Movies - Mars Attacks

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	Movies - Mars Attacks

Mars Attacks (without an exclamation mark) is a highly popular science fiction trading card series. Mars Attacks! (with an exclamation mark) is a 1996 film by Tim Burton based on the cards.

Trading cards

The Mars Attacks trading card series was created by Topps and painted by Norman Saunders over pencil roughs by Wally Wood and finished pencil art by Bob Powell. Originally released in 1962, the cards, written by Len Brown and Woody Gelman, told an outrageous story of the invasion of Earth by cruel, hideous Martians. The 55-card series developed a cult following and has been reprinted occasionally.

Film adaptation

In 1996, Tim Burton's movie Mars Attacks!, based on the cards, was released by Warner Bros. The film combines the storyline and tone of a B-movie spoof with the budget of a blockbuster movie. It features an ensemble cast of major stars including Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, Pierce Brosnan, Annette Bening, Danny DeVito, Martin Short, Michael J. Fox, Natalie Portman, Lukas Haas, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jim Brown, Pam Grier, Tom Jones and Jack Black. The film is highly dependent upon special effects. The soundtrack by Danny Elfman makes extensive use of the theremin.

The film was panned by critics when it was first released and received terrible reviews, but it has since acquired a small cult following and can often be seen on cable TV in North America.

Style and movie references

As with other Burton movies, the subject under scrutiny is not only the present, but the mass culture of his own suburban childhood. Although nominally set in the present day, the film contains numerous anachronistic references to the style of the 1950s science fiction films of which it is a parody. The film's tone is similar to that of the trading card series, depicting exaggerated comic violence with an intense and often garish color scheme.

The plot is fairly simple but contains unusual variations on the normal Martian invasion movie. The premise is that Martians have arrived at Earth and the President of the United States (played by Jack Nicholson) seeks to gain maximum public relations points by establishing a friendly relationship with them. The Martians, however, reject these overtures and proceed to wreak havoc with their spectacular red and green death-ray guns. The Martians toy with the human assumption that advanced civilizations are peace-loving; they repeatedly set up meetings for peace treaties and then massacre the humans involved. As in the film The War of the Worlds
, a simple weapon is ultimately found to counter the alien invaders: in this instance it is the playing of a piece of yodeling music, "Indian Love Call" by Slim Whitman. Some have criticized this as being far too similar to another parody of B-movies, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
, where the killer tomatoes were also caused to explode when subjected to a particularly bad song.

The film has an interesting relationship with Independence Day
, an alien invasion movie released a few months earlier by rival studio 20th Century Fox. Mars Attacks plays for comedy everything that Independence Day plays with relative seriousness. For example, where Independence Day has an extended sequence of epic and impressive destruction across the world, Mars Attacks! has the aliens using Easter Island as a bowling alley, carving their own faces in Mount Rushmore, toppling the Washington Monument onto boy scouts in Washington, D.C., and melting the Eiffel Tower, the Taj Mahal, and the Palace of Westminster. In addition, both films contain scenes of frantic escapes from the White House and failed use of a nuclear weapon against the invaders' mothership. Ultimately, Mars Attacks! parodies the American spirit of gung-ho independence that Independence Day celebrates. Since Mars Attacks! was released shortly after Independence Day, it appeared as a direct parody of that film; however, since Burton's film was almost completed at the time Independence Day was released, the similarities are purely coincidental, or derived from mutual use of science fiction clichés.

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Movies - Mars Attacks

Trading cards

Film adaptation

Style and movie references

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