Roving Mars

Not to be confused with Mission to Mars.

Roving Mars
Directed by	George Butler
Written by	Robert Andrus George Butler
Produced by	George Butler Frank Marshall
Narrated by	Paul Newman (introduction only)
Cinematography	T.C. Christensen
Edited by	Nancy Baker
Music by	Philip Glass Sigur Rós
Production companies	Walt Disney Pictures White Mountain Films The Kennedy/Marshall Company
Distributed by	Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
Release date	January 27, 2006 (2006-01-27)
Running time	40 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$1 million
Box office	$11 million

Roving Mars is a 2006 American IMAX documentary film about the development, launch, and operation of the Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. The film uses few actual photographs from Mars, opting to use computer generated animation based on the photographs and data from the rovers and other Mars probes. The film has been released on Blu-ray disc by distributor Disney.

Roving Mars has made over US$10 million as of January 25, 2009.

Roving Mars is also the title of a non-fiction book by MER principal investigator Steve Squyres about the rover mission.

Music

The musical score for Roving Mars was composed by Philip Glass. A soundtrack album was released by Lakeshore Records on June 27, 2006. The album also features the song "Glósóli" by Sigur Rós.

Reception

Roving Mars received positive reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes reports a 70% rating based on 37 reviews, with an average rating of 6.8/10. Its consensus states that "Roving Mars is a decent thrill ride even when it starts feeling like a commercial plug for NASA's failing space program."

Entertainment Weekly gave the film a B−, stating that "Only a series of pics featuring a set of strange little nodes that look like blueberries planted in a pile of red rocks carry any kind of translatable otherworldly kick." The New York Post called it a "splendidly photographed 2D IMAX film." The Boston Globe said "Despite audiences knowing the happy ending from the get-go, [director] [George] Butler manages to inject considerable drama."

Conversely, the Los Angeles Times claimed, "Not having a way to capture images of the machines at work means that too much of Butler's film... is disappointingly made up of computer simulations.", while the San Francisco Chronicle claimed that "There aren't enough pyrotechnics in the paltry 40-minute run time to justify the ticket price."

External links

• Official website
• Roving Mars at IMDb
• Boston Globe article about the development of the film