Reviewed by Stuart O'Connor
Stars the voices of Christopher Lloyd, Adrienne Barbeau,
Tim Curry, Robert Patrick, Kelly Ripa, Trevor Gagnon,
Philip Bolden, David Gore (and Buzz Aldrin as himself)
Written by Domonic Paris
Certification UK PG | US G
Runtime 84 minutes
Directed by Ben Stassen
Critics across the world have slammed this animated feature, and I think that the problem is that most of them haven't realised that it is purely a kids' film — and a pretty fine one at that. It's also the best 3D film I've ever seen, but more on that later.
Fly Me To The Moon retells the tale of the Apollo 11 moon landing from the point of view of three young flies that snuck aboard the rocket in July of 1969. Scooter, IQ, and Nat — who live, with their families, in a dump near Cape Canaveral, Florida — long for adventure, and dream of travelling into space. After hearing the tall tales of Nat's Grandpa (Lloyd), who says he accompanied Amelia Earhart on her trans-Atlantic flight, they plan to stowaway on the moon mission. But the landing could be in jeopardy, because some Russian flies have got wind of what is going on and plan to sabotage the rocket. Can our three intrepid heroes save the day? Of course they can — this is a movie, and the heroes ALWAYS save the day.
Now, as I said at the start, a lot of the nastier critics out there (and even some of the nicer ones) have savaged this movie. They've called it dull, dumbed down, lazy, historically innacurate, cheap, cliched and boring. Personally, I think they're wrong. Have any of these people watched Saturday morning cartoons recently? Fly Me To The Moon is perfect for the age group it's aimed at (ie, little kids). But it's not a Pixar fil;m, not by a long shot — it's not aimed at the entire family, and why is that such a bad thing? It's also got a great voice cast, the animation is sharp and the technical imagery is spot on. And yes, it has the best 3D ever seen — none of the gimicky stick-it-in-your-face stuff that you usually find in 3D films, but clever use of the technology to actually draw the viewer into the film. My only small gripe is that young kids may not understand the Cold War subplot — but hey, with the Cold War all set to start up again, they'll learn all about it soon enough.