Yet there's still enough to hold the attention - the actual Apollo equipment has the ring of authenticity - and it's worth taking the trip just to gawp at the sheer beauty of the programmer's art.
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
No matter how superficially amusing the title or how appealing the animated characters (not very, to be honest), the fact remains that we are expected to empathise with flies. The animators even try to make maggots cute.
And while it may not teach sprogs anything about insects – these ones have human eyes and four limbs – director Ben Stassen has made a fair fist of portraying the Apollo mission with some accuracy.
Believe the bad buzz on this houseflies-become-astronauts CG animation, which is lousy with lazy jokes and irritating characters.
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.
Fly Me to the Moon is the first animated feature made specifically for the 3-D format. If this were not the case, it would have gone straight to DVD. Everything else about it is as lazy and dull as the latest cheap Pixar knockoff.
The story is inoffensively wholesome, and there may be enough goofy antics to engage young, indiscriminate viewers, but the level of creativity in the animation is serviceable at best.
The 3-D effects are nice enough, but they can’t make up for a dull story, stock characters (making them flies doesn’t make them any more original) and cheap-looking animation.
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.
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.
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.
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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