Mars Needs Moms

In 2011, Walt Disney Pictures decided to try and save Robert Zemeckis’ production studio and distribute Mars Needs Moms. With Seth Green providing motion capture, it starred Dan Fogler, Seth Dusky, Elisabeth Harnois, Mindy Sterling, and Joan Cusack. The film bombed, losing $135 million, becoming the second biggest box office bomb in history.

Milo (Green, Dusky) discovers his mother (Cusack has been abducted by Martians who want to use her skills in parenting to raise their own young. He hitches a ride on their craft and lands on the planet, determined to find her.

This film certainly deserved to lose money. It may have some good acting and visuals, but the story is quite boring. Milo wanders all around Mars in order to find his mom and comes across Gribble, who was in the same boat as him 25 years prior, but failed. There’s also an excitable Martian named Ki who thinks Earth is still stuck in the 70s. It’s a premise that really should have worked, but it just lacks a whole lot of heart, which does the film a disservice.

The characters are also annoying. Milo and his mom are your average pairing of preteen with attitude and exhausted mother, until the end when he realizes he loves her. But how long is it going to be until he starts acting up again? Gribble and Ki should have been the best and funniest characters the film offers. Problem is, he’s annoying and she doesn’t have a lot of characterization other than the “funny alien.” Really, her character was done much better by all the aliens from “Galaxy Quest.”

But again, the visuals are pretty good, especially with the surface of Mars and the very sterilized Martian base. It also does well in not forgetting about the lack of gravity. Unfortunately, as has been repeated many times before, good visuals can’t make up for a lackluster story with boring characters.

#106

Chicken Little

Disney produced its first fully 3D computer animated film without the help of Pixar in 2005. Chicken Little, starring Zach Braff, Garry Marshal, Joan Cusack, Steve Zahn, Dan Molina, Amy Sedaris, and Mark Walton, was also the last Disney animated film made before John Lasseter took over as CEO. It made over $300 million.

Chicken Little (Braff) is a nerdy boy bullied in school because of the one time he caused waves of panic by warning that the sky was falling. Tending to hang out with the unpopular kids, Abby Mallard (Cusack) and Runt of the Litter (Zahn) and Fish out of Water (Molina), he uncovers the presence of extraterrestrials in his town. Now, he must warn the extremely skeptical townsfolk before all havoc breaks loose.

It’s really obvious that this is Disney’s first CGI film without any help from Pixar. Mainly because the film is trying to be something it’s not. Mainly a Dreamworks movie. There’s so many half-baked pop culture jokes that don’t go anywhere alongside really good jokes that have little to no follow up.

Furthermore the plot is just completely idiotic, trying to follow up on a story that really didn’t need one. It basically becomes Chicken Little meets War of the Worlds, except it’s not really War of the Worlds, because the aliens just want acorns. The entire film is basically a cliché with ideas borrowed from more successful films.

Like a lot of other films Disney put out in this era, it really lacks the magic and charm that Disney’s other films had. Instead of trying to be groundbreaking, it tried to be a copycat.

#97.

Toy Story 2

Initially, Toy Story was going to have a direct-to-video sequel produced by Disney. But when the story proved promising, it was upgraded to a theatrical release and Pixar became unhappy with the quality. So Lasseter decided to take the reins and Toy Story 2 was released November 24, 1999. Starring all the original voice actors, plus Joan Cusack, Kelsey Grammer and Wayne Knight, the film had a troubled production but was praised highly by critics.

A year or two after the first film, Woody (Tom Hanks) is accidentally damaged while being played with. He becomes concerned about becoming an unwanted broken toy and later, is stolen at a yard sale by the toy collector Al (Knight). So Buzz (Tim Allen) leads a group of Andy’s (John Morris) toys to rescue him. Meanwhile, Woody finds out he’s old merchandise from an old TV show and is a valuable collector’s item. Now he must decide to go back to Andy or a museum with three other toys from the series (Cusack, Grammer, and Frank Welker).

As with The Rescuers Down Under, this film didn’t try to shoehorn the characters into a forced redo of the first film, nor did it ruin the characterization. Instead, the continuation was fluid and the characters developed off of the qualities they already had.

Remember how Woody had an ego in the first film? What with him being so jealous of Buzz becoming Andy’s favorite toy? It resurfaces, but not in the same way because he’s already dealt with that. Instead, he finds out he’s famous and becomes willing to throw away the love of his owner to last forever. It’s not until Buzz hits him with a near identical lesson that he’s meant to be played with and loved, with the exact quote Woody used on him in the first film, that he realizes ego and fame aren’t worth anything if you’re giving up something that matters more.

And we can’t talk about this film without Jessie’s arc. Her struggle with abandonment is reasonable and perfectly played out. She doesn’t’ take too much stock in the love an owner shows their toys because her previous owner left her by the wayside to focus on other things. And once Woody’s snapped out of his ego trip he shows her that she can still be played with and loved.

The Prospector is also understandable. He’s never been played with, never been shown love by a child and never known what it means to enjoy living. Because he’s lived his whole life in a box. He’s got a justified motive. The problem lies in how he says he wants his existence to have purpose, but won’t let the other toys choose their own purpose. He’s a hypocrite is what he is.

The internal conflict within Woody is also amazing. He has to choose between the finite love of Andy, who will eventually grow up and being adored by children forever. It’s a conflict where there’s no clear victor when it comes to the pro and cons and he must decide what is ultimately the most unselfish choice. Sooner or later, we all must do the same.

Toy Story 2 is a great film where, once again, every character fits. The CGI also greatly improved since the last film, where Al, Andy, and Andy’s Mom actually look better.

Also references to Star Wars never get old. 

The series could have ended here and it would have been totally fine. But fortunately, 11 years later, it didn’t.

#5