Mars Needs Moms...and kids need better movies. The latest, and biggest failure in terms of 3D animated films, is Disney's Mars Needs Moms. If the title doesn't tell you what it's about, I'll give you the details. Martians steal moms. There you go.
This is another one of those really creepy motion capture movies that for some reason no one realizes are actually terrifying and that the only thing keeping away years of nightmares and therapy are the pretty colors.
MoCap like this just doesn't work for me. If you want an animated film then ANIMATE it. If you want actors that let them do their jobs. The character designs in these movies are just plain weird looking. The character of Milo looks like a shrunken Seth Green, which is who played him so I guess it's successful on that count, but he looks wrong. His eyes are overly big to the point of looking almost more alien than human. It's creepy. The mouths don't seem to match the words either if I am being really picky.
Aside from the mannequin like animation, Mars Needs Moms lives up to a mediocre script with lousy jokes, awful dialogue and contradictions galore. How a guy who grows up on Mars knows what "Who Let The Dogs Out" means is beyond me.
I will give some credit where it is due. The voice acting is pretty excellent especially from newcomer Seth Duskey and Dan Folger. Also Joan Cusack who I love. In everything. The visuals of the film are pretty staggering and on blu-ray the film does look gorgeous Really beautiful color and depth. There is also a particular scene at the end of the film that was quite powerful. One I wasn't expecting that really was a shining moment in an otherwise uninspired film. If you see the movie, you'll know what I am talking about. It's really quite an emotional moment.
As far as the blu-ray goes, it's pretty sparse. There are a few features but nothing really to write home about. some extended and deleted scenes and a few featurettes. Not a lot, but considering how poorly this did at the box office I'm surprised it even has that. It seems to have effectively destroyed any chance of this kind of Motion Capture film being made, at least for a while.
Look, the bottom line is that this movie is for the kids and the kids will probably love it. I just wish it was a little more clever. Kids movies now a days just don't seem to have any impact. I can't see anyone ten years from now seeing this movie on the shelf and remembering having watched it as a kid and that might be the saddest thing about the film.
Mars Needs Moms is available on DVD and Blu-ray now.
Pop Culture Beast Rating
5/10
The bad and now the good. The Fox and The Hound is released finally on blu-ray in a 3-disc set that includes The Fox and the Hound 2, for those of you interested in that one, and why would you be?
If you can possibly get through The Fox and the Hound without crying then clearly you have no soul. The unlikely friendship between a fox and a bloodhound makes for an entertaining film that effectively tugs the heart strings and Disney has given it a decent transfer for its 30th anniversary.
Unfortunately, that's about all they've done. The set is pretty much devoid of features and they packaged the DVDs (2 of the 3 discs are the movies on DVDs) as if they didn't care if they were trashed or kept.
This release definitely feels like a cash grab. A barely passing transfer, one with color issues (too dark, etc) and a lousy sequel, despite it's fascinating cast. Disney often does painstaking restorations of their films to make sure they are of top quality. With this one, it's like they ran a comb through it and pushed it out the door.
Completists will want this on their shelf with the rest of the Disney classics. It's worth it if you want to see a slightly better picture than the previous DVDs but overall it's a pretty big let down of a blu-ray.
Pop Culture Beast Rating
8/10 Movie
2/10 Blu-ray
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