What the HELL is Mars Needs Moms? (Disney's BIGGEST Failure)

[Music] remember how a bunch of motion capture movies popped up in the mid to late 2000s and people praised it saying that it was going to be the next big thing that mocap was the future and it would eventually replace the entire animation industry I mean who would want to have this stuff when you could have this well apparently this kind of animation style was good enough for Disney to go oh yeah I want in on that hey hey image movers let's team up our studios and collab on some movies and that's exactly what happened for only two movies well another failure for Disney I wonder how much money they lost on this oh my sweet lord almighty that might be their biggest financial loss ever like ever I actually did some number crunching on other Disney flops to see how much they lost at the box office and I cannot find a single one that comes close to Mars Needs Moms out of all of their box office failures this one was the worst 111 million dollars down the drain no I just don't get it though why did this movie fail oh yeah it's ugly a sense I don't know who looked at these character designs and said that's that's it that right there that's gonna break records Wow I guess it kind of did break records folks honest to god I thought that let's go ape was the worst that it was the most uncanny when it came to all of these films but then I watched delgo and thought that it was the worst when it came to the uncanny valley and being a financial failure but then you got Mars Needs Moms and it beats out both of these films in each category by a longshot no joke I've been purposely delaying my review of this movie because I don't want to watch it I cannot express enough how much I hated this film back in 2011 ever since it was released I've been running from it I saw it once only once and that was enough but deep down inside I knew that I was obligated to watch it again for this video I've been running from this for so long but I guess you can't avoid destiny destiny arrives all the same what should I say all right so who are the people behind Mars Needs Moms well start off as a book actually and it was written by a well-known comic artist named Berkeley breathitt he was on the comic scene during the 80s and 90s and was the guy behind bloom County Outland and opus according to an interview with Berkeley he got the idea for Mars Needs Moms when he saw his own five-year-old son named Milo throwing the tantrum at the dinner table refusing to eat his broccoli and telling his mother quote I'd wish I never had a mother Berkeley ran with that concept and turned it into a kid's book called you guessed it Mars Needs Moms the book itself is pretty straightforward and features some fun drawings of goofy Martians and the kid trying to get his mother back spoiler alert the aliens in this book look nothing like the aliens from the movie like not even close well the concept was picked up by Disney and image movers together they formed a joint venture called image movers digital which was launched in 2007 now this was an image movers first rodeo they were founded in 1997 by director Robert Zemeckis and had already turned out a few big movies such as castaway and what lies beneath but in 2004 they released their first motion capture animated movie The Polar Express to which it was a success after that two more mocap animated films were released Monster House in 2006 and Beowulf in 2007 like I said before Disney teamed up with image movers and made their own joint venture called image movers digital which was launched in 2007 I think it was easy to see that Disney really wanted a slice of that delicious mocap pie oh yeah look at that I want a piece of that and their first project a Christmas Carol in 2009 so this move did well but according to my sources to Disney that was not enough they wanted so much more and after a Christmas Carol they shut down an image movers digital like they shut it down before Mars Needs Moms was even released and it also didn't help that there was a recession around this time you know it's interesting because initially Disney and image movers were very excited about collabing together they even talked about doing a mocap version of Yellow Submarine and even a Roger Rabbit sequel but it was not to be oh by the way fun fact the guy from Disney who signed off on Berkeley's book to be made into a film was the same guy who also signed off on the John Carter movie two of Disney's greatest failures and for some reason they both take place on Mars what's up with that [Music] the director from Mars Needs Moms was simon Welles the great-grandson of science fiction legend HG Wells Simon himself had previously directed every film for emblem ation such as an American tail we're back a dinosaur story and Balto he was also responsible for directing the Prince of Egypt which is to me one of the best animated films ever made as far as the talent on the movie goes with the cast I'll get around to that later in the video just know that this movie had some very big names working on it but it wasn't enough to save this movie from failure Disney truly lost any faith that they had after a Christmas carol and it seemed to me that they just wanted to be done with this venture Disney was probably like we'll just take the hit and move on but I don't think they expected the hit to be that bad Mars Needs Moms was released on March 11th 2011 and it was a disaster again I did some number crunching to see how bad this film performed compared to other Disney failures Alamo in 2004 cost 107 million dollars to make but only made at 26 million that is an 81 million dollar loss Treasure Planet cost 140 million and only made 110 million back that is a 30 million dollar loss ladies and gentlemen Mars Needs Moms cost 150 million dollars to make and only made back thirty nine million that right there is a 111 million dollar loss and that is not even including the rumored 60 million dollar budget for marketing so unless I am missing something big from what I can gather and the numbers that I crunch Mars Needs Moms is the biggest financial failure and Disney movie history and it was the perfect sour note to end this mocap animated movie trend although you're doing in this form I'm getting drunk of every second all right so what's the movie about please hi I beg of you don't make me relive it again the story is primarily about Milo and his mom named mom in case you did not know they live on earth Milo is a brat he's rude lazy and is always giving his mother sass his mom's personality is she does the chores around the house off the bat the movie does not give us much to work with when it comes to our main characters but oh well we don't have time to worry about that the Martians on Mars by the way there are Martians on Mars have done precisely 12 seconds of reconnaissance and have decided that Milo's mom is perfect for their plan and steal her away from Earth Mylo on accident hich is a ride to Mars and ends up dazed and confused on the Martians base oh my god what a chaotic unknown world one that is alien and shrouded in mystery well I don't know about you guys but I cannot wait for the movie to tell us why the Martians live the way they do why they exist underground why the females have taken over society why the male Martians were casted out and above all else how they were able to prevent doom guy from shooting a hole into the surface of Mars you can't just shoot the hole into the surface of Mars the biggest issue I have with this movie besides the visuals is the lack of world-building but I'll talk about that later on by coincidence Milo stumbles across another human on Mars named Gribble dammit Dale he's eccentric he's unhinged he is starved for human interaction and it just so happens that what is happening to Milo right now happened to Gribble and his mother back in 1986 you know I actually like that the movie does this that it has Gribble mentioning things from the 1980s he brings up he-man he brings up pop-tarts he even mentions flight simulator you know a bunch of stuff that was from the 1980s which makes sense because that was the last time he was on earth [Music] simulator Milo does not care though he just wants to get his mom and get the hell back home Gribble doesn't want that since he wants Milo to stay so Gribble comes up with this very convoluted plan where Milo gets attacked by the Martians thinking he's saving his mom and then Gribble saves Milo thinking that Milo will be like I am eternally grateful I will stay here on Mars with you but guess what it backfires and Gribble gets caught by the aliens Milo then bumps into a girl Martian names key key Kiki's Delivery Service and by the way the gap between her eyes is only matched by the gap between her thighs what the actual hell is this design look at that butt look at those hips look at those thighs I I don't know how Disney approved of this design it is very sexualized I know maybe it's me maybe I have the dirty mind but come on look at this look at it well it turns out that Chi Chi Chi Chi you know I entered the name into pronunciation calm but I got two different results so I you know I'm not gonna go back and watch the movie to find out fell in love with Earth culture she even learned English and she wants to help out Milo so they go off and save Gribble from a firing squad yes a firing squad a necessary feature in every single Disney film so Milo and Kai save Gribble and then Gribble and Milo gets separated from the group while they're hanging out where ball tells Milo the truth that his mother was stolen that that is how he showed up on Mars back in the 1980s and that this grand plan of the Martians which is why they stole these mothers to begin with okay I have to stop here I'm literally going off-script okay dies are you ready for this are you ready to hear the master plan of the Martians and why they are doing what they are doing oh you're not ready here we go Martian society is built up because the female Martians kicked out the male Martians because they thought they were too emotional then the female Martians don't want to raise babies because they're so chaotic and hard to take care of and take a lot of time to raise so the Martians that take a human mother bring them to Mars strap her up into this chair which is powered by the Sun and then every 25 years the consciousness and the skills of the human mother are uploaded to the minds of these robot servants who raise the Martians and that after this process the human mother is vaporized and dead that is the entire grand idea of the Martian Society what the actual hell [Music] this raises so many questions and they barely answer any of them the only question they really allude to is that the male and female Martians were once a family unit back in the day that's it we don't worry how their previous society collapsed how these Martians even reproduce to begin with do they even need males as far as I could see they just pop out of the ground it's like the orc birthing pits from Lord of the Rings call me old-fashioned but personally I think it's important for science fiction movies in particular to explain their surroundings to a degree don't get me wrong you can include a mystery with your story and the characters Star Trek did this all the time but that works with their the great unknown narrative and that's a big reason why it's such a contemplative show but here oh it is very confusing and leaves the audience in the dust oh what's that you want to know more about this alien society and how it works because that's a big plot point for the movie um how about no idiot long story short Milo learns from Gribble that his mother is in danger both of them along with key launched a daring plan to save his mom by the way Milo's mom waking up is the funniest part of the entire movie she has no idea what's going on and just screams honestly it's very relatable you just pull me [Music] so bla bla bla drama blah blah blah a hollow heartfelt scene bla bla bla trying to obey the environment of Mars by acknowledging that it has no air but ignoring how cold it is bla bla bla and that's really about it Milo saves his mom Gribble decides to stay on Mars cuz he fell in love with ki ya wibble hooked up with an alien waifu and it makes me want to die actually I think I'm gonna I'm gonna hang out with Kim the Martians then decide to go back to their old way of raising a family and then Milo and his mother go back home the end so can I please leave now honestly I can't take another second looking at these 800 oh god the babies are even worse than the adults and I thought the baby from ice age was bad oh dear God all right let's go over my five points first the story I already a few of my complaints while going over this an abscess again the biggest issue to me is the lack of world-building the movie sets up this fascinating world with the martians and it leaves you asking a lot of questions how did it get like this what happened why I beg of you movie just just a crumb of explanation would be enough but no we just follow the characters as they run around the interior of Mars and it's especially frustrating because the movie even hints at the previous Society of the Martians hell I would take even a flashback at this point give me something to work with so I can have a better understanding of the Martians maybe things are the way that they are for a very important historical reason that I as the viewer don't know about yet but nope the Martians logic behind their mom extraction program was incredibly dumb and unsatisfying and then you have the characters who were mostly boring and not very compelling Milo was just kind of there on Mars and his story arc which I think was not taking his mother for granted felt weak he instantly wanted his mother back as soon as she was stolen instead it should have been him dragging his feet resenting his mother being all like why am I even here I don't even want to have him off but then he comes around as Gribble who is someone who has lost his mother before and been through that pain convinces Milo hey we gotta go see if your mom she's going to die and then see Milo grow from that also Gribble was the most interesting character and the entire movie his premise how we got to Mars his crazy personality it just worked now he got annoying at times but it was forgivable also he has inflections in his voice that remind me so much of jontron I think they used our likenesses we soup out the budget hey we should sue all in all though the majority of the characters aren't that interesting and the story itself was very convoluted now if there was more world building then maybe it would have been more engaging but oh well next there's the voice acting yeah it was fine I mean you got some good actors in this movie dan foger Elizabeth Arne wah John Cusack Mindy sterling but the most interesting thing to me though is a story behind Seth Green and the role he played in this film tell me does that face look familiar well that's because Seth Green was the one who provided the motion capture for Milo Helen he was originally going to voice Milo too but the folks running the movie decided to replace Seth Green's voice because he sounded way too old no that's vomit but I understand the confusion I told you to eat that you're not gonna make me eat it now are you in hindsight that was a good call don't get me wrong Seth is a great actor but his voice did not really fit this character instead the movie dubbed over Seth Green's perform ends with a kid voice whose name is funny enough Seth dusky so when you see Milo talking on screen just keep in mind that Seth Green that was supposed to be him originally but he got replaced then there's the dialogue honestly I don't have much to say about this some of the exchanges were decent and even got a chuckle out of me for example Ribble ranting about how he was supposedly sent to Mars to prevent it from becoming communistic and that's why it's called the Red Planet that was pretty good but the majority of the dialogue was just average where the handful of cringy scenes to go along with it I hate it when Gribble and Kai would flirt that was hard to watch that was intimately hard to watch after that there's the editing it was average nothing terrible but that should be expected from a high profile team I liked the music though that was the best part of the film to me it was done by John Powell the same composer who worked on Anne's Shrek and How to Train Your Dragon no I wouldn't say that the music was memorable but while watching scenes from the movie I thought that the music did a good job of matching the tone with what was happening on screen oh and you gotta love that Martian music [Music] and finally there's the animation I never cared for these mocap animated movies well except for Monster House that is the one exception but this kind of animation is so uncanny and janky the way the bodies move and how the facial animation works on the character models especially with the girl Martians and worst of all this stuff has aged horrendously now I will give them credit for attempting to make animation that looks realistic but it did not work the character designs are I like them but I don't like them milah looks odd with this adult Seth Green face on the kid model rebel is rebel with his rosy cheeks and 5ch ends but these alien girls are messing with my head like is their alien so I get that they're going to look strange and I think that they somewhat accomplished that with the bodies but then you get to their faces and yeah oh man you are hard to look at now the set designs were pretty good for when the movie was made but compare this to wall-e which was released in 2008 that was three years before Mars Needs Moms was released it's not even a contest now that being said it is fine I think the sets for Mars Needs Moms looks fine the textures where man the water physics were okay the sand physics ooh those look rough just like my review for delgo I stand by that Mars Needs Moms would have looked so much better and 2d it just doesn't work with this mocap stuff again I give them props for trying something different and experimenting with the mocap medium but it did not work in the long run or the short run for that matter [Music] well out a lot of [ __ ] alright so how would I improve the movie off the bat it would have looked so much better in 2d again I said this for delgo I'm saying it for here as well make it in 2d these girl alien models just do not work with mocap the face is and the weight stretches on their cheeks and their smiles yeah nope no thank you that does not work but guess what in 2d you could eliminate that next I would try and do a better job of establishing the relationship of Milo and his mother we always spend a few minutes on earth before the movie goes to Mars and the only thing I got out of Milo was that he like zombies hated broccoli and also hated his mom and that was it and the movie doesn't even bring up the broccoli or the zombie stuff ever again what was the point of that so yeah do a better job of establishing Milo while on earth so we can see him truly grow while on Mars then finally the world building you guys built a pretty interesting setting but you fail to explain it I realized that not every movie has to explain itself to the viewer but there's a mystery here use Milo's journey to save his mom as a conduit for explaining what happened to Martian society that along his journey we discover that something terrible happened to Mars and that's why it's the way that it is why they live below ground why there's a garbage world beneath the surface of Mars and how Martian society was shattered back in the day the world that they built in this movie was the most interesting part of the film but they straight-up block you from getting any answers in conclusion I will forever remember Mars Needs Moms for being an uncanny valley nightmare from hell and also being the biggest financial loss and Disney history that being said I do not fault image move and Disney for trying something different I could only imagine that people had doubts about Pixar when it first showed up thinking how could this compete with 2d only for it to revolutionize the animation industry after Toy Story maybe Disney an image movers thought that that would happen with mocap animated movies but alas it did not if anything Disney just wanted to get this film out cut their ties with image movers and then wash their hands of it completely they tried they failed and it was time to move on and for what it's worth image movers still exist to this very day their joint venture with Disney was called image movers digital and that was discontinued but image movers itself kept going and they still utilize mocap and their live-action movies remember real steel yeah that was them and the mocap animation and that movie looked good but let us not forget about Mars Needs Moms and how it failed so hard that it basically ended the mocap animated movie trend completely horror one out for the Martians and they'll be needing it once June guy shows up now that's a movie I'd watch no no no not that one please God not that one what is it with Mars and bad movies do you think I could run a mile in between 1/2 minutes only on Mars tip tunes or go to Mars [Music] [Music]

Channel: Saberspark

Views: 2,112,307

Rating: 4.9249706 out of 5

Keywords: saber, saberspark, what the hell is, what the hell, what the hell is mars needs moms, mars needs moms, disney's biggest failure, disney, imagemovers, mocap, review, uncanny, uncanny valley, let's go ape, delgo

Id: 7ABRPNPiQXQ

Length: 30min 17sec (1817 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 17 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/TheKingbirdDude]

Lol, here we go. I was laughing with my mom about the trailers for this.