A trio of flies decides to hitch a ride on the next moon launch in 1969. The big draw is that the film was shown in 3D. It’s passable enough because of that gimmick, but younger viewers will find more to love.
In 1969, Nat (Trevor Gagnon), Scooter (David Gore), and I.Q. (Philip Daniel Golden) are three flies that are inspired by Nat’s Grandpa McFly’s (Christopher Lloyd) tales of adventure. They live next in a junkyard next to Cape Canaveral, Florida where the Apollo 11 rocket is about to be launched.
The three flies decide to hitch a ride on the next launch. They think that it’s only going to be a launched and return in a few hours, but it turns out the Apollo 11 is going to be up in space for a week and landing on the moon.
They hitch a ride in the helmets of Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin (who appears in live action at the end of the film to say that there were no flies on Apollo 11. I smell a government cover-up), and Michael Collins wearing their homemade spacesuits.
The boy’s parents are in shock and watch them as the mission is broadcast on television. They’re not the only ones watching as in Cold War Russia fly general Poopchev (Ed Begley Jr.) sees the flies and can’t stand it that they’ve beat Russian flies to the moon.
So he sends operative Yegor (Tim Curry) to sabotage the mission from mission control. However, a Russian fly named Nadia (Nicolette Sheridan) has a connection to Grandpa and races to stop the sabotage of the mission.
When I showed the film to my kids they scratched their heads and said “didn’t they already do this movie with chimps?” The answer is sorta. This film inserts our insect friends into a historical giant step for mankind and adds some Cold War shenanigans to it.
The film is fun enough and a good way to introduce your kids to history, in a way. However, I think the younger they are the more they’ll get out of it. I thought the film could’ve used some trimming, especially in the parts with the parents.
In fact the film has several cuts, one was shown in IMAX and ran about an hour and there was a further cut version that aired in amusement parks and planetariums. The animation is serviceable, but Pixar does much better in their character development, but that might be comparing apples to oranges.
It’s a cute film that uses history and 3D to make a kid-friendly adventure.
Fly Me to the Moon is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. You get both the 3D and 2D versions of the film. Where the set falls down is that you only get two pairs of 3D glasses. Since the average American home has 2.5 kids, somebody is going to be watching the film in blurry-vision. The only special feature is an interactive planetarium game.
Fly Me to the Moon is cute enough and the kids will like the novelty of seeing it in 3D, but hope you don’t have more than two at a time that want to watch it since you only get two pairs of glasses.
Fly Me to the Moon is now available at Amazon . It is available for pre-order at AmazonUK for a Jan. 26th release. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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