Why would Mars need moms? Well, you can ask comic book artist and writer Berkeley Breathed, who wrote the picture book titled “Mars Needs Moms.” If you haven’t read the book, you can always watch the movie adaptation directed by Adam Wells and produced by Robert Zemeckis, the guy who brought us The Polar Express.

The movie Mars Needs Moms is just like The Polar Express which used motion, or more accurately, performance capture to animate the computer generated characters. On the other hand, Mars Needs Moms is unlike The Polar Express which had characters that only had limited facial expressions. In Mars Needs Moms, the characters literally look and come alive with facial expressions that are all so realistic.

The movie still looks cartoony in spite of the advanced animation, but it wasn’t meant to be an imitation of reality just like what was done with the movie Beowulf (also directed by Zemeckis) where you can even see the pores on the skin of the hero. Mars Needs Moms is actually somewhere in between Beowulf and The Polar Express. But the feel of it is closer to that of the latter. Both The Polar Express and Mars Needs Moms both has a kid as the main character who gets to go on a big journey aboard a fantastic vehicle and get to meet strange beings.

Edgar Rice Burrough's John Carter of Mars

Mars Needs Moms being made in 3D and also for IMAX theaters makes it one big movie to watch out for. It is the ticket of audiences to planet Mars set in a colorful fantasy world of make-believe science fiction, where a whole planet is in need of the caring nature of Earth mothers. Milo the kid gets to go to Mars and when he learns of the plans of the Martians to take the “momness” of Earth away, he gets the chance to save the world... or two. It’s for kids, but mature people will also enjoy this as a summer release, just as much or even more than the Polar Express, which was released as a Christmas fare.