Fly Me To The Moon Movie
Storyline
TAGLINES PLOT SUMMARY
A digital 3D presentation that wows viewers with striking 3D effects, Fly Me to the Moon is a retelling of the 1969 Apollo 11 landing on the moon from the perspective of three young flies that allegedly hitched a ride on the historic flight. Nat, IQ, and Scooter live by the credo "If it's not an adventure, it's not worth doing," so when the three flies get a chance to sneak aboard the space shuttle for a ride to the moon, all systems are definitely go. While Grandpa McFly and Nat's young maggot siblings applaud the boys' adventuresome spirits, their mothers stereotypically swoon and fret over their safety. The flies encounter several unanticipated twists including the trip's week-long duration, a short in the ship's circuitry, a Russian fly plot to sabotage their mission, and their mid-flight imprisonment in a test tube. Nonetheless, the flies manage to enjoy the experience of weightlessness with an in-space ballet interpretation of "Blue Danube" as well as an orange juice feeding frenzy. Fly Me to the Moon will likely spark new interest in space exploration and the United States' walk on the moon, especially in today's children, and the filmmakers made a concerted effort to present fairly accurate historical details consistent with NASA's notes on the historic flight. There's even an afterword from real astronaut Buzz Aldrin in which he stresses the impossibility of the existence of flies or other contaminants aboard the historic space shuttle. Fly Me to the Moon is fun entertainment for the whole family as well as an eye-catching display of digital 3D technology. (Ages 4 and older)
| Buzz Aldrin | Himself |
| Ed Begley Jr. | Poopchev |
| Philip Bolden | I.Q. |
| Cam Clarke | Ray |
| Tim Curry | Yegor |
| Trevor Gagnon | Nat |
| David Gore | Scooter |
| Steve Kramer | Leonide |
| Christopher Lloyd | Grandpa |
| Scott Menville | Butch |
| Robert Patrick | Louie |
| Sandy Simpson | Neil Armstrong |
| Adrienne Barbeau | Scooters Mom |
| Mimi Maynard | IQ's Mom |
| Lorraine Nicholson | Katie |
| Ben Stassen |
4.90 out of 10 (579 votes)
Visitor Reviews
Yawn
posted on 16 Aug 2009This is not a good movie. Too preachy in parts and the story line was sub par. The 3D was OK, but not superb. I almost fell asleep in this movie.The story is about 3 young flies that want to have adventure and follow up on it. The characters are lacking, I truly do not care about these characters and feel that there was nothing to keep an adult interested. Pixar this is not.I would have liked to see more special 3D effects. Also I wold like to see more fly jokes than the mom constantly saying "Lord of the flies" Pretty sexist in showing the women as house wives and fainting.
Animated, a cute story of three young flies who wanted to go to the Moon.
posted on 02 Aug 2009This was a DVD from my local public library. I enjoyed it more than I expected to. The animation is just superb, and it has a very well engineered surround-sound track. All in all a very enjoyable short movie.The story is set in July 1969 when Apollo 11 was to launch and make its historic trip to the Moon. As history witnesses it did and, even though the 3-man crew were on the Moon for less than 3 hours, it opened the way for possible future exploration of worlds beyond the Earth.The central characters here are all various types of flies. One of them, Grandpa McFly (voiced by the great Christopher Lloyd of BTTF series of movies) told his grandchildren flies his story over and over, how he was on the plane when Amelia Earhart in 1928 flew solo across the Atlantic, and when she fell asleep he saved the day by flying up her nose to make her sneeze and to recover from the dive just in time. That scene is very graphic!Well, the grandkid flies wanted to do something exciting too, and living in Florida devised a plan to hide out in a worker's lunch pail to gain entrance to the Apollo 11 preparations.The animation is really very, very good, and it was fun watching these little animated flies, and listen to their dialog. The animation of the spaceship in orbit and on the moon's surface is very nicely done.SPOILERS: The 3 small flies make it onto Apollo 11 and their fly relatives and friends get to a TV and see them in the background during a broadcast from the space ship. A crisis happens when the Lunar Lander is about to go into Moon orbit when an electrical problem shows its ugly head. The flies find the problem, an unplugged wire, and pool their strength to push the plug in just in time. So, just as Grandpa McFly had saved the historic Earhart flight, these little flies saved the Apollo 11 flight.
A timid excuse to watch all the glitter fly around on screen.
posted on 09 Jul 2009The 3D animated film is certainly not a new idea, and while the extent of applying real 3D through the use of glasses dates back to before Toy Story graced our screens, the technology has been somewhat underused. This is no coincidence however, as most will agree that with 3D glasses, along comes gimmick at the expense of story or narration. Fly me to the Moon certainly doesn't do much to shun away such allegations, as the experience is essentially a lame excuse to try out some really nice looking 3D effects and animation, but it is this impressive aesthetic that gives the film life that it would never have had before. Through this extra dimension the movie achieves a sense of compulsion with the viewer, engaging on a level only touched on by the greatest of cinematographers; Fly me to the Moon certainly feels like a trip into outer space, and on this basis alone should you decide whether or not to give this one a try.Outside of the obvious sensory appeals of the film, the remainder of the much more standard and straight forward elements of film-making are dull and uninteresting in comparison. The story, which follows a trio of youngster fleas as they go on a brave adventure into space through means of hitchhiking in astronauts helmets, has its wonderful moments which will be sure to resonate with anyone interested in space travel. Although once again, without the punctuation of the wonderfully animated environments and smooth, crisp character designs, such moments would probably be fruitless; a little like watching a grainy, black and white version of 2001 with the sound switched off on the ten inch display. Nevertheless, the characters, although extremely standard fare for children's movies, provide adequate motive for the film to move forward and keep exploring all the images of space that lie ahead. The adventure is nonsensical, overly contrived and more than predictable, but for children at least, it will provide some entertainment. For the adults, it's all really just a timid excuse to watch all the glitter fly around on screen.Where the film begins to lag behind however lies in the tacked on subplot involving some seedy Russian antagonists out to blow the moon-mission out of sheer jealousy. Although the depictions of Russia at the time is a little distasteful, lacking the needed comical edge to win over the audience in regards to their obviously caricature nature, this isn't the major flaw inherent to the development. Instead rather it is simply that it lacks any real coherency and fails to establish any sense of relevant link to the much more engaging main plot. Plus, taking place largely inside the brown hues of wherever these fleas live, and lacking any real amusing characters outside of ex-adventurer Grandpa, the segments which are spliced in between all the adventure and action feel perfunctory for the sake of maintaining standard structure expected of the genre and all the more uninteresting as a result.In the end, whether or not you will enjoy Fly Me to the Moon depends on two factors: what age you are and what your disposition is in regards to 3D movies. While it would help to be under your teens and be fond of the three-dimensional gimmick, there are nevertheless other areas in which the movie can please. The main focus being that of space exploration and living out your dreams at the cost of risking your normal, everyday life is always playing out in the subtext of the film, but its presence is palpable enough to warrant engagement with all that is going on behind the fancy effects. Sure enough with such films as Space Chimps and big-shot WALL-E not long behind cinema goer's minds, it would be hard to justify another trip into space without having some serious backing from other elements within the film. In this respect, Fly Me to the Moon too often fails. With an overly formulaic script, flat character development and some spotty plotting, the feature does little to convince you that it is anything but a treat for the eyes. So unless you really enjoy your animated-children's-3D-space movies, I wouldn't necessarily recommend this, but there is still fun to be had here for those who are.- A review by Jamie Robert Ward (http://www.invocus.net)
Shrek wasn't either.
posted on 29 Mar 2009As long as there's been 3d technology, (1950's I think) there's been animation made for it. I remember specifically, a Donald Duck cartoon with Chip and Dale in it. I don't remember the name at the moment, but the plot was that Donald worked at a circus, was feeding an elephant peanuts and Chip and Dale were stealing the peanuts. This was made to watch in 3d probably 1960's. If you happened to watch Meet the Robinsons in 3d in theaters, they showed this cartoon before the movie and explained the details of it's origin. There are probably somewhere around 100 cartoons made specifically to be viewed through 3d glasses. This claim was a bad move because it's not difficult to prove them wrong. On top of that, this just looks like a bad movie.
Cold War propaganda is back, Alive & Kicking!
posted on 17 Mar 2009Today, I visited an Athenean Cinema with my two kids (6 & 8 years old), payed 3 x 12 euros (about 45 US $ total) not to mention gas, popcorn & soda, was asked to return my 3d special glasses after leaving the theater and was "forced" to watch what could have been a great 3d movie masterpiece but only proved to be a sick "cold war like" propaganda movie, like none I have seen during the last 20 years... AND THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE A MOVIE FOR CHILDREN... IN HEAVEN'S NAME! PS 1: The average working Greek makes no more than 850 Euros a month (approxiamtely 1050 US $) PS 2 My kids liked it... but then again they are no more than babies >in Greek: mora, morons > like the one who wrote the script & the others who made this "3d disgrace" happen.PS 3 3D animation is fantastic but who gives a ....!
Fly Me Anywhere But Not to "Fly Me To The Moon"
posted on 01 Mar 2009Okay, so, someone, somewhere, a few years ago, thought it would be a good idea to make a 3D IMAX movie about some flies stowing away aboard the Apollo 11 and going to the moon. So they did. Someone, somewhere, was an idiot.I want to give the artists props for doing their homework on the hardware. As far as I can tell, the rockets and the launch hardware were bang on. The graphics in general were pretty good - the rocket launch gave me chills, like a good rocket launch always does (my Popular Mechanics flying-car gearhead blood still runs strong) and the 3D was pretty effective. The CG wasn't Pixar-quality, but it was generally good. The flies were kinda mediocre anthropomorphics, with some half-assed late-60s characters thrown in for colour (hippie flies, African-American flies with giant afros and black shades, etc.) and the maggots looked more like grubs with human baby heads (although they made suitably gross squelching noises).The scriptwriters certainly did not do their homework, relying on offensive and outdated clichés (60s gender politics including mostly-useless female characters, racial stereotypes, evil Russians, a fat fly who only wants to eat, grade-two level gross-out humour). In a movie aimed for IMAX, they blew a wonderful opportunity to sneak in some educational content about physics and space travel - they didn't get their physics right (zero-g in the Lunar Module during landing burn? PLEASE.) They couldn't even be bothered to read the original radio transcripts between Houston and the astronauts, all of which is in the public domain; instead they wrote their own dialogue, which sounds like crap.But we liked the maggots.So they get a point and a half for rockets and maggots. Uh, yay. 1.5/5.
first animated flick
posted on 01 Mar 2009Actually, this is a lie, Shrek 3-D was actually the first 3d animated movie. I bought it on DVD about 3 years ago. Didn't Bug's Life also do that? I think it was at Disneyworld in that tree, so I'm saying before they go and use that as there logo. Also, Shrek 3d was a motion simulator at Universal Studios. They should still consider it as a movie, because it appeared in a "theater" and you could buy it for DVD. The movie was cute, at least the little flyes were. I liked IQ. I agree with animaster, they did a god job out of making a movie out of something that is just a out-and-back adventure. I recommend it to families and kids.
Never, ever, ever, let a 3-year old choose a movie
posted on 25 Feb 2009With the MASSIVE advertising this is getting on Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. and that ilk, my son was bugging us to see it. Between DVD and the theaters, I've seen pretty much everything by now from the outstanding (Incredibles, Shrek) to the really bad (Wall-E, Brother Bear). But this was easily the worst movie I've ever seen, kids or no kids. It was a "when it this stupid thing going to end?" kind of experience? OK, it's aimed at toddlers (or it better be - it's insulting to the intelligence of anyone over 3), but I've never seen something so predictable, repetitive, and slow-moving. Then once you're finally fed up but relieved that the movie is over, there is this bizarre thing at the end that you think is the setup for a joke, but there isn't one - it's serious, though it's hard to tell what they're trying to accomplish. The 3-D effects... yeah, if you've never seen a Viewmaster they're a big deal, otherwise no (if you look at the screen without glasses, it appears to be the same process). Even my son was bored by the end. Both my wife and I looked at each other and said "wow" at the end. Bad in every respect.
If it wasn't for the 3D this wouldn't have been released to theaters
posted on 18 Jan 2009The movie is about three flies that hitch a ride to the moon with Apollo 11. Its a thirty to forty five minute idea thats stretched to ninety. We get side trips about gramps birthday, Russian flies trying to ruin the mission and one or two other brief asides. Its amusing in fits in starts but it mostly just sort of lays there. Frankly if the film wasn't in 3D I doubt it would have gotten any sort of theatrical release (I had to go into another county on the other side of Long Island to see it). Its not bad but its not much better than okay. On a technical level it does have some really nice 3D effects with a nice sensation of motion as we bob and weave through the grass around the NASA space center.
Not the best movie I've seen lately.
posted on 10 Jan 2009"Nat" (voiced by Trevor Gagnon), along with his brainiac friend "IQ" (voiced by Philip Bolden) and the always hungry "Scooter" (David Gore) are kids with big dreams. They want to be the first flies in space. And what encourages their dreams is the first spacecraft to land on the moon, the Apollo 11, is waiting for its historic trip on the launch pad near where the three hang out.The first thing you notice is the animation of the film. I found it done very well done. The scenery had depth to it, as things in the distance actually looked like they were behind the focus of the scenes. I didn't see the movie in 3-D, as it was broadcast on HBO. However, I could see that there really wasn't any scenes which took advantage of the 3-D effects except a fight between characters near the end. I also wasn't really impressed with the design of the characters. To me, they didn't look like anything resembling a fly, especially in the coloring. The flies were an unusual blue-gray that was kind of distracting to me.The performances from the cast was not bad, but it wasn't good either. There were many times I focused more on my computer than the story. The writing was certainly written for a younger audience, with comedic moments that will make younger kids laugh. I saw nothing for adults, like jokes that they'll get the punchline for the adults to understand the meaning.History was not followed in this film. In fact, I think it was completely ignored, as the main focus was the flies. I also hated when a well known astronaut popped up on the screen and explained that the stories about the flies in the film was a work of fiction, and no flies were on Apollo 11. I did like how he thanked the men and women who sacrificed their lives for space exploration though.If you are an adult, this is not for you. It was not made for the entire family. This is certainly just for kids. But, save this one for a rainy day.
"First ever animated movie created for 3D". Seriously? Where?
posted on 25 Dec 2008It is pretty surreal what these flies can do... eh well... this is a cartoon, so anything can happen in it.At first I must tell you that I love animated movies. Unfortunately this year's repertoire is very weak. This cartoon is nothing but a list of flaws:1) I quoted the tag line. It suggests that this movie has great 3D effects. Well, I did not see any, at least not something special I never saw before.2) The "flies" in this movie look nothing like real flies. At least they could've make them black. But cyan flies, seriously? With giant heads and slim torsos?3) The story. I guess it was written for 6 year old kids. I could tell it in two sentences it is so over simplified.4) Excessive patriotism. For example: "They are American files after all!" Oh, give me a break.
3D as it should be!
posted on 21 Nov 2008You have not seen a 3D film until you have seen this one. Sure the story is predictable. They go to the moon and they come back. That's probably why nobody ever made a film about the Apollo 11 mission. The fly-on-the-wall concept totally works though. The flies are adorable. Real emotions in a computer animated film, that's a novelty! The animation and the sets are first rate. It may not have the finishing touch of a Pixar movie, yet in many ways this film is as groundbreaking as Toy Story 10 years ago. Best of all it was great fun, a truly unique experience for the whole family! As for the 3D, I finally understand what the fuzz is all about!
It is cute...but!
posted on 09 Nov 2008When I saw this trailer on TV I was surprised. In May of 2008 I was at Six Flags in New Jersey and this was showing at a 4-D attraction (you know, the attraction that the seats move). I take it that the version I saw was a shortened version (15 min.) and also re-created to add the motion effects. It was a cute movie... but that was it. It was educational and told about the first mission but the ending of a CGI spacewalk seemed a bit...well...trite. I was not a big fan of the movie but i would recommend this movie for any parent wanting to inform their children in a fun way about the first moonwalk. I will say, the character actors were well selected and the characters themselves were cute. So all-in-all, I would say, if you want to bring the younger kids... go for it. But if you are wanting to take your older kids, take them to another movie... they will thank you.
The FINAL Review
posted on 01 Nov 2008I took my two children to see this movie. They are aged 6, 3. They were entertained for the first 40 minutes from the excellent 3-D effects. After that became mundane, the story & plot, or whatever you want to call it did not keep them engrossed in the film.My viewpoint suggests the same. I give the 3-D effects 5 stars but the storyline is really not that exciting. Character development seems to be lacking these days from most screenwriters. If I was funding the production of this film, I would look for a fresher script, cut dialog that is unnecessary, and turn the action level up a few notches.The villains in this movie are weak and predictable, the space sequence is long and dragged out.Bottomline: Take away the 3-D and this movie stinks. Sad thing is, you have to see it in the theater.....The only positive again is that this movie has the best 3-D effects I have ever seen.
A simple feel-good adventure movie that kids will just love to watch
posted on 22 Oct 2008A kid's film is a kid's film. Simple as that, and not every single one needs to have the grown-up's interest themes or jokes as in Shrek, or the elaborate musical numbers. Younger kids want a bit of action, humour and fun little characters they can love to watch. Add in a good simple feel good story with some adventure, and that is a great formula for a kid's film; and that is the premise and basis of the animated movie: "Fly me to the Moon".The film is simply about 3 young friends (who are bees) who decide to hitch a lift with Buzz Aldrin & co to the Moon, back in the 1960s. Their mothers don't know about it, the Soviet Officials (flies again!) don't like it and they themselves are simply wide-eyed about the whole thing. Along the way, there's thrills and fun for young kids. They can relate to the humour and the characters (out to seek adventure and all that).The added plus is that this is a fully 3D-animated film, and for the first time i've ever seen that the 3D animation effects are astoundingly good and actually work. Having watched Jaws 3D and the like in my youth, I was not expecting much and had to eat my words when viewing this. Watching this in the IMAX, the opening scene with the rocket launch made my eyes almost pop out, it was like as if the rocket was coming off the screen! I'm surprised and disappointed with much of the negative criticisms in the forum reviews on this movie. I don't practically ever watch kids movies, but got dragged to this by my nephew & niece, and can say that it was worth it. All loved it, as did all the kids in the audience from what I could see. It does as it says on the tin.Maybe Shrek, Toy Story et al have more going for them in many ways, but as a film in itself "Fly me to the moon" deserves credit for entertainment & enjoyment for young kids in particular who want to see a film they can fully understand and enjoy. One to sit back and enjoy, but most importantly if you can watch this in 3D in the cinema then that's where you'll enjoy it the most.
Nice
posted on 10 Oct 2008Honestly, I did have a feeling from the trailer that Fly Me to the Moon wasn't going to exactly my style. But I had the opportunity to see it today for free and I just wanted to give it a fair chance, I don't know what's with this year, but it doesn't seem like all the animated films are gold, now we had WALL-E and Kung Fu Panda, that's about it when it comes to the good animated films, but then we had Space Chimps and now Fly Me to the Moon that are just average. See, what bugs me is that this movie is just for kids, I think we should have those kind of films, but this was semi-boring. The humor didn't even seem to exist, also flies are not cute or interesting to watch and just because a film is made for 3-D doesn't make it a great film. I'm not trying to hate on this film because the story is decent, it's just the way it's told that makes it a little dull.Nat, I.Q., and Scooter are young flies who are just day dreamers, but Nat dreams of going to the moon one of these days. When he talks to his adventurous grandfather, he decides to just go for it. He talks I.Q. and Scoother into it as well, they sneak onto the rocket ship that is taking Americans to the moon for the first time. But with the mothers freaking out at home and Russian flies who can't stand the idea of these American flies getting the credit, it may not be a happy trip home.Fly Me to the Moon is alright for the kids under 7, that's it. Like I said, I think we should have movies that are aimed for kids only, but this was just dull and didn't interest me. The humor is very tame and the characters aren't the best to relate too. There are a couple of nice things about the movie, like the animation is beautiful and the story is fun. Even though 3-D doesn't make a movie wonderful, it does make it a lot of fun to watch and a lot more interesting to look at. Over all, I'd say to see this as a matinée if you want to see it on the 3-D screen, otherwise, it's a rental, there's nothing special about it, but it's a nice movie.5/10
Outstanding -- best use of 3D to date
posted on 06 Oct 2008Someone finally got it right in 3D. Going straight to 3D instead of producing a conversion of a 2D film, Ben Stassen and company have created a revolutionary new film that's guaranteed to turn the current lukewarm appreciation of 3D cinema into awestruck wonder. The greatest adventure story of our time (sending a man to the moon) provides a wonderful backdrop to a fairly well written and beautifully executed animation. The characters, scenery and action are excellent. But most memorable will be the total immersion this film provides, as much of the story hovers only inches away. If you're ready to see what modern 3D cinema is destined to become, see Fly Me to the Moon.
Ughhh.....
posted on 08 Sep 2008"Fly Me To The Moon" has to be the worst animated film I've seen in a LONG TIME. That's saying something since I have taken my son to see every animated release for the last 4 years now. The story is to be generous...trite. The voice acting is atrocious, Too cute sounding. The humor is of the Romper Room variety. The animation is passable for a Nickolodeon type of cartoon but this is being released on the big screen not cable television.It gets a 2 only because of it's OK 3-D visuals. Some of the scenes had a mildly stimulating image but We've seen much better in the past. I also question the insistence of the filmmakers to have characters fly away from the screen rather than into it in most of the scenes. While that is interesting at first it became tiresome after the 3rd or 4th time. It seemed to smack of indifference to me on the part of the creators.I will say this though, It had a pretty cool soundtrack. And for the record my son wasn't too crazy about it either. Bad movie.
garbage
posted on 02 Sep 2008this is what you would get if you allowed a 10 year old (manic American) to write a story of a moon trip. Absolute garbage with no redeeming qualities Maybe it held some fascination in the 3D dept. but as a narrative and entertaining animation it held nothing to make wasting an hour and a half worth while. Save your time and money and watch BOLT insteadDamn. Not enough lines, yet I feel that sums it up... well, I agree with an above review - this is like a cold-war propaganda story. Maybe it would have been more interesting if they had made it about the flies uncovering the hoax of the moon landing, or if the flies had died in the first minute. BTW - why were all the main character flies deformed? - not one had the full compliment of limbs!
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All It Needed Was Suzanne Summers
posted on 28 Aug 2009I saw this about two weeks ago in the theater and dismissed it as pedestrian in all but one area. The 3-D, I thought was done in a new way (to this inexperienced viewer). A way that convinced me, in fact that after many decades in existence already, the technology was hitting a breakthrough moment and had a huge future yet ahead of it. My theory was then, and is now that this film started as an excuse to showcase an innovation in 3D animation. Probably made by computer specialists with little to no experience with narrative creativity.No, these guys instead specialize in spatial creativity. And I gotta say that the experience in the world of this film stuck with me. It has changed me in a minor way. The way I think spatially has been permanently altered just so much.Here's the deal. I've seen 3D just a few times, but to my experience, it had always been gimmicky. Fun, but gimmicky because the only trick anyone seemed to know was the push-objects-into-our-faces thing, which is merely a carnival ride, a novelty.But this! Somebody here is using a much more profound approach. Instead of being merely prodded at, the viewers here have an entire world built around them architecturally. A strong feeling of occupying the same space as the characters is created. Movies are all about engagement, the deeper the engagement, the more we like them. This film demonstrates how 3D alone can engage.There's a big future for the product highlighted in this advertisement.