3-D has yet to shake its cheese factor, though, to the credit of director Ben Stassen, an Imax movie pioneer, the new digital process often works with popcorn-dropping effect.
Fly Me To The Moon (2008)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:76
Fresh:13
Rotten:63
Average Rating:3.9/10
Consensus: Flatly animated and indifferently scripted, Fly Me To the Moon offers little for audiences not comprised of very young children.
Australian Rating: G
Genre: Childrens
Australian Theatrical Release:
Sep 25, 2008 Wide
US Box Office: $13,592,311
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. ...
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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Starring: Christopher Lloyd, Tim Curry, Nicollette Sheridan, Robert Patrick Benedict
Starring: Christopher Lloyd, Tim Curry, Nicollette Sheridan, Robert Patrick Benedict, Robert Patrick, Kelly Ripa, Adrienne Barbeau, Ed Begley
Director: Ben Stassen
Director: Ben Stassen
Screenwriter: Domonic Paris
Producer: Charlotte Clay Huggins, Caroline Van Iseghem, Gina Gallo, Mimi Maynard
Studio: Summit Entertainment
Reviews for Fly Me To The Moon
If 3D is going to make a giant leap, it requires a more exciting movie than this.
Has two advantages over rival Space Chimps: it's marginally smarter and in 3-freaking-D. These are watery compliments for a pleasant, unassuming film.
Sure, it's kiddie film, but internal consistency would have been a nice touch
This 3D animation about a trio of pesky houseflies hitching a ride on Apollo 11 will give you a buzz only if you've missed the last 15 years of superior animations.
Few would claim there are no flies on this one, but at least the outstanding 3D effects are some compensation for the dumbed-down inanity of everything else.
If your kid has never seen a 3D movie, this isn't a bad start, especially if they're younger. The look is great, but the movie is just bland.
this celebration of a giant leap for mankind is really just a small, insignificant step for film fans.
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.
While it's hard to recommend it on purely creative merit, I suppose it would be a wonderful thing if these silly flies ended up pushing kids to investigate space travel and the legacy of NASA. Unlikely, but it's more comforting than fart and burp jokes.
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.
Viewers who are old enough to eat without a bib are unlikely to find much of interest in the procession of puns and generic zero-gravity gags that fill out the film's running time.
Cheap and cheerless, it all resembles a supermarket own-brand version of similar but much superior fare such as A Bug’s Life, making you wish for a plague of spiders to put them out of their – and our – misery.
It'd be nice to imagine, however, that after enduring this attempt at selling fourth-rate 3-D animation as entertainment, ripped-off toddlers would react properly and take to the streets en masse.
The result is only just worth 90 minutes of anybody’s time, and has Buzz Aldrin appearing at the end to assure everyone that none of it was remotely possible. Surprise, surprise!
Latest News for Fly Me To The Moon
October 26, 2008:
LIWoman: Exclusive With Adrienne Barbeau ![]()
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August 05, 2008:
The official trailer, which isn't at all promising. ![]()
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July 20, 2008:
Trailer & Poster review ![]()
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