The Review

There’s been a rumor floating around in recent years that it takes more than just slick animation to make a quality animated film: a good script, believable characters, a compelling story. “Fly Me To The Moon,” it seems, was made to prove that rumor wrong.

Fly Me to the Moon was the first animated movie made specifically for a theater 3-D experience, and it shows. Even at home, the animation is, if you’ll pardon the pun, stellar. The the first color frame of the movie, a shot of the Apollo 11 Rocket at Cape Canaveral, is one of the most perfectly animated shots you’ll ever see. And the moon walking scene, where the fly looks down at Neil Armstrong’s feet from inside his space helmet, is nothing short of stunning. But first-rate animation is all this movie has to offer.

The idea is simple enough. It’s the story of the Apollo 11 moon landing from the perspective of 3 house flies who stowed away because they were bored with the first 20 minutes of the film. I find no fault with that decision.The only early highlight was the opening Newsreel, which brings us through a brief history of the space race. It including some promising footage of the first Chimpanzee in space. But please don’t get your hopes up like I did. There is but limited monkey involvement in this film, which is a shame, because it needed some livening up. This is a slow, slow picture.

So the kids weasel their way into the capsule, blast off into space, and float around to rousing classical music as soon as they reach zero-gravity. I found this odd. Really, if I’m a fly, would it really be that cool to float around? I do that every day. I’m a fly, remember? And I actually have much more wing-control with gravity, thank you very much. Nevertheless, the film labors through all 3 hours of Beethoven’s entire 13th Symphony (I have no idea what I’m talking about…) to prove to us that it would be fun to spin around in the air. At least give us something more peppy!

Fly Me to The Moon also commits the same sin as so many of its animated brothers in making its non-human leads far too human. The flies are no different than any cookie-cutter characters of the 60’s, what with the poka-dotted dresses and the thick rimmed glasses and Fred Savages making awkward moves on the dark-haired girl. I understand the need to give human personalities to your leads, but don’t put them in societies that are exact mirrors of human ones. That totally defeats the purpose! Don’t make them go to dances or warn each other about childhood obesity. Do something more fly-ish.

Here’s a suggestion. According to Wikipedia, the average lifespan for a housefly is 20 to 30 days. Why not use that in the story. Make Nat a 14 year old in a mid-life crisis. He wants to make his short life count, so his goal is to die ON THE MOON. This would not only introduce the subject of death to youngsters in a non-threatening way, it would also require some romance. He must meet a girly-fly, get to know her in the capsule, yada yada yada, and boom! Now you have some characters to cry at the tragic moment when the hero is left for dead. Come on! Those tears would look outstanding in 3-D!

The Kids

Against all odds, a movie about rockets and space and astronauts and flies somehow managed to be incredibly dull. If your kid really likes history or space, there’s a chance he might sit still. Otherwise, expect them to lose interest. But your parents or grandparents will love it. Take it to your local nursing home, where Buzz Aldridge’s closing lecture before the credits (the one where he congratulates himself and his fellow astronauts) will have everyone nodding and commenting “that’s the way movies ought to be!”

The Verdict: Mostly Harmless

How Annoying Is It? I expected to write six words down here: “Kelly Rippa, Kelly Ripp, Kelly Rippa.” But Kelly’s performance as the prototypical 60’s housewife was surprisingly benign. The movie wasn’t terribly annoying, just boring.

If you want to watch some truly exciting CGI space action, check out Pixar’s Wall-E instead.