Mind Your Business: Best & Worst Animated Films of 2011
Mars Needs Moms
Never saw it. I actually LOVE Berkeley Breathed’s humor. His Christmas special, A Wish for Wings That Work is my favorite every year. (We made a DVD of it so we can see it each year.) Bloom County is one of the greatest strips every produced.
But, the marketing for this movie never made me want to go see it. Part of the problem was the designs. I just looked ugly and many of the characters looked like they were designed for different films. The elements didn’t visually fit together. Evidently I’m not alone. I don’t know anyone who saw this film.
I was never a fan of the original animated series. The movie didn’t help. Watching the DVD made me very glad I didn’t pay for my family to see it in the theaters.
I loved Hank Azaria. He was more animated than most of the Smurfs. But Neil Patrick Harris was completely miscast. He was wasted as the straight man.
I do have to say the stereography was great and the character animation was amazing. But the characters and story were … ugh.
Colorful characters and a great location. But I still fell asleep while watching it. Actually, I went back to see it a second time…and wouldn’t you know it I started sawing logs again. The story bored me.
I know I listed it as one of the most fun, but it was also too much. I had a headache at the end. Hard to believe I’m about to say this, but it was too much spectacle. I really didn’t care about what happened to the characters. I have no interest in seeing it again, yet I’ll watch the first one over and over.
Sleeping in a movie is one of my main ways of determining a bad movie. I loved the first movie, but nothing in this movie was as much fun. I didn’t even like the music choices. Once again, I didn’t care what happened to the characters so I caught up on my sleep. In fact, it put me to sleep multiple times. I would wake up and the next section would put me out again.
One other great movie I want to mention before I go is Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol. It’s not an animation at all, but it was directed by animation super-star Brad Bird. For that reason alone I feel justified in including it here on the list of great films of 2011.
MI:4 is AWESOME. Best of the series. Proof that an animation director can do live-action better than most live-action directors. Luckily this also bodes well for Andrew Stanton’s (Finding Nemo, Wall-E) upcoming movie John Carter.
What are your thoughts?
Mark Simon, is the co-founder of SellYourTvConceptNow.com and the owner of Animatics & Storyboards, Inc. He’s worked on over 3,000 productions and authored books like Storyboards: Motion In Art and the Facial Expressions series of books (www.Expressions-Books.com)
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Yeah I know what you mean about Mars Needs Moms. I didn't want to see it because the name made it sound like ass, but it's on Netflix instant watch now so I checked it out. The animation was really good, especially on the fat guy played by Dan Fogler. The story was pretty good too. The material actually got really mature. The Martians weren't just your average cartoony menace. They were actually did some terrible stuff. But I actually enjoyed it though I do believe I would have felt differently if I saw it in theaters. Don't think it's a "theater experience movie."
I'm confused. How can you make a call on a movie being a failure if you never watched it?
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