Night Song of the Last Tram - A Glasgow Childhood
5.0
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A wonderfully colourful and deeply poignant memoir of growing up in a 'single end' - one room in a...
Childhood True life Memoir
The Turnout
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With their long necks and matching buns and pink tights, Dara and Marie Durant have been dancers...
Just Like You
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On an average Saturday morning in a butcher's shop in North London, Lucy and Joseph meet on opposite...
Kevin Phillipson (10072 KP) rated Orphan:First Kill (2022) in Movies
Oct 12, 2022
Kevin Phillipson (10072 KP) rated Doctor who the giggle in TV
Dec 9, 2023
Morgan is my Name
10.0
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An atmospheric, feminist retelling of the early life of famed villainess Morgan le Fay, set against...
Historical fiction Retellings Arthurian legend mythology Audiobook Historical Fantasy
The Fortuna Coin
10.0
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Wendy Catalano, a newly remarried mother of four, finds herself, her husband and her children,...
Psychological Thriller
The Dictator’s Wife
8.0
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WOMAN I learned early in life how to survive. A skill that became vital in my position. WIFE I...
Historical fiction Literary fiction Eastern Europe
Soldier Sailor
10.0
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Well, Sailor. Here we are once more, you and me in one another's arms. The Earth rotates beneath us...
Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated Mars Needs Moms (2011) in Movies
Aug 7, 2019
On the night Milo’s mom is abducted, Milo (enacted by Seth Green, voiced by Seth Dusky) wakes up in time to witness her being loaded onto a spaceship and he quickly becomes a stowaway. On the red planet, he’s rescued by Gribbler, a chubby, fast-talking, tech-savvy human (voiced by Dan Fogler) who helps him devise a plan to save Milo’s mom, a recognizable Joan Cusack, in voice and, somewhat creepily, in CGI’d face. The two are up against an army of female Martians lead by The Supervisor (voiced by Mindy Sterling) a mean, old Martian. Think Frau Farbissina as a mean E.T. Luckily, Milo and Gribbler find an ally in a rebel Martian named Ki (voiced by Elisabeth Harnois). Milo has less than 6 hours to get to his mom before she’s programmed into the nanny-bots and destroyed by the process. Soon, it’s a race against time for Milo, Gribbler and Ki as they run around endless corridors, hurtle through chutes, tumble down trash mountains, splash into other-worldly caves and fall off cliffs.
Based on a children’s novel by cartoonist Berkeley Breathed, the film is produced by Robert Zemeckis and directed by Simon Wells in performance-capture 3D, a technique pioneered by Zemeckis in Polar Express and used again in A Christmas Carol. In performance-capture filming, actors are covered in sensors that capture their actions and expressions to animate their digital characters. During the end credits, a sampling of outtakes show the actors in their sensor suits physically acting out various scenes. I have to admit, the most entertaining part of the movie for me was watching Seth Green and Dan Fogler literally throw themselves into their characters.
Even with a run time of 88 minutes, kids around Milo’s age and younger may remain enthralled to the end simply from the countdown suspense. Older kids, maybe not. Yes, the high-point of the tale is Milo’s realization of how truly important his mom is to him. But even with all the running and tumbling around, the story takes a long, meandering walk to get to that point. While the technological achievements of 3D animation get more and more impressive, if the story doesn’t captivate or inspire, it’s practically a wasted effort, especially when watching in 2D would not take much away from the effects.