History YMMV / MarsAttacks

** The PracticalEffects and the miniature work look quite good, pretty on par with those from ''Independence Day'', and the destruction of the Galaxy Hotel was a real Las Vegas hotel with its (already scheduled in advance) demolition filmed by the movie crew.

** Some of the CGI effects used in the film are a bit dated, but the look and feel of the movie make them NarmCharm for the most part... except for the CGI dove moments before the Martian Ambassador kills it. That bird looks like something straight out of the early WesternAnimation/PixarShorts.

* SpecialEffectsFailure: In the scene where one of the aliens is disguised as a human girl, she's constantly chewing on gum (as explained later, she needs it to breathe). Later, Martin Short's character flirts with her and puts his finger in her mouth, which she bites off. As he removes his hand, he rips off part of her fake skin, exposing the alien jaw. She is then seen still chewing on the gum. However, the exposed alien teeth remain closed the whole time, while they should be shown chewing.

** The destruction of the Galaxy Hotel was a real Las Vegas hotel with its (already scheduled in advance) demolition filmed by the movie crew.

** The destruction montage also contains very blatant stock footage from Hindis at a mass gathering and two shots from ''Film/RapaNui1994''.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: Released a few months after ''Film/IndependenceDay'', the biggest hit of its year, ''Mars Attacks!'' flopped in theatres in the US. It did much better business in Europe and has since become a regular favorite on satellite movie channels.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Creator/JackBlack, Ray J and Creator/SarahJessicaParker (to a lesser extent) were not famous when this movie came out and would only later be recognized, making this all-star cast even more impressive. Creator/NataliePortman is a downplayed example as she was decently known but not nearly as big as she would become in the years since.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Creator/JackBlack, Ray J and Creator/SarahJessicaParker (to a lesser extent) were not famous when this movie came out and would only later be recognized, making this all-star cast even more impressive.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: GeneralRipper Decker is a SatelliteCharacter to President Dale, but he's one of the film's best-liked characters due to his hilarious LargeHam personality and how he's the only character to be ProperlyParanoid about the Martians in the first act.

** Was the translation machine built by the scientists actually effective at translating their messages, making the Martians [[BlatantLies lying liars]] or was it just consistently mistranslating their warnings of impending doominess as messages of peace or did the Martians have some sort of Bizzaro language in which they always said the opposite of what they really meant?
** The "international sign of the donut" was likely a sincere gesture in which the parties agree to war, though it does not seem to matter to the Martians whether the humans understand that or not.
** Also the scene where the translation machine was used to translate the Martian leader's broadcast. [[TranslationTrainWreck The translation made no sense]], so it seems more likely the machine just didn't work. Then again, maybe they were just intentionally saying nonsense [[AliensAreBastards just to screw with the humans]], having gathered on [[GullibleLemmings they forgave too easily]]? Or again, perhaps the machine simply had not quite locked onto the language yet.

** Do the [[spoiler: Martians' heads rupture]] from a specific frequency and pitch of the sound waves from Slim Whitman's vibrato or is it more that the music is so terrible to them, it actually triggers a physiological reaction?

** The Martian Leader's angry reaction by the Martian Girl's death. Is he genuine touched by the death of his best spy who was probably a good friend of his (or maybe even more) and thus he wants to avenge her or is he simply furious because the assassination attempt failed ?