Mars Needs Moms

Not to be confused with Mars Needs Women.

Mars Needs Moms
Milo sees the spaceship in fount of the door.
Theatrical release poster
Directed bySimon Wells
Screenplay by
  • Simon Wells
  • Wendy Wells
Based onMars Needs Moms!
by Berkeley Breathed
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyRobert Presley
Edited byWayne Wahrman
Music byJohn Powell
Production
companies
Distributed byWalt Disney Studios
Motion Pictures
Release dates
  • March 6, 2011 (2011-03-06) (El Capitan Theatre)
  • March 11, 2011 (2011-03-11) (United States)
Running time
88 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$150 million[1][2]
Box office$39.2 million[1]

Mars Needs Moms is a 2011 American animated science fiction comedy film co-written and directed by Simon Wells, produced by ImageMovers Digital and released by Walt Disney Pictures. Based on the Berkeley Breathed book of the same title, the film was animated through the process of performance capture and stars Seth Green, Dan Fogler, Elisabeth Harnois, Mindy Sterling, and Joan Cusack. It was the second and final film produced by ImageMovers Digital before the studio was shut down and re-absorbed into ImageMovers resulting in the company leaving the animation business for good.[3] It tells the story of a nine-year-old boy named Milo who sets out to save his mother on Mars after she is abducted by Martians.

Mars Needs Moms premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles on March 6, 2011, and was released in theaters on March 11, 2011, in Disney Digital 3D, RealD 3D and IMAX 3D formats. The film received mixed to unfavorable reviews from critics, who praised the visuals, set design and cast, but criticized its story, characters and "unsettling" character animation, with critics saying that it "suffers from a lack of imagination and heart". It grossed $39.2 million worldwide on a $150 million budget, becoming one of the biggest box-office bombs of all time, losing an estimated $100–144 million for Disney.

  1. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference mojo was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference LABox was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Finke, Nikki (March 12, 2010). "Disney Closing Zemeckis' Digital Studio". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on July 15, 2020. Retrieved June 7, 2018.