Review: Mars Needs Moms 3D
The title prompts expectations of donning the old 3D shades to leer over some kind of sleazy exploitative romp, but this is actually a Disney children's animation about a small boy taking on an extraterrestrial matriarchal dictatorship.
The Martian society is a mixture of 300's Sparta and The Two Ronnies' serial the Worm that turned (the one where England
was governed by goose steeping feminists).
Under the leadership of shrivelled old prune Supervisor (Mindy Sterling) men have been banished to the rubbish tips beneath the surface and mars has been kidnapping disciplinarian Earth mothers to help programme the nannybots.
Standards are so slack that Joan Cusack is targeted just for attempting to get her son Milo (Seth Green) to eat his greens.
When she is hauled off in a rocket Milo jumps on aboard and has to save her.
Once on Mars, Milo meets another human called Gribble who's all awesome this and dude that and is so thoroughly irritating you fear someone has snuck Jack Black into the movie.
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Robert Zemeckis is the producer and it uses the performance capture suits he used in a Christmas Carol and Beowulf. this would work better if it had a cast of famous people.
Green and Cusack are the most well known cast members but aren't particularly identifiable as their characters. Dan Fogler's Gribble, though, does look very human and bears a slightly creepy resemblance to the late John Candy.
The film doesn't have much going for it. There are few laughs and the story is uninvolving, even a little disturbing. it is, though, surprisingly well done.
The Mars base is a monochrome mixture of Tron and Cloud City at the end of The Empire Strikes Back and the kids I saw it with seemed to be adequately diverted by it.
Mars Needs Moms 3D (PG)
Director: Simon West
With: Seth Green, Dan Fogler, Elisabeth Harnois, Mindy Sterling, Joan Cusack.
Length: 88 mins
***
