One of Tim Burton’s most creative pictures abandons his morbid-lite focus to find big fun in comic Sci-fi spectacle, a ‘Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad’ adaptation of a set of bubble gum cards.  It may not have been the movie-going flavor of the year in 1996, yet we’ll choose its affectionate satire over funereal gloom any time. Top star Jack Nicholson wasn’t the perfect fit, but his presence did attract a terrific ensemble cast: Annette Bening, Pierce Brosnan, Pam Grier, Glenn Close, Martin Short, Jim Brown, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michael J. Fox, Rod Steiger, Tom Jones, Lukas Haas, Natalie Portman, Lisa Marie, Sylvia Sidney, Danny DeVito, Paul Winfield, Jack Black, Joe Don Baker. Plus Danny Elfman’s marvelous soundtrack score.

Mars Attacks!
4K Ultra HD + Digital code
WB / Studio Distribution Services
1996 / Color / 2:39 widescreen / 106 min. / Street Date August 11, 2026
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, Annette Bening, Pierce Brosnan, Danny DeVito, Martin Short, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michael J. Fox, Rod Steiger, Tom Jones, Lukas Haas, Natalie Portman, Jim Brown, Lisa Marie, Sylvia Sidney, Paul Winfield, Pam Grier, Jack Black, Janice Rivera, Ray J, Brandon Hammond, Joe Don Baker, O-Lan Jones, Christina Applegate, Brian Haley, Jerzy Skolimowski, Timi Prulhiere, Barbet Schroeder, Rance Howard.
Cinematography: Peter Suschitzky
Production Designer: Wynn Thomas
Art Directors: John Dexter, James Hegedus
Costume Design: Colleen Atwood
Film Editor: Chris Lebenzon
Composer: Danny Elfman
Special & Visual Effects Supervisors: Michael Lantieri, David Andrews, Michael Fink, Jim Mitchell,
Screen story and screenplay by Jonathan Gems from the trading card series by Len Brown, Woody Gelman, Wally Wood, Bob Powell, Norm Saunders
Produced by Tim Burton, Larry Franco
Directed by Tim Burton

After his initial string of quirky hits  Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure,  Beetlejuice and  Batman, Cal Arts whiz kid Tim Burton hit commercial resistance with Ed Wood, an equally inspired comedy that was simply too hip for the audience. Burton would later do far worse, mainly with his re-do of Planet of the Apes. But his immediate follow-up  Mars Attacks! became a second debacle, both with the public and the critics as well. Mars Attacks! may be Tim Burton’s most-maligned movie — it’s only natural that it’s our favorite of his entire filmography.

I can only conclude that Mars Attacks! was made for a very select audience — namely ME. It is consistently smart, funny and delightful in almost every aspect. It zeroes in on the alien invasion formula in ways that just keep us smiling. The fan base for a far-out takeoff of old science fiction movies is somewhat limited, a drawback that was likely expected to be neutralized by Tim Burton’s stellar ensemble cast. Tim’s previous comedies illustrated simple story ideas with a wonderfully personal visual style, and his leading characters were always likeable and sympathetic. Mars Attacks! isn’t exactly warm and fuzzy source material. It is based on lurid bubble gum trading cards that grabbed kids with exploitative content, mainly gore. Victims are disintegrated with death rays, while trembling women are menaced by rapacious skull-headed Martians — you know, the subtle approach. It’s a three-ring circus spoofing alien invasion clichés, as might an old Mad magazine article. The humor is scattershot and no one character serves as an emotional focus. Critics thought the movie simply squandered its talented cast.

The jokes play off of older sci-fi invasion movies and lampoon the idiocy of new ones, like the previous year’s  Independence Day. That cornball mass of plagiarism pandered to audiences with a patriotic theme: the stalwart U.S. President (a pilot like the Bushes) makes a defiant last stand against an invading armada. Tim Burton’s epic comedy takes the opposite viewpoint, envisioning our government and its President as incompetent clowns. A flag should have dropped right there, as the attitude is too much like that of the ill-fated  ‘1941’.  That ‘comedy spectacular’ made fun of patriotic fervor in the wake of the war panic that followed the Pearl Harbor attack. It is no wonder that the public did not find it amusing. Spielberg never again attempted that kind of daring, irreverent satire.

Jonathan Gems’ Mars Attacks! will be catnip to fans of old alien invasion movies. Sneaky, skeletal-faced Martians invade, determined to exterminate all puny Earthlings. When told that thousands of flying saucers have the Earth surrounded, President James Dale (Jack Nicholson) ignores the warnings of the hawkish General Decker (Rod Steiger). He instead lays out a welcome mat, as advised by Science Advisor Professor Donald Kessler (Pierce Brosnan) and glad-handing press secretary Jerry Ross (Martin Short). President Dale’s disaffected daughter Taffy (Natalie Portman, adorable) isn’t impressed. The snooty First Lady Marsha Dale (Glenn Close, riffing on Nancy Reagan) merely expresses disgust at the Martian Ambassador’s cadaverous looks.

The government and the media go into action when the Martians relay landing coordinates just outside of Las Vegas. Chosen to perform greeter duty is General Casey (Paul Winfield), a suck-up careerist (and a clear marker for Colin Powell). The sidelined General Decker fumes that he’s being ignored. New York news anchor Jason Stone (Michael J.Fox) is upset that his wife Nathalie Lake (Sarah Jessica Parker), the ditzy star of a brainless talk show, is given equal status in the network coverage. Jason is also upset that Nathalie appears to be carrying on a flirtation with Donald Kessler.

In Vegas, the honest retired boxer Byron Williams (Jim Brown) has taken a humbling job working the floor of an Egypt-themed casino. Byron wants to convince his ex-wife Louise (Pam Grier) that he’s reformed and will be a good father to his two boys, and resists a crooked job offered by the corrupt hotel promoter Art Land (Jack Nicholson again). Art’s alcoholic wife Barbara (Annette Bening) attends AA meetings and is into New Age spiritualism. Convinced that the Martians are here to save the environment, Barbara anticipates the big landing as the chance for humanity to redeem itself.

The Norris family of Middle America are gun-toting trailer trash. Dad (Joe Don Baker) proudly sends his moronic older son Billy Glenn (Jack Black) back to army duty. He and his lazy wife Sue Ann (O-Lan Jones) are proud that Billy Glenn is participating in ‘Martian Landing Duty.’  They shake their heads in shame at their other son, the inoffensive Richie (Lukas Haas), the only family member to decently treat old Granma Florence (Sylvia Sidney).

When the Martians land, nothing goes as planned. Promising peace, the Martians wipe out the first reception gathering with blasts from their ray guns. Nathalie is captured and taken prisoner by the lascivious Martian Ambassador. Foolishly concluding that the massacre was a cultural misunderstanding, President Dale allows a second landing — on Capitol Hill. After a failed Presidential assassination attempt by an alien disguised as a sexy woman (Lisa Marie), the Martians launch a wholesale attack. The United States fights back — but can do little to keep the Beltway, Las Vegas and Richie’s hometown from being blown to bits. The First Family is in the White House when the little green men shoot their way in. Trapped in a Vegas casino, Barbara, entertainer Tom Jones (himself), a rude gambler (Danny DeVito) and Byron Williams fight their way to an airfield, and possible escape!

Mars Attacks! gets off on the wrong hoof with an unfunny gag about a burning herd of cattle. It’s taken directly from the original Trading Cards, which were obsessively sick/perverse … but in a Good way!  The movie steers most of the Cards’ edgier material into knockabout comedy mode. Jonathan Gems’ script gives every character a funny mannerism to play. We like the sweet, cute and principled humans played by Lukas Haas, Sylvia Sidney, Jim Brown and Pam Grier. Annette Bening is particularly adorable, and it’s fun to see future big stars like Natalie Portman, Sarah Jessica Parker and Jack Black strut their stuff while scoring satirical points.

The script takes no coherent political position — it’s all for fun. Our ‘good’ characters are all for peace and love. The film invents an Oval Office committed to do-nothing pacifism, a stance that doesn’t align with any recent administration, of either major party. With generals fighting for the President’s attention and the First Lady making a royal ass of herself, the only sane person in the Executive Branch appears to be the moody First Daughter, Taffy.

Martin Short’s hilariously happy-faced Press Secretary brings in a sleazy (and prophetic) Presidential sex angle. He frequents ‘The Kennedy Room,’  a secret White House sex retreat complete with Lounge Music and a dreamy fish tank lifted directly from a 1960s make-out classic. The episode provides yet another demented role for Lisa Marie, after her winning turn as Vampira in Burton’s Ed Wood. Nothing quite like her Martian Mata Hari has ever been seen, before or since.

Talk about catching the vibe that Americans hate their politicians … the movie expects us to think it’s hilarious when red and blue Martian death rays annihilate the entire Legislative Branch. TV viewers everywhere are shown cheering, even dear old Granma Norris. It’s just sad — a joke that would appeal to mean-spirited extremists, a year after the  bombing of the Oklahoma Federal building. But these are ‘jokes of convenience,’ as opposed to an author making a political case. Burton and Gems’ gleeful mud-throwing at the known-nothing values of the ‘deplorable’ Norris family does nothing to heal resentment in an ever-more polarized America.

Tim Burton’s show is a slapstick comedy for the arts ‘n’ cinema crowd. The laughs in Mars Attacks! frequently hit perfect pitch, as when Louise’s mischievous boys prove to be Top Gun Martian killers. We like the silly inter-lingual communication device that translates the Martian Ambassador’s ‘Ack-Ack’ squawking into the statement  “For dark is the suede that mows like a harvest.”  The eccentric inventor of the translator is played by the famed Czech filmmaker Jerzy Skolimowski. Later on, director Barbet Schroeder participates in a funny cameo as the French president.

I think it very touching that, in the ruins of Washington, D.C., First Daughter Taffy Dale would flirt with the introverted Richie Norris, he in his day-glow Outer Limits T-shirt and she rising to the occasion as the only semi-official personage left alive in the Federal Government. A band of Mariachis — are they guesting from Ed Wood? — is the only music group that could be scraped together for the occasion. Now is that a perfect picture, or what?

The special effects take us directly into cartoon land ans Wallace Wood illustrations from vintage Mad magazines. The flying saucers come straight from Ray Harryhausen but other design exaggerations are gleaned from Warners Duck Dodgers cartoons — goofy cartoonaroonie paraphernalia like the saucers’ silly folding landing gear. Considering the state of digital effects in 1996, the Martians are wonderful little skull-faced ghouls. The pop-eyed buggers could have been painted by  Ed “Big Daddy” Roth. Just for fun, when a Martian ray gun zaps an unlucky victim, the color of the skeleton that remains depends on which blaster was used, a green one or a red one.

Tim Burton & Jonathan Gems’ references to varied Sci-fi pix are many, and some are endearingly obscure. Shots of a medical crew performing an alien autopsy seem to riff on the ‘stylish irrelevance’ of technical jargon in movies designed to impress adolescent viewers. The minimalist operating room set reminds us of the hyper-futuristic art direction in Robert Wise’s  The Andromeda Strain.  →  The finale shows cute animals emerging from the Martian war rubble. It harmonizes with Annette Bening’s New Age bliss, recalling the ‘life goes on’ cliché so nicely stated at the end of the classic  Crack in the World. How Tom Jones’ signature tune “It’s Not Unusual!” fits in is not at all clear — it must be a Tim Burton off-the-wall favorite.

Most of the comedy is not arbitrary or scattershot, but tailored to the individual stars. Sarah Jessica Parker’s lampoon of an airhead TV personality includes a tiny yapping dog. Pierce Brosnan’s pipe-smoking science whiz looks like a 1950’s magazine illustration come to life. Then there are goofy one-off jokes such as the Easter Island bowling alley, a gag that plays like a reject from Gary Larson’s The Far Side. Considering that stupid movies that got made, from the most depressing non-literary sources, the Mars Attacks! movie arranges a disorganized set of bubble gum cards into a remarkably entertaining satirical comedy.

The effects are often breathtaking, especially when set off by Danny Elfman’s eerie, commanding music score, an affectionate blend of Bernard Herrmann and martial themes. The set pieces are often awesome, as when Rod Steiger’s machine gun draws a bead on a retreating saucer, or when the sick-o Martian vivisectionists swap heads and bodies between a screaming Earth woman and her pet Chihuahua. It’s conceptually outrageous, but the digital animation makes it work. Tim Burton doesn’t use CGI for everything. An impressive crashing saucer is a large organic model, and an exploding Big Ben in London is a beautiful work of miniature art glimpsed far too briefly.

What doesn’t work? [ We naturally reject the notion that the answer is the whole movie. ] Jack Nicholson plays two roles, and isn’t given enough substance to play in either. His President quickly becomes an irritating idiot, that we wish could be put out of his misery sooner. But Nicholson’s flaky developer Art Land is even worse, a total flop. The character lacks any point whatsoever, except perhaps to take advantage of footage filmed of the demolition of a real Vegas casino-hotel. Burton and Nicholson seem to have decided to have Art Land imitate the screwball mime gags of Michael Keaton in  Beetlejuice, right down to small details. It’s not at all funny. For all we know, Nicholson just liked Keaton’s Betelgeuse schtick so much that he wanted to do it himself … ?

When it comes down to it, I guess this is all a matter of taste. Every movie made has the perfect audience waiting out there somewhere, and it’s to my benefit that Tim Burton made Mars Attacks! just for me.  The audience I saw it with loved it, and laughed and cheered at appropriate places, from the title sequence forward. It launches the movie in high style, with Danny Elfman’s wild main title music backing the dizzying spectacle of a massive Martian armada en route to Terra Firma.

As it turned out, my 11 year-old son happened to see Mars Attacks! before me. So he got to repeat my own 8 year-old experience, going by myself to see  The Mysterians. The next weekend I rushed back with him and his older brother so we could see it together. I ran straight to Aaron’s records to get the soundtrack CD … and then waited several months for it to be released.

Thirty years later (!!!) Mars Attacks now plays as a breathaking parade of major stars having fun, a Sci-fi thriller take on  It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World. Tim Burton’s ‘actors going crazy’ are just as endearing as Stanley Kramer’s, and the character comedy is definitely more focused than that in Spielberg’s ‘1941’.  They all belong in the same orbit of madcap spectacle.

WB / Studio Distribution Services’ 4K Ultra HD + Digital code of Mars Attacks! surprises us with its visual improvement on the very good 2010 Blu-ray. Both it and the original DVD were on the bright side, but the wider range of contrast in UHD allows more scenes to skew dark without losing detail or dimensionality. Since so many effects are purposely cartoonish — the animation of the Martians themselves, to begin with — we are surprised by the overall graphic sophistication on view. The original bubble gum cards were an epic of bad taste, ‘fun’ reading material frowned on by adults. Burton’s movie is an ode to everything wonderful in Earth Invasion pix.

Danny Elfman’s music score actually gets the film’s first big laugh, behind those thousands of ‘shiny hubcap’ ships gaily saucering their way towards Earth, in formations that resemble sets of bowling pins. The cards were a sick joke, but the movie is a giddy delight.

Favorite toy from 1996. But are the rays it shoots red, or green?  →

Mars Attacks! was one of Warners’ first DVDs released in 1997. It had a few cute extras, including a ‘Martian language’ gag dialogue track, that we’re sorry hasn’t been replicated here. The Blu-ray had no extras at all, but the 4K disc does carry a couple of featurettes that round up interviews from some of the filmmakers. One piece goes into the physical production, and the other begins with Jonathan Gems explaining how the show came about.

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Mars Attacks!
4K Ultra HD + Digital code rates:
Movie: Excellent
Video: Excellent
Sound: Excellent
Featurette Supplements:
Looking Back on Mars Attacks!
Ack! Ack! Aesthetic.
Deaf and Hearing-impaired Friendly? YES; Subtitles: English (feature only)
Packaging: One 4K Ultra HD + Digital code in Keep case
Reviewed: August 15, 2026
(7569mars)

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