Movie Reviews
Fly Me to the Moon Can't Get Off the Ground
Lindsay Berg |
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 The new kids film Fly Me to the Moon is the first-ever animated feature film designed, created and produced entirely in 3-D; nonetheless, that shouldn’t be enough to compensate for a boring story, lame jokes and unsynchronized sound. Although the graphics and amusement-park-ride-type camera movements are pretty wild at times, you may be better off putting the 3-D glasses on followed by some earplugs.
Fly Me to the Moon is the story of three young flies in search of excitement and life beyond the ordinary. They decide the best way to find it is aboard the 1969 Apollo 11 lunar module. Nat (voiced by Trevor Gagnon) plays the ringleader of the group, joined by his brainy friend I.Q. (Philip Daniel Bolden) and plump buddy Scooter (David Gore). The three flies together make the typical heroic trio, just unfortunately without the humor. Kelly Ripa plays Nat’s worrisome mother and Christopher Lloyd adds a little excitement as Nat’s once adventure-seeking grandfather, who facilitates their plan through storytelling and inspiration. After some carefully calculated planning by I.Q., encouragement by Grandpa and sneaking around their mothers’ backs, Nat, I.Q. and Scooter finally make it aboard the spaceship. The problem is, the misinformed flies thought the trip was only going to be a few minutes long.
 After a slew of technical difficulties, the ship finally makes it to the moon, and Nat tags along with Neil Armstrong as he takes the huge step for mankind. In the meantime, Grandpa is confronted with a past Russian lover, Nadia (Nicollette Sheridan), who informs him that Russian flies are planning to sabotage and take down the Apollo 11. Grandpa, Nadia, Nat’s mom and others all come together to form a small army against the Russian fly government. The storylines don’t really ever properly mesh together until the last few minutes, so if that sounds odd, it is even weirder on-screen.
The movie’s writing, highly imperative in animated films today thanks to such successes like the Shrek series, is so off that even as an adult some jokes don’t make sense. Children may find some things funny, but the consistent problem with Fly me to the Moon is that none of the jokes are for one particular age group. Perhaps its writer, Domonic Paris, wanted to reach a variety of age ranges, but ultimately, the film is only potentially funny to a very young crowd.
 At the same time, some of the plot aspects are probably too advanced for younger audiences. The flies are on the actual real-life trip to the moon, flying right alongside Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, so it is attempting to be historically accurate in a sense. Not a bad idea for a kids movie, but it may create some confusion for younger viewers because obviously there weren’t any actual flies on the spacecraft. Aldrin even makes a statement at the end of the film to clarify this inaccuracy, which is preposterous to think any child would pay attention to an old man after just watching a 3-D movie. Normally, these fantastical elements obviously wouldn’t matter, but Fly Me to the Moon crosses a history lesson with blatant fiction; however, in the end, it is still just a children’s story.
There really isn’t much to say about Fly me to the Moon beyond the exciting 3-D elements and the poor writing. It definitely does not have the momentum or likeability to warrant a sequel, nor does it have any serious potential to market the characters for toys and memorabilia. With Attention Deficit Disorder on the rise, children may truly struggle to stay involved in Moon’s story, especially when it is challenging even for an adult to stay interested. It’s almost a shame that the first-ever animated 3-D feature was wasted on such a poor story. One can only imagine what the DVD will be like, missing the obvious big screen 3-D crutch.
Fly Me to the Moon is now playing at the Esquire IMAX Theatre in Sacramento and opens Aug. 15 everywhere in Digital 3-D.
For more information, visit flymetothemoonthemovie.com.
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