The ambitious animated Mars has finally made its way to the big screen, but it has taken the Whitest Kids U’ Know comedy troupe over a decade, and they do not disappoint the audience. The film explains the group’s audacious humor while at the same time taking obvious inspirations from the works of James Cameron through the movie, “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory,” as well as the innocence of Elon Musk. Mars is great not only the brand of the comedy group but spins interesting commentaries about human connection as well.
As the story opens, we meet Kyle, the protagonist and a young man, who seems to have all of his life figured out. He is planning to marry his fiancée soon. He is also fully employed and works at a dentist office which is owned by his future father in law. He has even been assured that he will soon take over the practice. But Kyle is not satisfied. He is always asking himself ‘why’ and barring him from thinking negative thoughts for the time being, Kyle quite simply cannot ignore it. But since the wedding is just around the corner, and only some weeks to go, Kyle thinks ‘why not’.
At the same time, eccentric billionaire Elron Branson is conducting a lottery to get a crew for his expedition to Mars, which will also become a first for humanity. To participate simply record and submit your video explaining the reasons for your willingness to partake in the adventure. One night after getting blind drunk wandering around with his best friend he decides to send in his video for the contest run by Branson. Several weeks go by and Branson’s lottery has ended. Unfortunately for Kyle nothing happened therefore he proceeds to make arrangements for his wedding albeit with some regrets. On his wedding day, though one of the winning contestants is not able to appear somehow and Kyle’s name comes out in an emergency drawing when he of course wasn’t really prepared for it. After some oscillation, he chooses to leave his fiancée at the altar and visit Mars instead. What was supposed to be a clean slate for him gradually turns into a different type of horrifying ordeal combining several unexpected developments along with the ever progressing madness of the crew.
So that’s the PG summary of the story. But in the first five minutes, it is crystal clear why The Whitest Kids U’ Know opted for animation in the first place. Here they truly have no boundaries imagination wise and the same goes for how their characters partake in brutal violence, show nudity and indulge in drug use. The MPAA is going to be angry the third act alone is ridiculously hilarious. Of course certain references have been made where there are indeed some that feel ‘thrown in’ merely for the sake of shock. Yet, not even those can diminish the group’s scathing barrel pointing towards the upper upper class.
To the world, it was barely a year ago when everybody was looking at the news attached to the submersible that got lost while heading towards the Titanic wreck. So no matter how often you look there’s always . A list star on the news because of traveling into space with Virgin Galactic. It is hardly a secret that the world’s influential try to go beyond what is feasible and suffer no consequences in relation to the moral aspect. No matter how inappropriate or vulgar, that sentiment is constant in Kyle’s adventure. Sure, Branson is able to lend funds for a trip to Mars.
However, as we come to realize, having the finances to facilitate the next human evolution step does not qualify him to understand human beings in any way. Furthermore, it is quite amazing that it takes Kyle all those kilometers of distance from the rest of mankind to appreciate the value of empathy and understand why he has been so miserable in the first place.
The film, on the other hand, possesses the quality that goes too far regarding criticism of the mankind and loses it for the genre that it is supposed to be science fiction. If there is any single complaint one can make about the film per say, it is that there is not enough penetration into the high concept of it. As it pertains to the film, yes it is still a good film, but it could have done a whole lot better in getting more strained than it already is as there were quite glaring possibilities that have been missed.
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