MARS NEEDS MOMS
Release date: August 9, 2011
Blu-ray version (some materials may not appear on the DVD version)

Mars Needs Moms tells the story of a young boy, Milo, who is fed up with his mother until she is kidnapped by Martians and taken to their home planet in an effort to tap in and steal what makes her a mom. Milo, realizing how much he needs his mom, goes after her for an intergalactic adventure.

After seeing some great original concept artwork for the film by writer/director Simon Wells, great grandson of the legendary sci-fi author H.G. Wells, I had the chance to ask about his artistic talent. He told me, “That’s actually where I come from. I was an animator originally. That’s sort of my first professional existence. Most of the time I earn my living as a storyboard artist. I’ve done a lot of stuff for Dreamworks films. Not just the ones that I directed, but right away up to ‘Kung Fu Panda.’ If you look it up I’m on the ‘story,’ but that actually means I drew a lot of storyboards. So yes, I get in and I can’t help myself. In fact, the best way of describing stuff to people is to draw a picture and even on the set I had like a big sketch pad hung on the wall and very often to explain things to people I’d go over and I’d draw stuff using a magic marker and it’s the quickest way of explaining to a group of people what I’m trying to do.”

Simon also explained about when he was approached by Robert Zemeckis, Jack Rapke and Steve Starkey to direct the film as a Motion Capture project. “It was more sort of here is the property, here is the idea. I looked at it as we need to find the reason why it should be Motion Capture. What are we going to do with this which in a sense is something you can only do in Motion Capture. Why is it something that’s not suitable to do in live action or not suitable to do as pure animation.”

The answer was creating a realistic Martian world, complete with all the inhabitants to let this enjoyable tale take flight.

While “Mars Needs Moms” is a galactic adventure, it also has a lot of heart, and I believe “global” appeal for the whole family.

Here’s what you’ll find in BONUS FEATURES:

There's a total of seven DELETED SCENES which includes an extended opening to the film. Each scene is introduced by Simon Wells.

FUN WITH SETH (2:28) Nine year old Milo is played by Seth Green, who incidentally is considerably older than his character, but with the magic of motion capture, he returned to his youth. This piece has some great behind the scenes footage interspersed with cast and crew talking about Seth, and seeing some of the fun he had on the set.

MARTIAN 101 (2:51) The Martian language you’ll hear in the film was created by the case. Elisabeth Harnois, who played Martian Ki, told me, “There were three of us actors who got together and actually created what the Martian language was going to sound like. Each of us actors had our own take on it and what we ended up with was this really nice hybrid of things and we actually created some words that translated to things. We had a little dictionary.” In this bonus feature, you’ll learn all about what went on behind the scenes in creating the language, along with a Martian interruption.

Look around this disc with your remote control, there are some Easter eggs to be found!

Hope this helps you know what in the world is on the “Mars Needs Moms” Blu-ray!