Review of Mars Needs Moms (2011) by Jesse O — 19 Oct 2012

As with other movies of this type, IE: motion capture animated films like the Polar Express, A Christmas Carol, this movie hopes to use its technical prowess to overcome pretty shoddy storytelling. As impressive as the visuals are, though the martians themselves look pretty bad, they're simply not enough to save the story, which as mentioned is dull, uninteresting and overly sentimental.

I think its heart is in the right place but the humor is that silly, cutesy stuff that only kids will enjoy. The movie isn't all bad, I think it's got a good idea but the execution is what left a lot to be desired.

The acting is fine but not something that will blow your mind. I think this style of digital animation is appropriate for this kind of story as it involves more "sci-fi" stuff, so the animation isn't as distracting as it is in A Christmas Carol, where they took a movie that would've been a great live-action movie and made it slightly worse in the transition to digital animation.

Then again, who knows how good the book was, maybe the transition to digital animation made it a worse movie, but I still think the style fits better with this movie. And really, I don't think the movie is all THAT bad, it just simply didn't do anything for me.

Apparently, adjusted for inflation, this is the biggest flop in film history. It's not THAT bad. It's not a complete and utter disaster, like Ishtar. It's got some elements that I like. But it just so happens that there was a lot more that I didn't like.

For example: the story, the humor, and the sentimentality. I know I've harped on this for the entire review, but these parts of the film really sucked. I wouldn't recommend it at all, but it does have a good message for the kids and the parents love good morals in the movies they take their kids to see.