“Mars Needs Moms” doesn’t look like the traditional Disney CGI extravaganza, and will remind you a little of “Polar Express” and “Christmas Carol” because of its motion-capture artistry. It doesn’t have the freaky, glazed look of those two films, however; most of its characters look cartoonier and seem to fit alongside more “unreal” beings and settings. But if the animation isn’t your cup of tea, you’ll probably be drawn to the simple but heartfelt story, anyway.
Good earthling mothers are being abducted by Martians, who need their parenting skills to raise hatchlings. Martian society has an extreme gender division; the females comprise the military force while the males are sent away, surviving as primitive scavengers outside the technologically advanced hub. The female Martians kidnap earthling mothers who can discipline their brood. But a human boy, Milo (motion-acted by Seth Green and voiced by Seth Dusky) stows away on a Martian ship to free his captured mom (Joan Cusack).
Except for some overacted movements in one quick scene (the bratty girl throwing her ice cream cones), the motion-capture tech and the actors impressively do their job. It’s a painstaking process, as shown during the end credits. You’ll also notice that the sleek alien headquarters and technology are “Star Wars”-worthy, but if you know what production designer Doug Chiang did before this, then it shouldn’t be surprising.
Its messages of motherly love and sacrifice are transmitted rather creatively. The characters are generic but mostly easy to like, except for Gribble (Dan Fogler), who was really annoying when he was introduced. But you’ll get him and root for him after you hear his sob story.
“Mars Needs Moms” needs more people in the cinemas. The moving parent-child relationship is easy to relate to, and gender role and familial issues are quite amusingly tackled.
3 comments:
What turns me off with the Robert Zemeckis' CGI movies is the way he tries to make the characters as close to human as possible. Ironically, in doing so, they look much more lifeless than the more cartoony denizens of Pixar and even Dreamworks. If I wanted to watch realistic humans, I'd go see a live-action flick.
And I also hasten to add that even thoguh you pointed out that they're cartoonier this time around, judging from what I've seen in the trailer it still looks like the same lifeless CGI that came before.
So sadly, judging by the trailer, I myself am not in a rush to see this. Unless my kid insists on seeing it, then I have no choice. :)
Okay, no prob. :) I agree that the eerie lifelike style is ironically more lifeless; Polar Express and Christmas Carol are examples of that. As for Beowulf, I think the style fits. It's still far from perfect, but the more serious tone and darker look helped embellish the glossy, glazed style.
The faces in "Mars" are less "human" than in those movies, more caricaturish or more cartoony, yes, specifically the kid and the mom. The fat guy looks more realistic than them (I dunno if they showed him in the trailer), but yeah, there's a marked difference. :)
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