Eye Candy #565 - "Mars Needs Moms!"

Mars Needs Moms!:  Based on the book of the same name by Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Berke Berthed (best known for his comic strips “Bloom County” and “Outland“ and characters like Opus the penguin and Bill the Cat), this is the latest in a continuing line of Robert Zemeckis-produced motion capture CGI animated films (like “Beowulf”, “A Christmas Carol”) and is about as soulless as they come, though not entirely unwatchable (though why, with the advancements in  technology, do the motion-capture humans look less and less human as these films are released?).  Obnoxious child Milo (acted by Seth Green, but voiced by another actor) is a do-nothing, selfish brat.  He and his mother (played by Joan Cusack) have a fight and before they can reconcile, she is kidnapped by Martians who wish to steal the essence of her parenting to implant in themselves, killing her in the process. So he stows away on their spaceship and finds himself in a disjointed society run by women Martians (who don’t know how to nurture) and men Martians (who do, but are the underclass on their own planet).  He also finds an allies in fellow human Gribble (Dan Fogler, who fairs best here) and a rebellious Martian, Ki.   This is the latest directorial effort from Simon Wells, previously responsible for “Prince of Egypt” and the live-action “Time Machine” from a few years back.  My main complaint - the look of the film is about as far removed from Breathed’s fairly idiosyncratic art style as you can get.  Also, the book is fairly simplistic (it is a children’s book, after all) and generally much more good-natured (and decidedly less sinister).   Plus, the book is all of 40 pages long, so there is a LOT here that was added to expand this to a full-length screenplay.  The final result here is disappointing overall.  Woodchuck sez, “Skip it.”