What makes Mars Attacks! more relatable today than ever before? Which movies beat the film
at the box office? How close did it come to winning an Oscar? Stay tuned to find out!
As it turns out, Mars Attacks! wan't an original idea conjured up out of thin air by Tim Burton.
They may not be as popular as the source material for other Burton projects like Batman or Alice in
Wonderland, but the trading cards that Mars Attacks! is based on still have a significant
pop culture legacy. They were first unleashed into the world in 1962 and quickly gained notoriety for
depicting aliens attacking humans in vivid, violent detail. Decades before the likes of
Independence Day made it commonplace to destroy sacrosanct locales in blockbuster flicks, the Mars
Attacks! trading cards were blowing up the Golden Gate Bridge and setting fire to the White House.
Parents were outraged, but kids were enamored. Though these cards weren't
originally around for a very long time, their distinctive visuals and grotesque
humor left a lasting impact on the era's youngsters. They even proved enduring
enough to inspire a big-budget movie decades after they first petrified the populace!
The original Mars Attacks trading cards weren't the only ones terrifying children with horrifying
imagery. The Dinosaurs Attack! cards of the 1980s were just as scary, as they depicted dinos
attacking unfortunate humans and each other. These intense illustrations sparked the imaginations of
kids everywhere, and they still inspire plenty of nostalgia to this day. Considering that
level of fondness, it's no surprise that a film adaptation of these cards was once in development.
There was also a Dinosaurs Attack! comic series, and the first issue,
released in 1991, reported that a film version of the property was in development.
But Tim Burton ultimately put that project aside in favor of adapting Mars Attacks! once
Jurassic Park became a huge hit. A pop culture juggernaut like that would've made a Dinosaurs
Attack! movie seem like a cheap cash-grab. So with that project still as dead as a T. rex,
those yearning to see Tim Burton's take on dinos will just have to keep on waiting.
Many of Tim Burton's films are explicitly linked to the movies
that inspired him to become a filmmaker in the first place.
1994's Ed Wood, for example, offered him the chance to pay homage to a famous, or infamous,
B-movie director. Mars Attacks! is no exception, and it even served as another chance for Burton
to tip his hat to the works of Ed Wood. As the director explained to Arts Beat L.A. in 1996,
"I wanted to do something fun with a bunch of Martians with big brains.
Basically, make a modern version of Plan 9 From Outer Space or The War Of The Worlds.'"
Burton was also of course inspired by the Mars Attacks! trading cards, particularly
how they fused gross-out sci-fi elements with titillating imagery. According to Burton,
"This was very much in the spirit of the sixties
kind of sci-fi movies that I was trying to re-create and I remember
always liking those movies where there was some sort of weird alien girl."
Paying tribute to seminal works of oddball entertainment has worked like gangbusters
for Burton over the course of his career, and Mars Attacks! is just one spectacular example.
Typically, quirky sci-fi movies that pay tribute to something like trading
cards don't end up with particularly star-studded
rosters. But the Mars Attacks! cast is absolutely packed with A-list talent.
Some of the famous faces include Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, Michael J. Fox, Danny DeVito,
and even a cameo appearance from singer Tom Jones, and that barely even scratches the surface.
Getting so many big names for Mars Attacks! was more than just something
done to appease the marketing department. It was a conscious choice on Tim Burton's part,
in order to further challenge himself as a filmmaker. As he explained to Arts Beat L.A.,
"The only time I had ventured into bringing together several high-profile stars was for
the Batman movies and here I wanted to repeat this experience on an even bigger scale.
There are more than 20 lead roles in Mars Attacks!
so it was quite a challenge for me to put together this cast."
Luckily, this assortment of big-name performers threw themselves into this uniquely goofy world
with gusto, proving their ability to fit right into Burton's imaginative vision.
"Tom, Tom, can I have an autograph? Anybody got a pen?"
Today, every movie from Avengers: Endgame to Hello, My Name is Doris gets an internet-based
marketing campaign. But back in 1996 when the Mars Attacks! team was tasked with building hype,
internet marketing for movies was still in its infancy.
It was so much of an event when films got promotional websites back then that
Entertainment Weekly ran articles examining every instance within a calendar year.
EW writer Bob Strauss gave the Mars Attacks! website a B. He offered praise for how
many behind-the-scenes details it offered, including sketches from Tim Burton himself.
However, he criticized it for an overall lack of distinction. Strauss' breakdown of the site,
which featured cast bios and links to relevant sites, paints a bare-bones picture. It certainly
seemed to have lacked the kind of audience engagement elements that are more typical of
today's virtual movie marketing. But these were the early days of online promotion,
so it's fair to cut it a little slack. Movies like Mars Attacks! deserve our respect for paving the
road for modern marketing. Without them, we may never have ended up with viral TikTok dances.
It may sound like a fantasy when compared to today's cinematic landscape, but there
was a time when CGI wasn't absolutely everywhere. As late as the mid-90s,
this technology was still limited to only the most major blockbusters. But then slowly but surely,
those films began popularizing the idea that digital wizardry could do just about
anything anyone could imagine. That included realizing weird-looking
alien invaders who keep coming up with cartoonish ways of dispatching humanity.
Tim Burton has tended to embrace old-school methods of storytelling and visual effects
in many of his projects. But the unique aesthetic of Mars Attacks! necessitated
the use of modern technology. As the director admitted to Arts Beat L.A.,
"I knew we had to create the aliens with the help of CGI animation.
Every type of animation has a different vibe and it's something you can really analyze.
And there is something about the computer medium that seemed to work with these characters
because they are all the same and they have a certain jumping quality to their movement."
Computer-generated animation did indeed turn out to be a good fit for the otherworldly
characters of Mars Attacks!, allowing it to serve as a shining example of the 90s CG boom.
"Funny little critters, ain't they?"
Mars Attacks! received mixed marks from critics upon its initial release, and the
Academy Awards have a long-standing hesitancy towards recognizing science fiction films.
When you consider these two facts together, it's awfully apparent that this film had
little hope of scoring some Oscars love. But there was still the possibility that
it could manage to snag a sliver of golden glory for a Best Visual Effects nomination.
This dream looked like it might become a reality when in January 1997, Variety reported that
Mars Attacks! was indeed one of seven movies shortlisted for a nomination in that category,
alongside the likes of Mission: Impossible and The Nutty Professor.
At the time, shortlisted titles were whittled down to three final nominees,
who would then compete on Oscar night. Considering that Burton's Batman Returns had been nominated
for Visual Effects a few years earlier, these hopes weren't without precedent. So a
golden trophy for Mars Attacks! really did seem possible within this brief window of optimism.
Sadly though, Mars Attacks! made it no further in the Oscar race.
When the official nominees for Best Visual Effects at the 69th Academy Awards were announced,
Independence Day, Twister, and Dragonheart made it in, while Mars Attacks! was nowhere to be found.
"What is wrong with you people?"
It's hard to imagine a Tim Burton movie without an accompanying score from composer Danny Elfman.
Over the decades, Elfman has translated Burton's distinctive spirit into a wide assortment of
music, ranging from the moodily epic cues of Batman movies to the darkly whimsical tones of
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. For Mars Attacks!, Elfman channeled mid-20th century
music to match the retro visual aesthetic of the film and pay tribute to its source material.
Even an unfinished clip from Mars Attacks! proved to be so vividly imagined that it
got Elfman's creative juices flowing. It was pretty much a piece of cake for
this experienced composer to conjure up the necessary music. As he told Collider in 2019,
"I saw the opening for Mars Attacks!, when Tim showed me just a simple pre-vis version,
and I said, 'Hold the film!' I ran out in the lobby of the theater, and I started making all
of these notes to myself, for what became the theme. Usually, it's much harder than that."
With this sudden burst of creativity,
one of the most unforgettable parts of Mars Attacks! was firmly cemented: the music.
By the time Mars Attacks! hit theaters in December 1996, Tim Burton had developed a reputation for
helming lucrative fare, thanks to the likes of Beetlejuice, Batman, and Batman Returns.
Alas, Mars Attacks! ended up being a step backwards in terms of box office prowess.
Grossing $37.7 million domestically,
the film ultimately earned just half of what Beetlejuice amassed eight years prior.
It also came in below what Batman and Batman Returns earned in just their opening weekends.
The zany comedic sensibilities of Mars Attacks! ended up resonating a little bit more overseas,
where the quirky feature grossed enough to put the worldwide box office total at $101 million.
Still, the lackluster financial reception remains notable, considering its pedigree in front of
and behind the camera. Perhaps Mars Attacks! was seen as too much of an
Independence Day clone by the general public. Maybe the exposed brains were a little too creepy.
Or perhaps its trading card origin was just too niche.
Here's one thing we do know for certain: December 1996 saw the release of a couple
of mega-hit movies in the forms of Jerry Maguire and Scream. Clearly, more moviegoers
rushed out to see those films instead of the considerably more expensive Mars Attacks!
Burton had already experienced box office disappointment a couple years earlier with Ed
Wood, but this was his first genuine attempted blockbuster to come up noticeably short.
"Why can't we all just get along?"
At the time of its release, critics praised Mars Attacks! for its visual effects and strong
performances, but they took umbrage with its emphasis on stylized dark gags over compelling
characters. All of the anarchic mayhem on display just wasn't to everyone's tastes.
These lukewarm notices made Mars Attacks! a noticeable step down
in terms of critical reception from prior Burton efforts like Beetlejuice.
But in the decades since it first hit theaters, Mars Attacks! has managed to endure
quite nicely in the public consciousness. Websites like Collider and Consequence have
published lengthy essays extolling its virtues, with the latter site praising it for how much it
commits to old-school cinema homages and gruesome violence. Steve Desch of Slate,
meanwhile, opined that Mars Attacks! has only grown more relevant since its 1996 debut,
thanks to its depiction of politicians as being utterly inept in the face of global catastrophe.
Desch also praised the film for committing to the idea that a war between otherworldly
invaders and human beings would be an incredibly one-sided affair in favor of the Martians.
The franchise's legacy can also be seen in the enduring popularity of the trading cards,
with new sets arriving in 2021. Mars Attacks! may not have been universally
beloved upon its initial release, but some of its most outlandish qualities
have aged remarkably well. Today, it's treasured by the fans who understand
what it's going for and recognize it as a standout effort in Burton's filmography.
"So I guess, like, now we just have to start over and start rebuilding everything."
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