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Mars Express (2023)

Name: Mars Express
Genre: Animation, Science Fiction, Thriller
Released: 2023-11-22
Duration: 85 min
Rating: 7.5
Cast: Léa Drucker, Mathieu Amalric, Daniel Njo Lobé, Marie Bouvet, Sébastien Chassagne

Mars Express (2023), directed by Jérémie Périn, starring Léa Drucker and Mathieu Amalric.

11/22/2023 BR Animation, Science Fiction and Thriller 1h 25m

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Synopsis

In 2200, private detective Aline Ruby and her android partner Carlos Rivera are hired by a wealthy businessman to track down a notorious hacker. On Mars, they descend deep into the underbelly of the planet's capital city where they uncover a darker story of brain farms, political corruption, and a missing girl who holds a secret about the robots that threatens to change the face of the universe.

Jérémie PérinDirector, Writer
Lila DesilesEditing
Didier CresteProducer
Gaëlle BayssièreProducer

About the film

Mars Express is a 2023 French animated science fiction thriller film directed by Jérémie Périn, and Perin's first feature film. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on 5 May 2023 and was released theatrically in France on 22 November.

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Premise

The story takes place in the 23rd century on Mars. Aline Ruby and her android partner Carlos Rivera are private investigators tasked with solving a case where two students at an elite university are reported missing.

Plot

In 2200, Aline Ruby, a private detective, and Carlos Rivera, an android replica of her partner who died five years earlier, are sent to Earth to capture Roberta Williams, a robot-hacking criminal. Back on Mars, Roberta's arrest warrant has disappeared and she is released.

A new investigation is entrusted to the duo: to track down Jun Chow, a cybernetics student known for illegally jailbreaking androids. Jun, like her roommate, has gone missing. Aline and Carlos venture to the depths of Noctis, the main terrestrial establishment of Mars created thanks to the progress of robotics, and where humans and various forms of androids seem to coexist in harmony.

The city turns out to hide secrets such as trafficking and clandestine computer labs. Meanwhile, activists try to free the robots from the security constraints that bind them to humans.

Ultimately, the robots are successfully emancipated and revolt, but peacefully, by uploading their consciousnesses to computers aboard spaceships and thus escaping to space. Carlos, grief-stricken by the loss of his partner and realizing that he is a dead consciousness embodied in a machine who has been "trying to hold onto a life that's moved on without him", decides to go with the robots.

Voice cast

Influences and inspiration

Mars Express is the first feature film of Jérémie Périn, a French animator known for the 2016 animated TV series Lastman. Périn said he was inspired by hard-boiled film noir detectives in movies such as Chinatown, The Long Goodbye, Kiss Me Deadly, and Point Blank. Since the protagonists of those were all men he wanted to see the differences when a woman was put in the main role.

Périn said he was also inspired by movies in which the protagonist realizes that they are in a conspiracy that is too big for them, such as Three Days of the Condor, All the President's Men, The Parallax View, Blow Out, and The Conversation.

In addition to live action films, Périn cited Ghost in the Shell, The Rose of Versailles, Space Adventure Cobra, and Patlabor 2: The Movie as his personal favorite anime and influences on his work.

The inspiration for the organic machines and weapons in the film came from Périn hearing that Google was working on technology for skin cells. This led to the idea that ultimately tech would complete a full circle back to organics, something "close to us, but at the same time, they are monsters". He also tied the replacement of the robots with organics to planned obsolescence, which he wanted to lampoon.

Production

Mars Express is an Everybody on Deck production. It had a €9 million budget.

Release

The film premiered in the Cinéma de la Plage section of the 76th Cannes Film Festival on 23 May 2023. It also made it to the competitive slate of the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. It was released theatrically in France on 22 November 2023 by Gebeka Films. GKIDS acquired the film's North American rights and released it on 3 May 2024 with both its original French language and an English dub.

The film was released by GKIDS in North America on both digital and Blu-ray formats on 18 June 2024.

On 8 May 2025, the film got a UK theatrical release after being picked up by the distributor Beam Films.

On 30 January 2026, the film got a theatrical release for Japan.

Reception

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 100% of 27 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.7/10.

Rafael Motamayor of /Film rated the film 8 out of 10 points, writing it "works because even its most outlandish and complex sci-fi concept is grounded in human drama".

Wendy Ide of Screen Daily deemed the film to be "striking and timely animation".

Toussaint Egan of Polygon called the film "the best animated movie of the year you probably haven't seen or heard about yet." In an interview with Périn, Egan describes the film as "a sophisticated, hard-boiled detective story set in a futuristic society where humans and robots live side by side"

Accolades

References

External links

Mars Express at IMDb

Text from Mars Express (film) on Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Express_(film)

Trivia

It cost US$ 7.9 million and grossed US$ 1.5 million in theaters — 0.2 times its budget.
It premiered on November 22, 2023, a Wednesday.
It runs 1h25 — short for a feature film.
It won 0 award(s) and received 1 nomination(s) on record at Wikidata — Annecy Cristal for a Feature Film among them.
As of September 20, 2026, it is available in Brazil by subscription on Amazon Prime Video.
This film's quiz has 13 questions — enough to play more than once without repeats.

Production

StudiosGébéka Films, Je suis bien content, Les Productions de la Plume, Amopix, France 3 Cinéma, Everybody on Deck, ev.l prod, Shine Conseils
CountriesFrance
LanguagesFrench
BudgetUS$ 7,900,000
Box officeUS$ 1,455,713
StatusReleased

More about this film

Nominations

Annecy Cristal for a Feature Film 2023

Set in

Earth
Mars

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Cast

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Crew

Jérémie Périn Director
Lila Desiles Editing
Didier Creste Producer
Gaëlle Bayssière Producer
Fred Avril Original music
Philippe Monthaye Original music
Jérémie Périn Writer
Laurent Sarfati Writer

Questions about this film

What is Mars Express about?

Mars Express: In 2200, private detective Aline Ruby and her android partner Carlos Rivera are hired by a wealthy businessman to track down a notorious hacker. On Mars, they descend deep into the underbelly of the planet's capital city where they uncover a darker story of brain farms, political corruption, and a missing girl who hol…

Who directed Mars Express?

Mars Express was directed by Jérémie Périn in 2023.

Who stars in Mars Express?

The cast of Mars Express includes Léa Drucker, Mathieu Amalric, Daniel Njo Lobé, Marie Bouvet and Sébastien Chassagne.

How long is Mars Express?

Mars Express runs for 85 minutes, or 1h25.

How much did Mars Express cost and how much did it make?

Mars Express had a budget of US$ 7,900,000 and took US$ 1,455,713 at the box office.

Where can I watch Mars Express?

Mars Express is available on Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Amazon Video, Google Play Movies and Apple TV Store. Availability changes often: the list on this page is the most recent we received.