In the Disney tradition of “Bambi” and “Finding Nemo” comes “Mars Needs Moms”. Only this time, instead of a parent trying to find and save a lost child, we have a child trying to find and save his mother.
Milo is a typical young boy. He doesn’t like to eat his vegetables or take out the garbage. Milo’s mother tries to make him do the right things, because she’s a good mom. The Martians, looking down from Mars, see that Milo’s mother is a good mom and so they send a spaceship to Earth and kidnap her. Milo’s able to sneak on board the spaceship as well.
When he gets to Mars Milo meet Gribble, a human who lives underground. Gribble explains that every 25 years a new group of Martian babies are born and the Martians need help in raising the new kids. Milo soon finds out that the Martians are going to steal the memories out of his mother’s brain and then kill her. So Milo, Gribble and a Martian rebel named Ki have to try to save the mom before it’s too late.
The target audience for “Mars Needs Moms” is clearly kids 10 and under. But here’s the problem: the message that the film is telling young children is if they behave and do what their moms tell them to do, then Martians will come and take their mom away. That is a very frightening idea for little ones to deal with. Most kids that age are still trying to figure out the difference between fantasy and reality when it comes to movies.
I’m amazed that none of the writers, or director Simon Wells, realized this problem with the script before making the film. I saw a couple of youngsters holding-on to their mothers for dear life during much of the movie.
“Mars Needs Moms” is the latest Motion Capture Technology film from Disney, and while the look is getting better, they’ve still got a way to go, especially with the human characters. Robert Zemeckis, who wrote, produced and directed 2009’s Motion Capture movie, “Disney’s A Christmas Carol”, only produced “Mars Needs Moms”, and it shows. The story is very predictable and the attempts at humor fall flat.
I will credit the movie with being a little more emotional than I expected. And there are a few dramatic moments that add excitement to a very dull story, but the studio forgot that this is a little kids movie, and little kids worry about things like mom getting taken away in the middle of the night and mom getting her brains sucked out of her head and dying.
The performances are way over the top, but that’s the way it has to be with Motion Capture. Seth Green, who is 36, plays Milo, who’s probably around 11, but he doesn’t do the voice. Joan Cusack plays the mom, and she’s the creepiest-looking of the human characters. And the Mother Superior Martian looks a lot like what ET’s Grandmother would have looked like.
“Mars Needs Moms” is rated PG for action and scenes of peril that will absolutely scare young kids. But it’s made for them, at that’s the real issue. Older kids, who can handle the story, will be bored. And parents will be left wondering how to explain to their 6 year old that mommy won’t be taken-away by Martians. This is a film without an appropriate audience.
On The Official Kid Critic Report Card, “Mars Needs Moms” gets a C, which is a better grade than it probably deserves, considering all the nightmares it’s going to give kids AND their parents.