Delightful enough to earn the buzz.
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.
Rated: U
Genre: Childrens
Theatrical Release:03-10-2008
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
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?
[On 3-D effects] I heard more than one gasp from the audience and then embarrassed laughter. The next sound I heard was half an hour later. It was snoring. My own.
If Fly Me to the Moon were not in 3D, it'd hardly be worth the effort.
The vocal characterizations aren't the problem here; the script and the animation are the problems, and in feature animation, you can't arrange more significant problems than those.
My eyes are still burning from... the horrible racial, cultural, and gender stereotypes of the 1960s [and the] weirdly, disturbingly human-ish flies...
Only the 3D process helps to dispel the impression that what you're seeing lacks wit and is completely generic in terms of characters and 'humor.'
If they can put a man on the moon, why can't they tell a better story about sending some flies along for the ride?
A disgracefully vapid and horrendously ugly work that makes the likes of "Doogal" or "Happily N'Ever After" look like "Pinocchio" and "WALL-E" by comparison.
These flies drift lethargically from place to place, and the movie bogs down in their lackadaisical pace.
The filmmakers show they are especially adept at pulling off some tricky animated 3D effects.
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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