Fly me to the moon

Film: Fly me to the moon
Cast: Voice of Christopher Lloyd, Trevor Gagnon, Philip Daniel Bolden, David Gore
Direction: Ben Stassen
Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes
Critic's Rating: 3 stars


Story: Three Florida houseflies are completely bored on their garbage dump. They decide to pep up their lives by flying to the moon and end up as stowaways on Apollo 11. But their heroic adventure is frowned upon by a bunch of Russian flies who begin to plot their downfall in classic US versus Russia political hostility.

Movie Review: Supposedly the first Hollywood animation feature in 3D (it's a 2008 film), Fly Me To The Moon is a sassy adventure film, with a political underpinning. Of course, the politics of the film may be lost on the young audience but for the adults who accompany them, the conflict between the three American astronaut flies and the envious Russian winged villain, Yegor does have enough fire power to keep the drama zingy.

But the story essentially belongs to the natty pre-teen, Nat and his buddies, IQ and Scooty, who create a fly-sized rocket in a field across Cape Canaveral, the launch pad for Apollo 11. Nat is inspired by his grandfather who supposedly saved Amelia Earhart as she flew across the Atlantic on her historic flight and has brought his grandfly up on a credo that declares that dreamers don't actually end up getting swatted....

It doesn't take long for Nat to realise his dreams can't take wings on a fly-sized rocket. They need something bigger, like the helmets of the astronauts aboard Apollo 11. The friends hitch-hike a flight into outer space by sneaking into the helmets of Aldrin, Armstrong and Collins and make history of their own. Nat even manages to set wings on the moon as he is the lucky fly who buzzes in Armstrong's helmet and the threesome end up as heroes by preventing a short circuit in the space ship. And what do they get for all their troubles? No flies aboard: declares Aldrin on TV after touching back on Earth! Actually, he meant there were no flies on board the real flight. Ha-ha!

A fun film, with picturesque animation, Fly Me To The Moon is great time-pass.