Mars Express (2023) Cyberpunk Animated Film – Blu-ray Review

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

A French animated film from director Jérémie Périn, Mars Express is a cyberpunk mystery with heavy influence from the classic Ghost in the Shell anime film by Oshii Mamoru.

In 2200, the elites have abandoned Earth for Mars, served by androids now indistinguishable from humans. Troubled private detective Aline Ruby (voiced by Léa Drucker) and her android partner Carlos (voiced by Daniel Njo Lobé), a backup of her partner who died several years earlier, are hired by a wealthy businessman to hunt down a notorious hacker who has been freeing androids from the constraints placed on them that keep them from attacking humans. While investigating, the partners get drawn into a conspiracy in the Mars underworld when they must work to find a cybernetics student who mysteriously disappeared. Tensions build between the humans and the androids, and the situation on Mars turns increasingly volatile.

Mars Express is gorgeously animated with stunning artwork and interesting character designs. Carlos, with his holographic head floating over a robotic body, the visual symbolism of his disembodiment, transhumanism. These visual strengths are what bolster the more mundane story of Mars Express, which leans heavily on the cyberpunk philosophizing of Ghost in the Shell and Blade Runner, with its pondering of what it means to be human, and the clashes between the haves and have nots. Even the visual cues are quite familiar, from the use of neon lights to the randomly placed Chinese characters or the shape of objects that Carlos must battle looking suspiciously similar to mechs from Oshii’s film. Despite the similarities, Mars Express manages to stand on its own, even if it does lose energy at times. It redeems itself with an interesting and thought provoking finale that brings into question thoughts on life, death, and afterlife.

The Video

The digital animation for Mars Express is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.00:1 in an AVC 1080p encodement on Blu-ray. Apart from some very slight and rare banding in some background fills, this is an excellent transfer free from noise, aliasing, and posterization. The line art looks crisp, and colors can look rich when they need to be.

Purchase Mars Express on Blu-ray at Amazon.com

The Audio

Mars Express comes with the original French-language soundtrack and an English dub both in lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1. I used the French audio as my reference and sampled the English audio throughout. We get a well-balanced, lushly reverberant mix that has bombastic low frequencies, lots of movement through the surrounds, and clear dialogue. It is not all in-your-face, however, there is also subtlety, as the mix can get whisper quiet at times and still carry a lot of information in all the channels. This is the sort of mix one wants for an animated film like this.

The Supplements

There is not much included on the disc, but the scene breakdowns and “classic games” featurette with the director are interesting inclusions. For a limited time a fold-out poster is also included inside.

• Let’s Play Classic Games with Director Jérémie Périn (1080p; 00:36:45)
• Director Scene Breakdown – Opening Scene (1080p; 00:13:37)
• Director Scene Breakdown – Sequence 78 (1080p; 00:16:18)
• 13.812″ x 11.469″ fold-out poster included for a limited time, featuring the cover artwork.

The Final Assessment

Fans of cyberpunk and anime will find a lot to enjoy in this visually engaging animated film and the Blu-ray is a satisfying experience for the home theater.

Mars Express is out on Blu-ray June 18, 2024 from Shout! Studios

Purchase Mars Express on Blu-ray at Amazon.com

• Rating Certificate: Not Rated
• Animation Studio: Everybody on Deck
• Distributor: GKIDS | Shout! Studios
• Director: Jérémie Périn
• Written By: Laurent Sarfati | Jérémie Périn
• Run Time: 89 Mins.
• Street Date: 18 June 2024
• Aspect Ratio: 2.00:1
• Video Format: AVC 1080p
• Primary Audio: French Dolby TrueHD 5.1
• Secondary Audio: English Dolby TrueHD 5.1
• Subtitles: English SDH | English for Original Language Version | Spanish for Original Language Version