Director: Simon Wells
Writer: Simon Wells, Wendy Wells (Screenplay) Berkeley Breathed (Book)
Starring: (Voice Talents) Seth Green, Dan Fogler, Joan Cusack, Elisabeth Harnois, Mindy Sterling, Kevin Cahoon, Tom Everett Scott
Plot: A young boy named Milo gains a deeper appreciation for his mom after Martians come to Earth to take her away.
Tagline – Mom needs a little space.
Runtime: 1 Hour 28 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: Fun Adventure
Story: Mars Needs Moms starts when young boy Milo is making his mom’s life difficult, right down to telling her that he doesn’t need her, that night she is taken by Martians, with Milo following her to Mars. Milo finds himself being hunted down by the Martians until he finds fellow human Gribble who has been there for years.
Milo finds himself face seven hours to save his mom from the latest Martian project which takes mother’s discipline to put into their nanny bots to race their young, Milo joined by Gribble and hippie loving Martian Ki to save his mother and uncover a truth about Martians.
Thoughts on Mars Needs Moms
Characters – Milo is your typical troublesome young boy, he doesn’t want to eat his vegetables, clean his room or follow his moms instructions, until she is taken by Martians, here Milo must do everything he can to try and save his mom from them, where he shows how much he does actually loves her. Gribble is a man that has been trapped on Mars for along time alone, he tries to help Milo even if he starts by wanting to make Milo his friend, he knows the truth about what will happen to Milo’s mom and does everything he can do to protect him from the truth. Mom has been dealing with a lot of trouble that Milo has been putting her through, she has been trying to raise him alone and her rules sees her getting abducted. Ki is one of the Martians that has learnt about hippie culture, she is a rebel in this world painting flowers on the walls completely against the rules, she helps Milo learning the errors of the Martians ways.
Story – The story here follows a young boy that must travel to Mars after his mother is abducted by Martians to save her from their plans for her creating a new revolution on the planet that could stop this process. This is an interesting way of looking teaching a young boy a lesson which is easily the core part of the story, we do go through the basic ideas of making the villains very easy to defeat. This does have moments that are very dark which might be unsettling for a younger audience even though it does have a strong morale story.
Adventure/Sci-Fi – The adventure side of the film does take Mile to Mars where he must save his mom, this is a location that a child would never see himself heading to. The sci-fi side of the film does deal with the ideas of aliens needing parents and taken them to solve their problems.
Settings – The film is mostly set on Mars, if we are honest it could be any planet, it does involve a special looking space center along with the surface which shows how the Martians are dealing with the world.
Animation – The animation does look very impressive, with a new style to help make everything look different to the normal animation style we are seeing.
Scene of the Movie – Ki’s introduction.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – It does head into a dark tone at points.
Final Thoughts – This is a simple to watch fun adventure animation, it doe shave a strong morale message, with characters that do make sense.
Overall: Fun throughout.
Rating
