TRAILER OF THE DAY: Berkeley Breathed's 'Mars Needs Moms,' Disney-style

Comic Riffs has wondered since it was announced: Just how would Berkeley Breathed's children's book "Mars Needs Moms" look as a Disney film, as produced by Robert Zemeckis? Might the style look like Zemeckis's "The Polar Express," perhaps, or the even-more-detailed performance-capture of "A Christmas Carol"?

Now we have our answer: The motion-capture humans in "Mars Needs Moms" -- featuring the voices of Seth Green, Joan Cusack and Dan Fogler -- look much livelier than the beings in "Polar Express." So we look forward to the 3-D film's release in March, even while pining still for an animated film as warm as Breathed's own superb illustrations.

When we asked the "Opus" cartoonist last month what it was like entrusting his tale to the Mouse House and Zemeckis's ImageMovers Digital studio, he told Comic Riffs:

"This is like throwing my daughter into a pit of tattoo artists and hoping I'll still recognize her after pulling her out. I just hope that they don't draw flaming skulls all over her forehead.

"On the other hand, it's Disney and Zemeckis running the place. I can't wait."