Movie review: Mars Needs Moms "A son's wish: the answer to a galactic dilemma"

When we slam the door in anger, we refuse to see her tears while she cries in the other room.


The trash. The phone. The veggies. We kids have always been trapped by these hostile aliens and worse, our moms' nagging voices. It seems like an inevitable stage in our childhood, and we inevitably go against it. Maybe we loathe them at times because we're still kids, and we clearly have no idea how much it would hurt when we can no longer hear their voices.

"I think it's way better if I didn't have a mom at all." Little did Milo (Seth Green) know those words marked the cue for the Marsians to sieze her mother (Joan Cusack), and he witnessed how she was going to pay for it.


It's not the moon this time, but far out to Mars as Walt Disney Pictures landed us to the planet scientists have always suspected to possess intelligent life. With its release of Mars Needs Moms (2011, directed by Simon Wells), we discovered not only the worse--and unbelievable scenario of an uncontrollable population explosion in outer space, but also our moms' tears whenever we say bad things to her and mean it.

They snuck in the middle of the night. Just as Milo decided to say sorry to his mom after a minor fight, he saw a flash of light from his mom's room, and it was too late.


Filled with guilt, fear and longing at last, Milo boldly hopped on to the Marsian space ship. He met Gribble (Dan Fogler) along the way, and discovered the horrible truth about how Marsians extract moms' brains to become nanny-bots, trained to take care of their young sprouting like potatoes from the ground every 25 years.

With the help of Gribble and a kind, Earth-curious Marsian named Ki (Elisabeth Harnois), Milo fought time and zero-gravity only to realize in the end how much his mom loves him more than he does to her.


On the other hand, it was heartbreaking to discover Gribble's story, surviving  Mars's harsh elements as a kid, after her own mom was abducted and he wasn't able to save her.

The movie also made me believe there's a purpose for everything, in the scene when Milo's oxygen tank broke into pieces and Gribble ran off to the hill where he hid the helmet he was supposed to give to his own mom to save her, and gave it to them. Remembering what his mom said, he did the right thing for the first time and helped Milo so he wouldn't lose his mom the way Gribble lost his.


Somehow it's never too late nor too embarrassing to say we love our moms, because we don't want to feel that much pain and guilt when we lose them.

PIXAR @25: Toy Story 3 "The art of goodbyes"

When our loved ones leave we don't really lose them.

Absence. Less talks. Less visits. Silence.

At times when life drives too slowly and the day's too dull it would suddenly hit me hard how much I miss the people I used to see and listen to everyday. At first it's not that really hard to say goodbye, thinking fate will never fail to find a day I would bump into them along the way. It'll only be months after it will finally sink into me how much I long to see them again.

Goodbye is never about giving up, but about moving on while we always reassure ourselves they'll always be in us. What deeply touched me in Pixar's Toy Story 3 (2010, directed by Lee Unkrich) was Woody finally grasping the fact that he'll always be with Andy--even without him by his side--for infinity and beyond.

This should be the second time Woody's (Tom Hanks) friends didn't believe him, and the second time as well Slinky said, "So Woody was telling the truth!" With Sunny Side Daycare Center disguised as a childish mansion, Andy's toys got trapped this time, fueled by bad circumstances, false interpretation and anger.

Almost all the characters symbolized vital moral lessons for modern youth: Jessie (Joan Cusack), Mr. Potato Head (Don Rickles) and Hamm (John Ratzenberger) portrayed our drawback in analyzing situations because we're blinded by anger, pessimism, and selfishness. Rex (Wallace Shawn), all throughout the Toy Story series, represented the innocently comedy character who always either agreed with others or refused to take sides. Slinky (Blake Clark) always stayed in the "play safe" zone, although he always knew what's right but chose to follow the majority.

Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) portrayed an emotionally-vulnerable character torn between two galactic principles: the importance of staying together and the job of being there for Andy (John Morris). And Woody's moral fiber became the most challenging for us: having the guts to be the outcast. Somehow, it should'nt even take guts for us to be different; it's never a problem if we strongly believe in something the majority doesn't. Woody believed they should never replace Andy with some temporary haven.

While new characters like Lotso Huggin' Bear (Ned Beatty) also shared the sad reality about traumatic pasts and crooked systems and a stranger's deceitful smile, the art of goodbyes took the movie to the real world where everyone can say, "Goodbye is just another word for 'See you later.'"

What's best about them, I believe, is how they always make us look back, and equally move on while we say, "It's still a small world out there."

After all, anyone who became a part of us will always stay with us.

PIXAR @25: TOY STORY 2 Two comfort zones and a home

Courtesy of Pixar pictures

Where you truly belong only lies in where your heart is.

We had all missed Sheriff Woody (Tom Hanks), and Pixar had answered our prayers with Toy Story 2 (1999, directed by John Lasseter and Ash Brannon), following a sequel to Toy Story (1995) after four years. And this time, Woody was in for one of the biggest decisions he had to make in his life.

After harshly making Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) realize who he really was, Woody now had to help the RoundUp gang--especially Jessie (Joan Cusack)--realize who they truly are for. But Pixar twisted it up a little and put our sherrif hero to a test, with a decision he had to make between two homes: his life with Andy or with the RoundUp gang he'd originally come from.

As we munched on our salty popcorn we witnessed a whole new side of Woody, as Al (Wayne Knight), the greedy toy collector stole him one day at yard sale, and finally reunited him with the gang to sell the epic collection to a Japanese client.

Now Woody had to choose: whether he would come home to Andy (John Morris) or join the gang to achieve immortality behind the glass, preserved in a museum.

It must've been one of those days of confusion, when we had felt we really belonged to this kind of life and family, and then finding out they were simply temporary havens, surrogates, strangers who adopted us and took us to live like them. But with them we truly felt we're home.

And so the tables are turned and it's time for Buzz and Andy's toys to rescue and make the sheriff realize "what a toy is all about"--to make a child happy and not to aim for eternity as a toy only to be found behind glass; and for Woody to pass it on to Jessie.

I remember Jessie's tragic story (infused in a dramatic musical narration) about being replaced and getting thrown away, as she developed severe trauma and anger towards kids. Somehow, it was also a lesson Pixar wanted to share that in life, there will always be heartbreaks, rejections and goodbyes. And we couldn't possibly outwit these forces or else we wouldn't survive this world. After all, every end always begins with a new journey.

Where is home anyway? In the end, we can only find it when we have decided where we truly belong.

TOY STORY 2 Fact Sheet

1. The Pixar artists had considered the making of Toy Story 2 as "revisiting old friends", and with the advanced technology for better speed and sophistication, the makers were able to focus more on character performances.

2. Hiemlich (Joe Ranft, also voiced Wheezy) from A Bug's Life appeared in a scene when Buzz was chopping off the bushes to access the road and find Woody. For more "inside jokes" Pixar had inserted in the movie as tribute to the past Pixar projects, click here.

3. It took two years for the technical artists to imitate the 1950's black-and-white atmosphere in the Woody's RoundUp TV series. 

Courtesy of Pixar pictures

4. Toy Story 2 became the highest grossing feature film of 1999, collecting $483M in worldwide box office receipts. It also garnered a Golden Globe Award for Best Picture for Musical or Comedy, and two Grammy Awards for Best Song and Best Musical Album for Children.