Mars Needs Moms

Mars Needs Moms is a 2011 American 3D computer-animated science fiction adventure film based on the Berkeley Breathed book of the same title. The film is centered on Milo, a nine-year-old boy who, after being grounded, finally comes to understand the importance of family, and has to rescue his mother after she is abducted by Martians. It was co-written and directed by Simon Wells. It was released to theaters on March 11, 2011 by Walt Disney Pictures.[3]

Mars Needs Moms
Theatrical release poster
Directed bySimon Wells
Produced by
Screenplay by
  • Simon Wells
  • Wendy Wells
Based onMars Needs Moms!
by Berkeley Breathed
Starring
Music byJohn Powell
CinematographyRobert Presley
Edited byWayne Wahrman
Production
company
Walt Disney Pictures
ImageMovers Digital
Distributed byWalt Disney Studios
Motion Pictures
Release date
  • March 11, 2011 (2011-03-11)
Running time
88 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$150 million[1][2]
Box office$39.2 million[1]

The film stars both Seth Green (motion capture) and newcomer Seth Dusky (voice) as Milo. This was the last film by ImageMovers Digital before it was absorbed back into ImageMovers.[4]

The film grossed $39 million worldwide on a $150 million budget, making it a box-office bomb.

Plot

Unbeknownst to humans, there is a thriving, technologically sophisticated society of Martians living below the surface of Mars. The Martians' Supervisor, while observing Earth, sees a mother persuading her son, Milo, to do his chores. The Martians decide to bring her to Mars, where her "momness" will be extracted and implanted into the next generation of nannybots. Meanwhile, Milo, who dislikes following the house rules and doing chores and has been grounded for feeding broccoli to his cat, sarcastically tells his mother that his life would be better without her telling him what to do all the time.

Later that night, Milo goes to apologize, but discovers his mom is being abducted. He runs after her, but they end up in separate parts of the Martian spaceship. On Mars, Milo is taken to an underground cell. He escapes and is chased by Martian guards, but he follows a voice that tells him to jump down a chute, and lands in a lower subterranean level. There, he sees a trash-covered landscape that is inhabited by furry creatures.

Milo is whisked away by the creatures to meet Gribble, a.k.a. George Ribble, the childlike adult human who had told him to jump down the chute. Gribble explains to Milo that the Martians plan to extract Milo's mom's memories at sunrise, using a process that will kill her. Gribble, who is lonely and does not want Milo to leave, pretends to help Milo rescue his mother. His plan goes awry, leading to Gribble being captured and Milo being pursued by Martian guards. Milo is rescued by Ki, one of the supervisors who raise Martian babies. Milo tells her about his search for his Mom and what a human relationship with a mom is like, as Ki and her kin were mentored by only nannybots and supervisors and do not know of love.

Milo returns to Gribble's home but finds him missing. Gribble's robotic spider, Two-Cat, takes Milo to the Martian compound where Gribble is being prepared for execution. Milo is captured by the guards, but Ki tosses him a laser gun, allowing him to escape. Milo and Gribble retreat to an even lower uninhabited level, where Gribble describes his own mom's abduction and murder by the Martians 20 years ago. Gribble blames himself for her being chosen and regrets that he had not been able to save her. Milo convinces Gribble to actually help him just as Ki finds them. They discover an ancient mural of a Martian family and realize that Martian children were not always raised by machines. Gribble explains that Martian female babies are currently raised by nannybots in the technologically advanced society, while the male babies are sent down below to be raised by adult male Martians, which are the furry creatures he encountered earlier.

Milo, Gribble, and Ki save Milo's mom just before sunrise, causing the energy of the extraction device to short out the electronic locks to the control room. This lets the adult males and babies enter, where they run amok, attacking the guards and robots. Milo and his mom steal oxygen helmets and try to escape across the Martian surface, but the Supervisor, while attempting to kill them, causes Milo to trip and his helmet shatters. His mom gives him her own helmet, saving Milo but sacrificing herself. The Martians are awed, as this is the first time they have seen love. Gribble finds his own mother's helmet and gives it to Milo's mom, saving her. Ki brings a ship for them to escape in, but the Supervisor intervenes. Ki argues that Martians were meant to be raised in families, with love, but the Supervisor insists that the current situation is better because, to her, it is more efficient. The guards realize the Supervisor's cruel nature and arrest her, deciding that they now prefer the loving vision of family life. The other Martians celebrate.

Milo, his mom, Gribble, Ki, and Two-Cat travel back to Earth, and Milo has a chance to apologize to his mother. Gribble decides not to stay because he wants to pursue a relationship with Ki on Mars. Milo and his mom return to their house just before Milo's dad arrives.

Cast
  • Seth Green (motion capture) and Seth Dusky (voice) as Milo
Green described doing the motion-capture as physically demanding work: "A lot of running, jumping, falling, hitting, spinning. I wore a harness for, like, 85 percent of the movie. It was uncomfortable."[5] After spending six weeks outfitted in a special sensor-equipped performance-capture suit while simultaneously performing Milo's lines, Seth Green's voice sounded too mature for the character and was dubbed over by that of 12-year-old newcomer Seth R. Dusky.[6]
For the auditions, Cahoon performed two scenes, including the ending; he recalled the instructions saying, "create your Martian language and play the scene."[7] He previously played Ed, another non-speaking role, in the Broadway musical version of The Lion King (1994): "it's almost like silent film. You have speak with your heart and soul and face, and you have to act as if you have dialogue with everyone else. I think that's where you find the humanity, or the martiananity, of the character."[7] Cahoon's mannerisms were also used for the other martians.[7] Mars Needs Moms is Cahoon's first time collaborating with Dan Folger since the two worked with each other in New York stage theater.[7] As he described his opinion on the film, "I was blown away. It's beautiful. The technology is incredible and the IMAX is awesome. I was so impressed with the score, but also the heart. I got misty-eyes towards the end with the mom/Milo relationship. I thought it really connected in a wonderful way and am so honored to be a part of it."[7]

Production

Simon Wells had known Zemeckis since the mid-1980s when he was supervising animator and storyboard artist for Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He also worked on Back to the Future Part II and III and later worked on The Polar Express, which was why he was attracted to making Mars Needs Moms.[8] The production designer was Doug Chiang, and the supervising art director was Norm Newberry.[9] The title of the film (and to an extent, the source material) is a twist on the title of American International Pictures' 1966 film Mars Needs Women.

The makers came up with their own alien language.[10] In developing the language, all of the actors spent a day where they recorded different interpretations of a list of words; the producers picked their favorite interpretations from that recording and put them in a book documenting the fictional language for the actors to speak.[7]

Elisabeth Harnois stated in an interview that she and the cast were given scenarios by Wells to which they acted out responses in improvised Martian language.[11]

Release

Mars Needs Moms was released in theaters on March 11, 2011.

Home media

The film was released on Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, DVD, and movie download on August 9, 2011.[12][13][14] The release is produced in three different physical packages: a four-disc combo pack (Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, DVD, and "Digital Copy"); a two-disc Blu-ray combo pack (Blu-ray and DVD); and a single-disc DVD.[13][14][15] The "Digital Copy" included with the four-disc combo pack is a separate disc that allows users to download a copy of the film onto a computer through iTunes or Windows Media Player software.[13][14] 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 additionally includes deleted scenes, the "Life On Mars: The Full Motion-Capture Experience" feature, and an extended opening film clip.[13][14] 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.[13][14][16]

Reception

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film had an approval rating of 37% based on 115 reviews and an average rating of 5.02/10. The site's critical consensus read, "The cast is solid and it's visually well-crafted, but Mars Needs Moms suffers from a lack of imagination and heart."[17] On Metacritic, the film had a score of 49 out of 100 based on 22 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[18] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.[19]

The Sydney Morning Herald labeled the motion-capture animation superior to Avatar (2009), and while noting the story had "pure Disney cheese," Wells "thankfully know[s] precisely when to inject action and humour when the mush-o-meter approaches the red."[20]

Some critics favorably compared the set design to Tron: Legacy (2010),[20][21] including Tim Grierson of Screen Daily, who opined that the motion-capture "improved significantly since the days of The Polar Express." He also spotlighted the film's attempt at a "tonal divide," as it has both comic sequences typical for a kids film and themes about sacrifice. However, he criticized the "chaotic" story and two "irksome" protagonists: Milo, whose voice actor "overdoes the character's whiny anxiousness to the point that it's hard to root for him;" and Gribble, a "predictably wisecracking sidekick."[21] Us Weekly also panned the characters: "[Milo] makes a whiny hero, and Dan Fogler (as his buddy on Mars) fails to amuse. Plus, why is Milo's stay-at-home mom a saint and the working alien moms evil?"[22]

The Hollywood Reporter praised Mars Needs Moms's motion-capture visuals, but analogized its story as too much like a Disneyland ride and also called it "odd [...] how a movie meant to glorify moms is so riddled with anti-feminist concepts."[23] Time Out New York called it not that much different from other children's science fiction movies: "After the novelty of these backgrounds and comin’-at-ya bits wears off, Mars Needs Moms has to rely on Fogler's obnoxious Jack Black Jr. shtick, a weak subplot involving a ’60s-obsessed Martian graffiti artist (Harnois) and rote video-game-y action sequences to carry it along—and that simply won't cut it."[24]

Entertainment Weekly positively described the film as a children's movie version of Avatar: "Enhanced by nimble ad-libbing from the comedy-trained cast, the screenplay is delightful, by turns funny and emotional, as befits a Disney family fable in which, through wacky adversity, Mom and kid reaffirm their love for each other while Dad is nowhere in sight. (He's not dead, just away on business.) And with its splendid use of computer-generated motion-capture animation and 3-D effects, the movie is also visually magnificent — modestly so."[25]

Lael Loewenstein of Variety magazine gave the film a mixed review and called it "A modestly enjoyable performance-capture creation bearing the unmistakable imprint of producer Robert Zemeckis."[9] In addition to acclaiming the visuals, SFX also opined gave some praises towards the writing "there are some good laughs, it's pacy enough to whizz us on by the sometimes repetitive narrative [...] and although it's hard to see little boys admitting that they really do love their mummies – as much as the film wants them to – Mars Needs Moms does provoke a few lumps in older throats, for all you may decry its mawkish Stateside sensibilities."[26]

Nick Schager of The Village Voice was very harsh; panning the "rubbery," "unreal," and "unsettling" character animation, which he called a "jarring dissonance" with the science fiction setting; and the stealing of common tropes in other well-known science fiction films. He also noted a major plot hole, specifically Supervisor's stealing of mothers' disciplinary skills for use on technological devices: "The plot thus hinges on a fundamental illogicality, since the chief differentiating characteristic between mothers and machines isn't discipline but compassion."[27]

Some reviewers questioned the film's moral about well-behaved kids having their very good mothers taken by aliens.[28][27]

Box office

Mars Needs Moms was a box-office failure, and the worst financial loss for a Disney-branded film. It earned $1,725,000 on its first day, for a weekend total of $6,825,000.[29][30] This is the 22nd-worst opening ever for a film playing in 3,000+ theaters.[31] Adjusted for inflation, considering the total net loss of money (not the profit-to-loss ratio), it was still the fourth-largest box office failure in history.[32][33] In 2014, the Los Angeles Times listed the film as one of the most expensive box-office disasters of all time.[34] On March 14, 2011, Brooks 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 unoriginal premise, the style of animation, which fails to cross the uncanny valley threshold,[35][36] 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."[37]

Seth Green's original dialogue

Actor Seth Green, on top of being the motion capture actor for Milo, was also initially cast as his voice actor before his performance was deemed as sounding too mature for the character. It was subsequently cut and re-recorded by child actor Seth R. Dusky prior to the film's release despite the first trailer for the film featuring Green's dialogue.

On December 5, 2018, YouTuber RebelTaxi uploaded a video covering the production history of and reviewing every film released by ImageMovers Digital, where he jokingly advocated for the release of Seth Green's original performance complete with the hashtag “#ReleaseTheSethGreenCut”.[38]

Earlier that year, YouTuber Justin Wilton ripped the film from its Blu-Ray release to use for his review of the film. After converting the video file, he found that a lower quality recording of Green's dialogue tracks were used in his ripped copy instead of Dusky's, despite his performance being the only English language setting on the disc menu and Green's not even being displayed as an accessible option. Assuming that the availability of the Seth Green cut was already known, its existence remained unknown to the wider public until he was prompted by #ReleaseTheSethGreenCut comments he saw online to announce his discovery on May 29, 2020.[39] The following day, he uploaded the Seth Green cut of the movie to the Internet Archive.[40]

Accolades

Mars Needs Moms received a nomination for a Movieguide Award for Best Film for Family Audiences;[41] while John Powell's work on it, Rio (2011), and Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011) garnered him a nomination for the 2011 World Soundtrack Award for Film Composer of the Year.[42]

Soundtrack
Mars Needs Moms
Soundtrack album by
John Powell
ReleasedMarch 3, 2011
GenreFilm soundtrack, film score
Length1:26
LabelWalt Disney
ProducerJohn Powell
John Powell chronology
Knight and Day
(2010)		 Mars Needs Moms
(2011)		 Rio
(2011)

The film's score was composed by John Powell. The soundtrack was released by Walt Disney Records on March 3, 2011.

  • "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" – Queen
  • "Mars Observers"
  • "Abduction and Trashworld"
  • "Enjoy the Ride"
  • "Mars Needs Moms"
  • "Gribble's Plan"
  • "Milo Escapes"
  • "Gribble's Loss"
  • "Firing Squad"
  • "To the Surface"
  • "The Sacrifice"
  • "Transformation"
  • "Family Reunion"
  • "Mars Needs Moms" (credits suite)
  • "Martian Mambo"

See also

References
  1. "Mars Needs Moms (2011)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved November 9, 2012.
  2. Kaufman, Amy (March 10, 2011). "Movie Projector: 'Battle: Los Angeles' will rule, 'Mars Needs Moms' will bomb". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 13, 2011.
  3. Stewart, Andrew (March 9, 2010). "Disney sets date for 'Mars'". Variety. Retrieved March 10, 2010.
  4. Finke, Nikki (March 12, 2010). "Disney Closing Zemeckis' Digital Studio". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved June 7, 2018.
  5. Snyder, Tom. "Behinds the Scenes of MARS NEEDS MOMS". Movieguide. Retrieved December 9, 2019.
  6. Kaufman, Amy (March 8, 2011). "Seth Green moves, but doesn't speak, in 'Mars Needs Moms'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 23, 2012.
  7. Cortez, Carl (March 8, 2011). "Exclusive Interview: MARS NEEDS MOMS actor Kevin Cahoon gets a kick out playing a sidekick". Assignment X. Retrieved December 9, 2019.
  8. Webb, Charles (August 9, 2011). "Interview: MARS NEEDS MOMS Director/Writer Simon Wells". Twitch Film. Archived from the original on November 11, 2011. Retrieved February 25, 2012.
  9. Loewenstein, Lael (March 8, 2011). "Review: 'Mars Needs Moms'". Variety. Retrieved September 25, 2014.
  10. "Mars Needs Moms - Productions Notes". Cinemareview.com. Retrieved February 24, 2012.
  11. "Mars Needs Moms Interview - Elisabeth Harnois". Trailer Addict. March 5, 2011. Retrieved February 24, 2012.
  12. "Mars Needs Moms Blu-ray 3D Release Date and Pre-Orders". The HD Room. May 6, 2011. Retrieved May 6, 2011.
  13. Gallagher, Brian (May 6, 2011). "Mars Needs Moms 3D Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD Arrive August 9th". MovieWeb. Retrieved May 8, 2011.
  14. "Mars Needs Moms 2D and 3D Blu-rays". Blu-ray.com. May 6, 2011. Retrieved May 8, 2011.
  15. DuHamel, Brandon (May 7, 2011). "Mars Needs Moms Travels to Blu-ray, 3D and DVD in August". Blu-ray Definition. Retrieved May 8, 2011.
  16. "'Mars Needs Moms' Lands on Disney 3D Blu-ray/DVD on August 9; Includes 3D Exclusive Bonus Scene". Stitch Kingdom. May 6, 2011. Archived from the original on June 13, 2011. Retrieved May 8, 2011.
  17. "Mars Needs Moms (2011)". Rotten Tomatoes., accessed April 2, 2020.
  18. "Mars Needs Moms Reviews". Metacritic.
  19. "Cinemascore". CinemaScore. Archived from the original on December 20, 2018.
  20. Schembri, Jim (April 13, 2011). "Mars Needs Moms". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved December 8, 2019.
  21. Grierson, Tim (March 8, 2011). "Mars Needs Moms". Screen Daily. Retrieved December 8, 2019.
  22. Adams, Thelma (March 8, 2011). "Mars Needs Moms". Us Weekly. Archived from the original on March 13, 2011. Retrieved December 9, 2019.
  23. Honeycutt, Kirk (March 8, 2011). "Mars Needs Moms: Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved December 8, 2019.
  24. Fear, David (March 8, 2011). "Mars Needs Moms". Time Out New York. Archived from the original on March 12, 2011. Retrieved December 9, 2019.
  25. Schwarzbaum, Lisa (March 10, 2011). "Mars Needs Moms". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved December 9, 2019.
  26. Berriman, Ian (April 8, 2011). "Mars Needs Moms – Film review". SFX. Archived from the original on June 27, 2013. Retrieved December 8, 2019.
  27. Schager, Nick (March 9, 2011). "Curse of the Mummy in Mars Needs Moms". The Village Voice. Retrieved December 8, 2019.
  28. Meek, Tom (March 10, 2011). "Review: Mars Needs Moms". The Phoenix. Archived from the original on March 19, 2011. Retrieved December 9, 2019.
  29. Young, John (March 13, 2011). "Box office report: 'Battle: Los Angeles' conquers all with $36 mil". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved February 24, 2012.
  30. Lumenick, Lou (March 14, 2011). "Box Office: 'Mars Needs Moms' a megaton bomb". New York Post. Archived from the original on March 17, 2011.
  31. "Worst Openings at the Box Office for 3,000+ Theatres". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved October 12, 2018.
  32. Ben Riley-Smith (March 21, 2011). "'Mars Needs Moms': does flop mean 3D is history?". thefirstpost.co.uk. Retrieved July 31, 2011.
  33. McClintock, Pamela (March 14, 2011). "Why Disney's 'Mars Needs Moms' Bombed". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved February 24, 2012.
  34. Eller, Claudia (January 15, 2014). "The costliest box office flops of all time". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 6, 2014.
  35. MacDorman, Karl F.; Chattopadhyay, Debaleena (2016). "Reducing consistency in human realism increases the uncanny valley effect; increasing category uncertainty does not". Cognition. 146: 190–205. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2015.09.019.
  36. Mori, Masahiro; MacDorman, Karl; Kageki, Norri (2012). "The Uncanny Valley [From the Field]". IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine. 19 (2): 98–100. doi:10.1109/MRA.2012.2192811.
  37. Barnes, Brooks (March 14, 2011). "Many Culprits in Fall of a Family Film". The New York Times. Retrieved April 1, 2011.
  38. "The Death of Those CREEPY MOCAP Movies (@RebelTaxi) Every IMAGE MOVERS Film Reviewed". YouTube. December 5, 2018. Retrieved June 4, 2020.
  39. "I accidentally found the SETH GREEN CUT - Mars Needs Moms". YouTube. May 29, 2020. Retrieved June 4, 2020.
  40. "Mars Needs Moms: The SETH GREEN Cut". Internet Archive. May 30, 2020. Retrieved June 4, 2020.
  41. "Awards". Movieguide Awards. Archived from the original on March 9, 2012. Retrieved December 8, 2019.
  42. "Film Composer of the Year". World Soundtrack Awards. Retrieved December 8, 2019.
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