What Parents Should Know
Parents need to know this movie was based on a notorious series of trading cards that were censored for gruesomeness, and director Tim Burton doesn't hold back: abundant cartoony violence includes people being turned into skeletons by a death ray, vivisection (and whimsical re-assembly) of living humans, Martians' brains swelling and bursting, and cruelty to (computer-generated) animals. In addition the filmmakers have added some prostitutes to the blend. There is a subtle anti-authoritarian tone that kids have the smarts to save the world after all the annoying adults are wiped out.

Parents can talk about the differences between this movie and Independence Day, and ask kids which one they enjoyed more, and why.

Common Sense Media Review
Director Tim Burton's dark sense of humor makes MARS ATTACKS! a must for the sort of young viewer who would rather read Famous Monsters of Filmland than Sports Illustrated. Remember "Sid," the twisted neighbor boy from Toy Story who liked to torture his playthings? This is his sort of alien-invasion film. Adults can enjoy it too, if they don't mind the subversive tone.

The movie is inspired by a famous series of trading cards issued from Topps in 1962 that made up a narrative, with horror-comic seriousness, about an invasion by death-ray wielding, skull-faced, big-brained Martians. Parents at the time protested the uncompromising violence of the little cardboard collectibles ("Destroying a Dog" was one self-explanatory specimen), and the cards were often censored from the marketplace. Burton borrows the cards' imagery and title, but adds his own edgy humor and career-long affection for underdog misfits.

With an all-star cast in so many subplots that the movie threatens to turn into a collection of sketch-bits rather than a coherent whole, MARS ATTACKS! begins with a fleet of Martian flying saucers encircling Earth. While a blustery general (Rod Steiger) warns the self-aggrandizing US president (Jack Nicholson) not to trust the grotesque little aliens, a scientist (Pierce Brosnan) assures that creatures so intelligent could not possibly mean us any harm. The Earth's nations try to give the creatures a friendly welcome again and again (this is a rarity, even in serious sci-fi pictures), but to no avail. The Martians actually are nasty varmints, who seem to take sadistic glee in faking out the humans with peace overtures, then opening fire with grisly death weapons. It's almost like the way the Road Runner would trick and torment Wile E. Coyote repeatedly, but on a planetary scale, and there is a Warner Brothers-Looney Tunes quality to the way the CGI Martians act and speak in short beep/barks.

Eventually the Martians overrun Washington D.C. and kill the president and declare victory, but their triumph is short-lived. A mopey, downtrodden boy named Richie (Lukas Haas, with vaguely Edward Scissorhands looks), constantly told by his obnoxious trailer-park family that he's worthless, is trying to save his beloved grandmother (whom the rest of the family marginalizes in a nursing home) from the Martians when he accidentally discovers that the old lady's favorite record -- Slim Whitman yodeling the old operetta solo "Indian Love Call" -- makes the Martians' brains explode (no, this part wasn't in the Topps cards!).

Richie spreads this news, and the Martian fleet is soon defeated. Richie and his grandma receive medals from the last surviving head of state, the teenage daughter (Natalie Portman) of the slain president. We get the impression she didn't like her own stuffy parents very much either.