Mars Attacks! is certainly one of director Tim Burton’s most bizarre movies, which is really saying something. Let’s revisit the quirky sci-fi film with these 10 behind-the-scenes facts!
7The martian dialogue was a happy accident
One of the more interesting characteristics of the Martians in the film is the way they speak. They talk merely by saying, “Ack, ack, ack,” over and over again in an oddly humorous way. The studio wanted closed captions to decipher what the aliens were saying, but Burton insisted on going without. All viewers are left with to try and figure out what’s being said is to listen to the tone of the repeated noises.
This iconic dialect came into the movie as a happy accident of sorts. Uncredited screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski say they were the ones who came up with the sound, writing it into the script as placeholder dialogue for the aliens. In contrast to that, Tim Burton also claims that the dialogue came about when someone read them that way for an audio recording they were doing for a storyboard reel. Either way, the bizarre dialogue is perfect for the Martians.
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