Fly Me to the Moon bills itself as the first animated feature created expressly for 3-D. Too bad it wasn’t created expressly for, you know, pleasure or art.
Fly Me To The Moon (2008)
Theatrical Release: Aug 15, 2008 Limited
Box Office: $1,900,523
Synopsis:
In this groundbreaking 3-D animated adventure, three young flies set off on a courageous mission to become the first insects on the moon by hitching a ride on the historic Apollo 11 space flight. Based on the actual transcripts and the original blueprints from NASA, the film’s stunning...
In this groundbreaking 3-D animated adventure, three young flies set off on a courageous mission to become the first insects on the moon by hitching a ride on the historic Apollo 11 space flight. Based on the actual transcripts and the original blueprints from NASA, the film’s stunning visuals and meticulous attention to detail introduce a whole new generation to the awe-inspiring achievements of the space program’s most momentous mission.
The year is 1969 and like everyone else in the world, Nat (Trevor Gagnon) and his pals IQ (Philip Daniel Bolden) and Scooter (David Gore) are abuzz over the upcoming launch of the first manned mission to the moon. Inspired by his Grandpa’s (Christopher Lloyd) oft-told tale of hiding aboard Amelia Earhart’s plane during her famed solo cross-Atlantic flight, Nat hatches a secret plan for the three young flies to stow away on the Apollo 11 rocket.
Thinking the trip will be over in a matter of minutes, the fly boys—and their earthbound families—are shocked to learn they will be in space for closer to a week. When a N.A.S.A. Ground Control official catches sight of the three winged stowaways, he instructs the astronauts to store them in a test tube for later study. But after an electrical short causes the ship’s engine to malfunction, the three intrepid insects manage to escape from their glass mini-brig just in time to discover the wiring problem and fix it.
After a difficult lunar landing, Nat tags along with Neil Armstrong on his legendary moon walk. Although the flies face a few more close calls, the mission appears to be a success. At least until Grandpa’s old flame Nadia (Nicolette Sheridan) arrives from Russia to warn him that her government, angry over losing the space race, has dispatched fly-spy Yegor (Tim Curry) to Cape Canaveral to sabotage the computer flight plans. With the Apollo hurtling toward Earth, it falls to Nat’s family to save the mission—and the trio of brave flies—from disaster.
--© Summit Entertainment
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Genre: Childrens
Starring: Christopher Lloyd, Tim Curry, Nicollette Sheridan, Robert Patrick Benedict, Robert Patrick
Screenwriter: Domonic Paris
Producer: Charlotte Clay Huggins, Caroline Van Iseghem, Gina Gallo, Mimi Maynard
Reviews
The idiotic story and low-rent animation will bore children to tears.
Fly Me to the Moon is not a great movie. It's not even a good movie. It some ways, it's barely passable. Yet my litany of criticisms will fall on deaf ears - so long as those ears are attached to children roughly 5 to 10 years old.
Adults used to animation that runs on two tracks -- the upfront stuff for the tykes and a witty subtext to entertain big people -- may grow bored with the kid-leaning sensibility of Fly Me to the Moon.
It's not accurate history and doesn't have enough funny lines or bits to hold most adults' interest.
The cinematic equivalent of safety scissors -- all softened edges and no real point.
The animation is so stiff it makes South Park look like Walt Disney's Fantasia.
If only the first-ever animated 3-D movie had as great a story line as it does 3-D animation, we could have all gone to the movies this weekend and had a wonderful time.
Strictly one-dimensional in terms of characters and storytelling.
This 3-D feature boasts anthropomorphic insects as its main characters, and they aren't particularly endearing or funny.
The superior effects in Fly Me to the Moon reflect the talents of its creator, director Ben Stassen, who has been doing 3D for 14 years, mostly for science centers and museums.
For the first time in my experience, a 3-D movie felt bigger than my ability to take it all in.
The film's respect for its source material goes only so far before reducing everything to the level of an old-style Saturday-morning cartoon, complete with stock characters finding themselves in stock situations.
Anyone over the age of 8 is likely to be bored into madness by the lightweight puns that pass for real humor – WALL-E this ain't – and the film's overall "eh" quotient.
It's a great movie for kids, until you have to explain the knife fight and the Cold War. Can little Sammy spell shiv?
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