Review: Mars is a wild, hilarious ride to the Red Planet

I'm not familiar with The Whitest Kids U' Know, though I've heard of them, and heard good things. I know Zach Cregger from his recent horror hits Barbarian and Weapons, but that's the closest I've gotten to them, until now. Ironically, my introduction the comedy troupe's work is also their final piece, as founding member Trevor Moore sadly passed away a few years ago, and without him, the group won't continue. The animated comedy Mars is certainly a high note to go out on, and it's made me eager to go back and experience more of WKUK's work. If it's at all like Mars, I know I'm in for a treat.

What I love more about Mars (and there is so much to love here) is how it just completely goes for it. This is a movie that wants to make you laugh, and is willing to go anywhere and mine anything that might deliver the comedic goods. I haven't laughed this much at a movie in a while, and it kept surprising and delighting me with where and how it found laughs. This movie is, in a lot of ways, so gleefully stupid. But that stupidity is also the brilliance. It's a science, honestly, and obviously an art. It takes really smart, funny people to craft something that feels this effortlessly silly and dumb and weird. 

Directed by Sevan Najarian and written by Moore, Cregger, and Sam Brown, Mars has a great scrappy feel to it. The animation isn't super sophisticated, but it has a nice style to it, and it gets the job done. It feels like it perfectly fits the proceedings. This is a movie that doesn't take itself seriously, but is serious about telling a fun story and delivering laughs, and the look is exactly right. It falls somewhere between say, an Adult Swim show and something of a more online origin. It reminded me most, in a lot of ways, of a wonderful indie animated feature from a few years ago, Zach Passero's The Weird Kidz, which had a similar charming roughness in its animation and wild abandon in its writing. 

Mars feels current without getting bogged down in the seriousness of its thematic considerations, namely the corporatization of the sciences. The film focuses on a cleverly named billionaire, Elron Branson, who is looking to take a group of civilians on the first manned mission to Mars. Anyone can enter, and our protagonist, Kyle, does so because he can already see his entire life stretching out before him. He has a good job, a fiancée, everything neat and tidy and ready to go. He dreads it, wants to break free, wants to have an adventure. So he enters the contest to join the crew, despite the spaceship leaving on his wedding day. As you might guess, he ends up on the ship, alongside a colorful cast of characters.

Part of why Mars works so beautifully is how well-defined the characters are, and that so much of the comedy stems from their unique personalities and their individual arcs, rather than relying on referential humor and broader gags (although both of those factor into the movie, too, and quite well). There's a character who wants to make Mars the first fully-Christian planet, and then has a crisis of faith when he realizes that the Bible explicitly references Earth but not other planets in its teachings. Another character is a Kimmy Schmidt-type, who has recently been freed after a lifetime of being locked up in her parents' basement. It's impressive how these characters are so far-out and wild, but feel grounded and like real people.

I also appreciated how often surprising the movie is in its plotting, with some really fun twists and turns, and some shocking bits of violence and gore. This is a movie that doesn't ever waste a moment. There's always something interesting or funny happening, forward momentum in the plot, a clever gag. This is such tight filmmaking, and it's a pleasure to behold.

I want to give examples of some of the best bits and jokes, but it feels like it would be a disservice to a movie that's this hilarious and strange. I'll just give some vague shout-outs to acronyms and twinks, and a particular line that made me cackle: "It's almost too simple."

That line perhaps represents the beauty of Mars, a movie that does everything it's doing so well, so seemingly effortlessly, that it's almost tempting to call it simple, these guys make it look so easy. I know it had to be anything but, and I so admire the work that went into making this zany, off-the-rails comedy a reality. As the final project featuring the talents of Trevor Moore (he's one of the voices alongside the rest of the WKUK crew), and the final project from WKUK, it's a very high note to end on.

The film is currently touring around the country, kicking off in LA tonight, before its national release on March 13. A Blu-ray of the film featuring more than 9 hours of extras will be released on March 10. So however you can see this movie, do yourself a favor and see it. You can find tour dates and more info here.