Review of Mars Needs Moms (2011) by Tengku Z — 02 Jul 2011

These LED-studded catsuit-clad animated motion pictures need to go away. I know that sounded like a mouthful; but the medium is very off-putting and it leaves this viewer feeling uneasy (see also Disney's A Christmas Carol with Jim Carrey and The Polar Express with Tom Hanks).

Those weird-looking, partially-alive-like characters are too-much of a meld between live-action and animation to be enjoyed. I say to either fully animate a film or film it in live-action -- the perfect solution to Mars Needs Moms would have been to have the scenes on Earth potrayed by real-life actors while the Mars scenes could have become animated (but they decided to go a different route .

..). While the film has a somewhat respectable premise -- "mothers are invaluable" -- the movie also has women/female(s) be the cause of destruction and mayhem in the universe (it is a 50/50 crapshot everybody!).

Seth Green (Austin Powers, "Robot Chicken", Old Dogs) voices 9 year-old, Milo, who is tired of his well-meaning mother (Joan Cusack - In & Out, Working Girl, The Addams Family Values) telling him what to do ("eat your vegetables", "take out the trash", "go to your room" etc.

). He's a spoiled brat who only realizes an instant too late -- his mother is abducted by Martians (!!!) -- that he was a jerk and was wrong in mistreating his mother. Milo luckily comes onboard the Mothership and soon finds himself on Mars where he quickly comes into contact with the only other human (other than his mother prisoner) on the planet voiced by Dan Fogler (Take Me Home Tonight, Balls of Fury, Fanboys) who's stalled mission from the 1980's has left him stranded on the furious-female led planet.

While there are some nice graphics and some inspired shots (and a few hilarious 80's references to passing fads "those hideous-looking fake Cabbage Patch Kids" had me laughing), Mars Needs Moms comes across as nothing new -- it is just sci-fi lite family adventure.

Mars may be in need of moms; but this film was in need of some motherly advice -- namely "clean up this mess!".