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Mars Express (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.

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==
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 who, 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==
Voice cast
==Influences and inspiration==
Influences and inspiration
Mars Express is the first feature film of Jérémie Périn, a French animator known for the 2016 animated TV series Lastman. 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==
Production
Mars Express is an Everybody on Deck production. ==Release==
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==
Reception
Critical response 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 ==See also==
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