Mars Needs Moms (March 11, 2011)

To sum up my thoughts on this movie, it is the poster child for uncanny valley, riddled with unanswered questions and filled with unlikable characters. Now I will expand upon each of these points. They animation style looks so weird and unpleasant. The gestures were done with motion capture, but they are somehow both overexaggerated and wooden. Disney would have been better off making this a live action movie (though looking at their lack of success with John Carter the year after, perhaps they should have scrapped the idea of movies set on Mars altogether). Moving on, the plot revolves around a boy named Milo whose mom is abducted by Martians who need mothers to raise their children for inexplicable reasons. He then travels to Mars to rescue her and meets another boy, named Gribble who attempted a similar, but failed, rescue mission in the 1980s and has been stranded on Mars ever since. This could have been an interesting premise if it were properly fleshed out. As it stands, however, there are numerous plot holes. First of all, the movie never shows any positive interactions between Milo and is mother so I do not understand why he would choose to go after his mom, especially after he claimed he hated her. Secondly, Gribble’s lifestyle is everything Milo said he wanted- watching tv and playing video games all day, every day but without even considering join Gribble, Milo instantly refuses. This was such an instant choice that it made no sense in the context of the film. And thirdly, it is not entirely clear why the Martians have chosen to abduct Earth mothers to raise their Martian children (I cannot reveal more without spoiling his movie). They could have instead chosen to enslave certain Martian women or their male counterparts to do the job. Why did they think human mothers would be suitable to care for their extraterrestrial children? These three questions were my biggest issues, but there were other smaller details that did not make sense. Lastly, the characters are all unlikable. Milo is a spoiled brat who shows no real change of heart, Gribble is a manipulative baby, and the romantic love interest Martian girl, Ki, could have been interesting as she took a liking to Earth culture, but she is never fleshed out as to feel like an actual person. In conclusion, Mars Needs Moms has a poor plot, unlikable characters, and horrible animation and should stay buried in the back catalogue of forgotten Disney films.

Final Rating: 1/10