Review
Digital photorealism is rarely so convincing as it is in the kids movie Fly Me to the Moon. The details of the
Apollo 11 spacecraft seem so real, so minute, and so tactile, it's almost as though NASA handed over their schematics to the Belgian filmmaking team. However, the fact that it's a kids movie creates an abrupt visual dichotomy, as most of Fly Me to the Moon's characters are cutesy little googly-eyed flies, voiced by actors under age 12. Their character design gives them the feel of having escaped from Saturday-morning cartoons, like someone stuck a child's sticker on a photograph hanging at Cape Canaveral. It's not enough to sink the picture, but it does make one wonder what Pixar would have done with similar material. Fly Me to the Moon also loses something in two-dimensional form, which is likely how most viewers will see it, as the film was designed specifically as a 3-D viewing experience. It's hard to give Fly Me to the Moon either a confident recommendation or a confident dismissal. With what it does right, it inspires awe, and the notion of three prepubescent flies hitching a ride aboard a spacecraft is the perfect fodder for an animated adventure (never mind where they got their miniature space suits). On the other hand, there's an incredibly silly plot about Russian flies trying to win the space race by sabotaging
Apollo 11's reentry, which culminates in a duel between American and Russian flies inside a console at Cape Canaveral. To say an animated movie has something for both the kids and their parents is a clich, but usually that means that the same material is germane to both demographics. Here, there's no meeting point, and the film suffers. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
On the DVD
Interactive Planetarium Game - Great For Kids of all ages!
Includes both 2D and 3D versions of the film!
