Earth boy lose his mother) manages to find the space helmet he'd attempted to save his mom with and gives it to Milo's mother, showing the Martians the one thing they'd overlooked about Earth moms: love for their children, in which Milo apologizes to his mother about the disagreement. The Supervisor attacks the Earthlings and as she is about to recapture them, Ki reveals the photo of the ancient cave painting and the Supervisor's deception to the soldiers, causing them to turn against the Supervisor.
With the Supervisor in prison, Ki and Gribble return Milo and his mother to Earth, just before Milo's dad returns home. Having nowhere else to go and having exposed feelings for Ki, Gribble decides to stay on Mars and returns there. Milo then takes out the trash before his mother asks him to, but secretly disintegrates it with a Martian weapon, similar to a human pistol in size and shape. Under the new leadership of Gribble and Ki, the male and female Martians work together in raising their young, while the Supervisor is stuck with nanny duty. Gribble manages to contact Milo and let him know how he is by using the Spirit rover
as a communication station.
's voice sounded too mature for the character and was dubbed over by that of 11-year-old actor Seth R. Dusky.
animation were also mixed. Some praised it for looking realistic and others criticized it for falling into the uncanny valley
and looking creepy. Rotten Tomatoes
reported that 35% critics gave the film a positive review, based on reviews from 106 critics, with an average rating of 5 out of 10. The critical consensus was: "The cast is solid and it's visually well-crafted, but Mars Needs Moms suffers from a lack of imagination and heart." Metacritic
assigned an average critical score of 49 out of 100 based on 22 reviews.
, and at the moment is the fifth biggest box-office bomb in film history. On 14 March 2011, Brook Barnes of The New York Times
commented that it was rare for a Disney-branded film to do so badly, with the reason for its poor performance being the subject (a mother kidnapped from her child), the style of animation, which fails to cross the uncanny valley
threshold, and negative word of mouth
on social networks, along with releasing it on the same week as Battle: Los Angeles
which had more hype with the general movie goers. Barnes concluded, "Critics and audiences alike, with audiences voicing their opinions on Twitter
, blogs and other social media, complained that the Zemeckis technique can result in character facial expressions that look unnatural. Another common criticism was that Mr. Zemeckis focuses so much on technological wizardry that he neglects storytelling." The poor box-office performance was a major contributor to Disney's decision to shut down ImageMovers Digital
, the company it formed with Zemeckis.
or Windows Media Player
software. The film is also a movie download or On-Demand option. All versions of the release (except for the On-Demand option) include the "Fun With Seth" and "Martian 101" bonus features, while the Blu-ray 2D version will additionally include deleted scenes, the "Life On Mars: The Full Motion-Capture Experience" feature, and an extended opening film clip. The Blu-ray 3D version also has an alternate scene called "Mom-Napping," a finished 3D alternate scene of the Martian abduction of Milo's Mom.
Computer animation
Computer animation is the process used for generating animated images by using computer graphics. The more general term computer generated imagery encompasses both static scenes and dynamic images, while computer animation only refers to moving images....
science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
action-comedy film co-written and directed by Simon Wells
Simon Wells
Simon Wells is an English-American film director of animation and live-action films. He is the great grandson of famous author, H. G. Wells.Born in Cambridge, he attended De Montfort University where he studied audio-visual design...
, and based on the Berkeley Breathed
Berkeley Breathed
Guy Berkeley "Berke" Breathed is an American cartoonist, children's book author/illustrator, director and screenwriter, best known for Bloom County, a 1980s cartoon-comic strip that dealt with sociopolitical issues as understood by fanciful characters and through humorous analogies...
book of the same title. The film is centered around a nine-year-old boy who after being grounded, realizes he was wrong to be rude to his mother, and has to rescue her after she is abducted by Martians. It was released on March 11, 2011 by Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures is an American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios and the main production company for live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, based at the Walt Disney...
. The film stars both Seth Green
Seth Green
Seth Benjamin Green is an American actor, comedian, voice actor, and television producer. He is well known for his role as Daniel "Oz" Osbourne in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as Dr. Evil's son Scott in the Austin Powers series of comedy films, Mitch Miller in That '70s Show, and the voice of Chris...
(performance capture) and newcomer Seth Dusky (voice) as the main character Milo, and was the final product of Robert Zemeckis
Robert Zemeckis
Robert Lee Zemeckis is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Zemeckis first came to public attention in the 1980s as the director of the comedic time-travel Back to the Future film series, as well as the Academy Award-winning live-action/animation epic Who Framed Roger Rabbit ,...
' studio ImageMovers Digital
ImageMovers Digital
ImageMovers Digital is a digital film studio run by director Robert Zemeckis and originally owned by The Walt Disney Company, later Universal Studios...
as the film was both a critical and commercial failure. The title is a twist on the title of American International Pictures
American International Pictures
American International Pictures was a film production company formed in April 1956 from American Releasing Corporation by James H. Nicholson, former Sales Manager of Realart Pictures, and Samuel Z. Arkoff, an entertainment lawyer...
' Mars Needs Women
Mars Needs Women
Mars Needs Women is an American International Pictures made for TV science fiction film filmed in 1966 and released in 1967 which features Tommy Kirk, Yvonne Craig, and Byron Lord. it was shot during a two week period in Houston and Dallas, Texas...
(1966).
Plot
Milo (Seth GreenSeth Green
Seth Benjamin Green is an American actor, comedian, voice actor, and television producer. He is well known for his role as Daniel "Oz" Osbourne in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as Dr. Evil's son Scott in the Austin Powers series of comedy films, Mitch Miller in That '70s Show, and the voice of Chris...
, voice-over by Seth Dusky) is a nine-year-old boy who constantly rebels against his homemaking mother (Joan Cusack
Joan Cusack
Joan Mary Cusack is an American film, stage and television actress. Throughout her career, Cusack has appeared in many films as well as appearing in stage productions....
) and workaholic father (Tom Everett Scott
Tom Everett Scott
Thomas "Tom" Everett Scott is an American film, theatre and television actor. His film work includes a starring role as drummer Guy Patterson in the film That Thing You Do! .-Career:...
), who himself is leaving for a business trip. Summer is just beginning, and while Milo wants his summer to be fun, his mother assigns him chores. When Milo's mother catches him breaking her "no broccoli, no TV" rule, she grounds him and sends him to bed early. After a heated disagreement with his mother, Milo wishes that he never had a mom. Later that night, his wish comes true when his mother is kidnapped by Martians who plan to steal her "momness" to rear their own young. The Martians, led by their villainous supervisor (Mindy Sterling
Mindy Sterling
Mindy Lee Sterling is an American actress. Although she had worked in film for over 30 years, she only began to garner attention after playing Frau Farbissina, the diminutive and domineering Germanic cohort of Dr. Evil in the Austin Powers series of comedy films, and has a recurring role as Ms...
) have been observing Earth mothers, passing up those who are too indulgent or unable to control their children. They select Milo's mother based on her ability to command Milo to take out the trash.
To rescue his mom, Milo stows away
Stowaway
A stowaway is a person who secretly boards a vehicle, such as an aircraft, bus, ship, cargo truck or train, to travel without paying and without being detected....
on a spaceship
Spaceship
Spaceship can refer to:* Another name for a spacecraft* An Unidentified flr5tyqertaerying object * "Spaceship", a song by Puddle of Mudd from their album Vol...
. Upon arrival on Mars, Milo is locked up in a jail cell, but manages to escape down a garbage chute where he meets a tech-savvy subterranean
Subterranean
Subterranean or The Subterranean may refer to:* Subterranea , underground structures, both natural and man-madeIn literature:* The Subterraneans, a novella by Jack Kerouac...
-dwelling earthling
Earthling
Earthling is a term commonly used in science fiction to identify humans as opposed to extraterrestrials. The literary effect aimed for is a distancing effect, inviting the readers to contemplate their own species as it might be seen from an external point of view...
named Gribble (Dan Fogler
Dan Fogler
Daniel Kevin "Dan" Fogler is an American actor, playwright, and filmmaker.-Personal life:Fogler was born in Brooklyn, New York, the second child of Shari, an English teacher, and Richard Fogler, a surgeon. Fogler is Jewish...
). Gribble helps him devise a plan to save Milo's mom and get her back to Earth before Earth's night is up. Unfortunately, the plan goes awry at a Martian checkpoint, when Milo is exposed and the troops raid Gribble's hideout, but Milo is able to escape. While hiding from the guards, Milo meets a rebellious Martian girl named Ki (Elisabeth Harnois
Elisabeth Harnois
Elisabeth Rose Harnois is an American television and film actress.-Early life:Harnois was born in Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan, USA, and raised in Los Angeles. She attended St...
). Milo makes it back to Gribble's hideout and Gribble confesses to Milo on how he wound up on Mars: twenty five years ago, the Martians selected Gribble's mother as a fine example to program their nannybots. Like Milo, Gribble stowed away, but failed to rescue his mother in time and was stranded on Mars.
After Ki manages to locate Milo and Gribble in an untouched part of the Martian underground world, they come across an ancient cave painting that showed Martian families were like Earth families in the past. After evading the guards and capturing a spaceship, Milo manages to wake up his mother, and save her before the download destroys her, but in the process of escaping out onto the Martian surface, Milo trips and breaks his space helmet. As Milo begins to choke in the unbreathable Martian atmosphere, Milo's mother gives him her space helmet. Although Milo's life is saved, the life of his mother has now been put at stake. Before the eyes of the Martians, Gribble (not wanting to see another Earth boy lose his mother) manages to find the space helmet he'd attempted to save his mom with and gives it to Milo's mother, showing the Martians the one thing they'd overlooked about Earth moms: love for their children, in which Milo apologizes to his mother about the disagreement. The Supervisor attacks the Earthlings and as she is about to recapture them, Ki reveals the photo of the ancient cave painting and the Supervisor's deception to the soldiers, causing them to turn against the Supervisor.
With the Supervisor in prison, Ki and Gribble return Milo and his mother to Earth, just before Milo's dad returns home. Having nowhere else to go and having exposed feelings for Ki, Gribble decides to stay on Mars and returns there. Milo then takes out the trash before his mother asks him to, but secretly disintegrates it with a Martian weapon, similar to a human pistol in size and shape. Under the new leadership of Gribble and Ki, the male and female Martians work together in raising their young, while the Supervisor is stuck with nanny duty. Gribble manages to contact Milo and let him know how he is by using the Spirit rover
Spirit rover
Spirit, MER-A , is a robotic rover on Mars, active from 2004 to 2010. It was one of two rovers of NASA's ongoing Mars Exploration Rover Mission. It landed successfully on Mars at 04:35 Ground UTC on January 4, 2004, three weeks before its twin, Opportunity , landed on the other side of the planet...
as a communication station.
Cast
- Seth GreenSeth GreenSeth Benjamin Green is an American actor, comedian, voice actor, and television producer. He is well known for his role as Daniel "Oz" Osbourne in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as Dr. Evil's son Scott in the Austin Powers series of comedy films, Mitch Miller in That '70s Show, and the voice of Chris...
as Milo (motion capture) - Seth Dusky as Milo (voice only)
- Joan CusackJoan CusackJoan Mary Cusack is an American film, stage and television actress. Throughout her career, Cusack has appeared in many films as well as appearing in stage productions....
as Milo's mom - Tom Everett ScottTom Everett ScottThomas "Tom" Everett Scott is an American film, theatre and television actor. His film work includes a starring role as drummer Guy Patterson in the film That Thing You Do! .-Career:...
as Milo's dad - Elisabeth HarnoisElisabeth HarnoisElisabeth Rose Harnois is an American television and film actress.-Early life:Harnois was born in Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan, USA, and raised in Los Angeles. She attended St...
as Ki - Dan FoglerDan FoglerDaniel Kevin "Dan" Fogler is an American actor, playwright, and filmmaker.-Personal life:Fogler was born in Brooklyn, New York, the second child of Shari, an English teacher, and Richard Fogler, a surgeon. Fogler is Jewish...
as Gribble - Mindy SterlingMindy SterlingMindy Lee Sterling is an American actress. Although she had worked in film for over 30 years, she only began to garner attention after playing Frau Farbissina, the diminutive and domineering Germanic cohort of Dr. Evil in the Austin Powers series of comedy films, and has a recurring role as Ms...
as The Supervisor - Kevin CahoonKevin CahoonKevin Cahoon is an American actor/singer/songwriter, born in Houston, Texas.-Child performer:Cahoon began his performing career at the age of 5 as 'The World's Youngest Rodeo Clown', performing throughout the Texas and Oklahoma Rodeo Circuits, including many consecutive seasons at The Houston...
as Wingnut - RyanRyan OchoaRyan Ochoa is an American teen actor. He is most famous for his role of Lanny on the Disney XD series Pair of Kings and his recurring role as Chuck Chambers on the Nickelodeon series iCarly.-Early life:...
, Robert and Raymond OchoaRaymond OchoaRaymond Ochoa is an American child actor. He has appeared in various commercials, television shows and movies. He is probably best known for his roles in 10 Items or Less, and Merry Christmas, Drake and Josh....
and Gavin Bryson Thompson as Martian Hatchlings - Liam and Edgar Wells as Robot Martians
- Dee Bradley BakerDee Bradley BakerDee Bradley Baker is an American voice actor. He is noted as his long-running-role as Klaus Heissler in American Dad! and other various characters including Squilliam Fancyson in the hit TV series SpongeBob SquarePants, Nightcrawler in X-Men: Legends and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance...
as Two-Cat
Production
After spending six weeks outfitted in a special sensor-equipped performance-capture suit while simultaneously performing Milo's lines, Seth GreenSeth Green
Seth Benjamin Green is an American actor, comedian, voice actor, and television producer. He is well known for his role as Daniel "Oz" Osbourne in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as Dr. Evil's son Scott in the Austin Powers series of comedy films, Mitch Miller in That '70s Show, and the voice of Chris...
's voice sounded too mature for the character and was dubbed over by that of 11-year-old actor Seth R. Dusky.
Critical response
The film received generally negative reviews from critics. The acting was praised but the writing, story, 3D and drama were criticized. Opinions of the motion captureMotion capture
Motion capture, motion tracking, or mocap are terms used to describe the process of recording movement and translating that movement on to a digital model. It is used in military, entertainment, sports, and medical applications, and for validation of computer vision and robotics...
animation were also mixed. Some praised it for looking realistic and others criticized it for falling into the uncanny valley
Uncanny Valley
The uncanny valley is a hypothesis in the field of robotics and 3D computer animation, which holds that when human replicas look and act almost, but not perfectly, like actual human beings, it causes a response of revulsion among human observers...
and looking creepy. Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
reported that 35% critics gave the film a positive review, based on reviews from 106 critics, with an average rating of 5 out of 10. The critical consensus was: "The cast is solid and it's visually well-crafted, but Mars Needs Moms suffers from a lack of imagination and heart." Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
assigned an average critical score of 49 out of 100 based on 22 reviews.
Box office
Mars Needs Moms earned only $1,725,000 on its first day, for a weekend total of $6,825,000. This was the 12th worst opening ever for a film playing in 3000+ theaters. Due to its very high budget of $150 million, the film was a major box office bombBox office bomb
The phrase box office bomb refers to a film for which the production and marketing costs greatly exceeded the revenue regained by the movie studio. This should not be confused with Hollywood accounting when official figures show large losses, yet the movie is a financial success.A film's financial...
, and at the moment is the fifth biggest box-office bomb in film history. On 14 March 2011, Brook Barnes of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
commented that it was rare for a Disney-branded film to do so badly, with the reason for its poor performance being the subject (a mother kidnapped from her child), the style of animation, which fails to cross the uncanny valley
Uncanny Valley
The uncanny valley is a hypothesis in the field of robotics and 3D computer animation, which holds that when human replicas look and act almost, but not perfectly, like actual human beings, it causes a response of revulsion among human observers...
threshold, and negative word of mouth
Word of mouth
Word of mouth, or viva voce, is the passing of information from person to person by oral communication. Storytelling is the oldest form of word-of-mouth communication where one person tells others of something, whether a real event or something made up. Oral tradition is cultural material and...
on social networks, along with releasing it on the same week as Battle: Los Angeles
Battle: Los Angeles
Battle: Los Angeles is a 2011 American military science fiction war film directed by Jonathan Liebesman, and starring Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez, Ramon Rodriguez, Bridget Moynahan, Ne-Yo and Michael Peña...
which had more hype with the general movie goers. Barnes concluded, "Critics and audiences alike, with audiences voicing their opinions on Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
, blogs and other social media, complained that the Zemeckis technique can result in character facial expressions that look unnatural. Another common criticism was that Mr. Zemeckis focuses so much on technological wizardry that he neglects storytelling." The poor box-office performance was a major contributor to Disney's decision to shut down ImageMovers Digital
ImageMovers Digital
ImageMovers Digital is a digital film studio run by director Robert Zemeckis and originally owned by The Walt Disney Company, later Universal Studios...
, the company it formed with Zemeckis.
Home media
The film was released on Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, DVD, and movie download on August 9, 2011. The release is produced in three different physical packages: a 4-disc combo pack (Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, DVD, and "Digital Copy"); a 2-disc Blu-ray combo pack (Blu-ray and DVD); and a 1-disc DVD. The "Digital Copy" included with the 4-disc combo pack is a separate disc that allows users to download a copy of the film onto a computer through iTunesITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
or Windows Media Player
Windows Media Player
Windows Media Player is a media player and media library application developed by Microsoft that is used for playing audio, video and viewing images on personal computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system, as well as on Pocket PC and Windows Mobile-based devices...
software. The film is also a movie download or On-Demand option. All versions of the release (except for the On-Demand option) include the "Fun With Seth" and "Martian 101" bonus features, while the Blu-ray 2D version will additionally include deleted scenes, the "Life On Mars: The Full Motion-Capture Experience" feature, and an extended opening film clip. The Blu-ray 3D version also has an alternate scene called "Mom-Napping," a finished 3D alternate scene of the Martian abduction of Milo's Mom.