Mars Needs Moms

Plot Summary

Take out the trash, eat your broccoli - who needs moms, anyway? Nine-year-old Milo finds out just how much he needs his mom when she's nabbed by Martians who plan to steal her mom-ness for their own young. Milo embarks on a quest to save his mom - a wild adventure that involves stowing away on a spaceship, navigating an elaborate, multi-level planet and taking on the alien nation and their leader. With the help of a tech-savvy, underground earthman named Gribble and a rebel Martian girl called Ki, Milo just might find his way back to his mom - in more ways than one. yahoomovies

Movie Box

Director	Simon Wells
Producer	Robert Zemeckis
	Jack Rapke
	Steve Starkey
	Steven Boyd
Screenplay	Simon Wells
	Wendy Wells
Story	Wendy Wells
Based On	Mars Needs Moms! by Berkeley Breathed
Music	John Powell
Cinematography	Robert Presley
Studio	ImageMovers Digital
Distributor	Walt Disney Pictures
Release Date	11 March 2011
Running Time	1 hour, 28 minutes

Cast

Seth Green	Milo (motion picture)
Seth Dusky	Milo (voice)
Joan Cusack	Milo's Mom
Tom Everett Scott	Milo's Dad
Elisabeth Harnois	Ki
Dan Fogler	Gribble
Mindy Sterling	The Supervisor
Kevin Cahoon	Wingnut

REEL Review
The title gives us a hint that this one speaks of a family-oriented animated film. It centers a mother and a child relationship, what it takes to be a mother, and what it means to be a child. The lesson is obvious, our moms want the best for us, and they can do anything for us, even if it will cause them their own lives.

This film has a heart. Maybe not so perfect imagination, but I guess there is more to this film than the animation and visual effects. The animation is not really exquisite. I bet the movie is not that good in 3d. And the story itself is not over the top. But it successfully sent the message.

I like the scene when the robot Two-Cat puke, throwing up not food but some sort of metal craps, when he witnessed Gribble and Ki having an uncomfortable moment together where Gribble blushed. Who would think about it, an earthling and a Martian having a sparkling connection? Woooo. I wonder how Gribble survived for 25 years. What does he eat? Martian food? Hmmm.

I never knew that films like this have to be captured in motion picture before being animated. I thought it is just like the usual cartoons, where the technology will do everything. At the end of the film, the casts are shown acting and voicing the scripts. they are wearing suits (special sensor-equipped performance-capture suit - wiki) for the motion capture that will further be translated to the digital models. Cool! 

Simple but deep.

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