If you’ve been feeling that there just aren’t enough slightly creepy-seeming CG humans birthed using performance capture technology in cinemas these days, then here comes Mars Needs Moms to your rescue with a new trailer, available to view below.
Okay, so the latest output from the pact between Robert Zemeckis’ ImageMovers and Disney (though actually directed by Balto/The Time Machine’s Simon Wells), is supposed to be slightly cartoonier than even, say, A Christmas Carol. But the effect is still a little unsettling.
The plot has been adapted from cult US cartoonist Berkeley Breathed’s book about… Well, you can probably guess what. But the movie’s script boils down to the fact that young Milo (Seth Green) doesn’t appreciate what a great mother he’s got until she’s whisked away by Martians who are in desperate need of maternal figures for their young. Why they can’t take an Open University course on the matter is, naturally, not the point.
When Milo gives chase, he’s also snatched up by the alien ship and taken to Mars, where he meets Gribble (Dan Fogler), who might just be able to help him stop the mom-napping, and Ki (Elisabeth Harnois), a rebel Martian girl who is always up for an adventure.
We’re hoping this one will turn out better than the trailer makes it look, because all we’re seeing right now is a lot of easy gags and a pretty predictable lesson about appreciating your mum.
We’ll find out when Mars Needs Moms (wonder if they’ll re-titled “Mums” for the UK?) arrives in cinemas on April 22.