Posted: 07/29/2011

Mars Needs Moms

(2011)

by Caress Thirus

What do you get when you cross Disney’s Meet The Robinsons with Disney’s WALL·E? Why, Mars Needs Moms, of course, Disney’s latest animated adventure.

Unfortunately, unlike WALL·E, which was a clever film and an Academy Award darling, Mars Needs Moms was surprisingly…bad. There was so much going on, the Martians were gruesome, and the characters were so bland and forgettable.

The movie was not original at all, though the plot would lead some to think so. When a young boy named Milo becomes convinced that his life would be better if he didn’t have to listen to his mom, Martians from Mars pick up a signal that there’s a kid who’s no longer in need of a parent. They kidnap his mom in the middle of the night, and he risks everything to try to get her back.

There’s some pretty strong subject matter and stylized violence, which might have triggered the movie’s PG rating. A lot of the movie is just plain weird, but what can we expect from a movie that takes place on the planet Mars?

The animation is pretty cool, but that’s about all this movie has going for it. Though the characters are realistic, that might have been the reason they were so boring. Milo acts like a real little boy, other than a few precocious lines added in to help explain to the kiddies what’s going on.

Adult reasoning leads me to ask questions like, “How is he breathing in space?” and “What must it smell like on a planet covered in trash?” I had to constantly remind myself that kids enjoy outlandish adventures, even if they are beyond reason. The children for whom the film was created will more than likely pay its logical flaws no mind.

Disney is known for creating fun and relatable characters full of personality, so I was surprised at the lack of charisma and development most of them displayed in Mars Needs Moms. They were all forgettable, even the main character!

In the end, what do we learn? That kids can save the day but that they also still need their parents. Nothing we haven’t seen before. Also, there’s so much going on throughout the entire movie that I’m not sure if kids will be able to keep up. That is, if they can stand to look at the creepy, slightly gross Martians littering the trash-covered planet.

It’s too brash for kids and too pointless for adults. My advice? Skip it.

Caress Thirus is a student at Roosevelt University and a film enthusiast.

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