Movie Review: Mars Needs Moms

Milo (voiced by Seth Green), left, is rescued by Gribble, (voiced by Dan Fogler) when he arrives on Mars. Photo / AP

Based on the book by Berkeley Breathed, this 3D sci-fi adventure is another performance-capture animation from Robert Zemeckis, the producer of Polar Express, Beowulf and A Christmas Carol. Four films down and the technique - which digitally records actors then renders the footage into realistic-looking animation - still has a problem. While the characters have naturalistic movement and facial expressions, it also makes them cold and a little creepy.

Which is doubly unfortunate for a story with a message about being nice to your mother. Young Milo must save his mom (Cusack) when she is abducted by Martians who want to use her memory to programme Nannybots, robots responsible for raising baby Martians.

Milo's first concern is who is going to take him to Disneyland if she's not there (well, it's a Disney film). But it's not long before he's also worried about who's going to feed him, clean the house, and, eventually, who will love him. Seth Green may be 37, but playing 9-year-old Milo isn't much of a stretch for the Austin Powers actor. Arriving on Mars, Milo is rescued by Gribble, another human, played by Fogler doing a Jack Black impersonation. A tech geek, Gribble secretly lives in a rubbish dump visually inspired by Toy Story 3 and Wall-E that makes up the lower level of this dark, industrial planet. The place is run by female Martians - males are banished to the lower levels as they've proved neither bright nor useful. There's no concept of family, or women raising babies; they are too busy blindly taking orders from their dictator The Supervisor (Sterling) who runs this alien nation with an iron fist.

Mars Needs Moms has a good old-fashioned message at heart and looks slick, but director and screenwriter Simon Wells' script is lacking in laughs and charm. There are plenty of ideas but they're disjointed, too dark for the kids, and lack depth - much like the characters.

LOWDOWN
Stars: 2.5/5
Cast: Dan Fogler, Joan Cusack, Seth Green, Mindy Sterling
Director: Simon Wells
Running time: 90 mins
Rating: PG (Low level violence)
Verdict: Mars doesn't need moms, just more laughs

-TimeOut