For the final fifth birthday episode, Disney could see that motion capture was quickly becoming the next big thing for animation, and they wanted in. They teamed up with Robert Zemeckis to make A Christmas Carol, and then Mars Needs Moms, based on a children's book, written to persuade a young child to eat his vegetables.

But Mars Needs Moms would not only be incredibly dark for a family animated film, and venture deep into the realms of the uncanny valley, it would also become a huge box office bomb for Disney, affecting their next Martian-set movie John Carter, and who Disney now do their best to avoid promoting in any way as their own...