MARS ATTACKS!
Mars Attacks! is an underrated gem from visionary director Tim Burton. It’s celebrating its 30th anniversary with a new 4K release from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. If you’re looking for a fun, zany, summer movie, go pick up Mars Attacks! and be entertained.
The story is quite simple. The United States comes under attack from a martian invasion. What more do you want from a movie based on an old Topps trading card line from 1962? Yes, a little known fact there. In the behind-the-scenes features, one of Tim Burton’s creative designers discusses how he was meeting with Tim Burton and saw a series of trading cards on his desk. One featured dinosaurs and the other featured martians. Burton didn’t want to do a dinosaur movie, as it was announced that Steven Spielberg was set to make a sequel to Jurassic Park, so he set his eyes on the “Mars Attacks” trading cards instead. He gathered a HUGE ensemble with Jack Nicholson and Glenn Close playing the President and First Lady. Martin Short plays a vicious White House Press Secretary. Michael J. Fox and Sarah Jessica Parker play TV personalities. Annette Bening, Rod Steiger, Pierce Brosnan, Lukas Haas, Jack Black, Tom Jones, Jim Brown, Danny DeVito, and Lisa Marie all appear in supporting roles. The story is wild, but didn’t read well on paper so Burton originally had a hard time finding actors until Nicholson signed on. Everyone fell into place once they knew Nicholson was involved. You’ll notice many Tim Burton ensemble players in the film, as this also reunited Burton with Nicholson after 1989’s Batman.
This new 4K release features two new special features going into the evolution of this film, Tim Burton’s aesthetics, and how it was fairly groundbreaking and challenging when it came to creating all of the special effects for the martian sequences. It’s always a treat to see him reunited with collaborators like costume designer Colleen Atwood and composer Danny Elfman. Mars Attacks! is classic Tim Burton and will be enjoyed by anyone who loves his movies like Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice, Batman and more.
SPECIAL FEATURES
-Looking Back on Mars Attacks!
-Ack! Ack! Aesthetic
Here’s a video I made for TikTok
