People's Feminist Film Critic Hates 'Mars Needs Moms'
By Tim Graham | March 13, 2011 | 08:21
People magazine film critic Alynda Wheat had a major political problem with the new Disney computer-animated movie Mars Needs Moms. It's viciously anti-feminist. But that's a much different review than the one in the other Time Inc. rag, Entertainment Weekly. Wheat unloaded with this one-star (out of four) review:
Berkeley Breathed's 2007 kids' book Mars Needs Moms had a sweet but sharp point: Love your mother-or aliens will. But between page and screen some nasty gender politics entered this story....What's offensive is that the twisted dictator behind the deadly brain-sucking plot is the Supervisor, a vicious caricature of a feminist who thinks men are stupid and raising kids is a waste of a woman's time. Between the violence and the vitriol, what Mars really needs is a spanking.
Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly offered a much different take, and gave the film an A-minus:
Enhanced by nimble ad-libbing from the comedy-trained cast, the screenplay is delightful, by turns funny and emotional, as befits a Disney family fable in which, through wacky adversity, Mom and kid reaffirm their love for each other while Dad is nowhere in sight. (He's not dead, just away on business.)
….Certainly it's the right way to go when visiting the Mars of this cool story, a wittily conceived planet of curvy female soldiers and sidelined males, ruled by a splendidly screechy old crone called the Supervisor. (She's voiced by Austin Powers' excellent Frau Farbissina herself, Mindy Sterling.)
Schwarzbaum is no slouch when it comes to feminism in movies. NB's Colleen Raezler noted in 2007 she found Juno didn't have enough feminism in it:
The old-school feminist in me wishes "Juno" spent more time, even a tart sentence or two, acknowledging that the options taken for granted by this one attractive, articulate teen are in fact hard-won, precious rights, and need to be guarded by a new-generation army of Junos and Bleekers, spreading the word by text message as well as by hamburger phone.
She also found the idea of Brokeback Mountain winning Oscars "fantastic" and"extraordinary."
- Tim Graham's blog
- Login or register to post comments
Comments
What's offensive is that the
Submitted by motherbelt on Sun, 03/13/2011 - 9:05am.
What's offensive is that the twisted dictator behind the deadly brain-sucking plot is the Supervisor, a vicious caricature of a feminist who thinks men are stupid and raising kids is a waste of a woman's time
You mean feminists don't really believe this?
Does this woman watch TV??? Pick a sitcom, any sitcom, and chances are the slim, fashionable, all-together mother is married to a chubby, somewhat sloppy, clueless husband.
Mom and kid reaffirm their love for each other while Dad is nowhere in sight. (He's not dead, just away on business.)
BTW, the father-nowhere-in-sight thing isn't new for Disney, either. There's no father evident in Toy Story either.
Sounds to me like they got the Hollywood-family template just right.
It was also like this in the "good old days"
Submitted by mzk1 on Tue, 03/15/2011 - 8:42am.
This was true from day one of the sitcom, with certain exceptions such as "leave it to Beaver". Also in the Bernstain Bears, except that, having read the authors' biography, I do believe it was not intentional."Curvy female soldiers"
Submitted by Kingfish17 on Sun, 03/13/2011 - 9:15am.
I can't wait to read Brent Bozell's comments about this!
Typical Liberal Genius thinking. Give her a job writing it down
Submitted by acaiguana on Mon, 03/14/2011 - 5:50am.
"Between the violence and the vitriol, what Mars really needs is a spanking."
Ummmmmmmmm
Check.
ACA
...
Quoted from: 'Acaiguana notes from the Underground' (Soon to be at theaters near you)
Vicious caricature, eh?
Submitted by HockeyKid on Mon, 03/14/2011 - 7:57am.
Speaking as someone who's seen far too many "A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle" t-shirts on relatives, I can state categorically that you'd have to go a LONG, LONG way to caricature lib feminists."Beauty is only skin deep, but liberal's to the bone." - me
Who cares
Submitted by griv on Mon, 03/14/2011 - 8:32am.
what the femanazis think? They become unglued over anything and everything and there is no satisfying their irrational demands.everything except women under
Submitted by ozarkian on Mon, 03/14/2011 - 6:21pm.
everything except women under islamI wonder.....
Submitted by All American on Mon, 03/14/2011 - 12:11pm.
what that PC Lib thought of that enviro-drivel "Ferngully" ...What? No mention of the
Submitted by ant on Mon, 03/14/2011 - 2:31pm.
What? No mention of the success of the Egyptian Women's Freedom March? American men baaaaaaaddd!This is clearly.....
Submitted by almostacowboy77 on Mon, 03/14/2011 - 3:11pm.
Bush's fault.It is amazing....
Submitted by mzk1 on Tue, 03/15/2011 - 8:44am.
That she likes Juno for exactly the wrong reasons....