I didn’t realize that Fly Me to the Moon was literally about flies. (Get it? "Fly" Me to the Moon?) Nor did I expect that this CGI-animated film (originally created for 3-D viewing) would be highly educational and set in the historical context of the Apollo 11 moon landing. That’s right — three pre-teen flies concoct a plan to hitch a ride into space in order to fulfill their dreams of having a "big adventure."
Fly Me to the Moon could’ve easily been a forgettable "kid flick," but instead it has a little something for everyone. Young children will be able to understand the plot, their older siblings will get to test their knowledge of astronomy, history and space travel, and parents will appreciate the retro soundtrack and a few tongue-in-cheek scenes. For example, Russian flies attempt to disrupt America’s space mission, a grandfather fly talks about rescuing Amelia Earhart, and Buzz Aldrin shows up in person at the film’s end to ensure the audience that there weren’t really any flies aboard his groundbreaking flight. (I personally didn’t know whether to laugh or be offended at that last part, but still applauded Aldrin’s appearance and involvement in the movie.)
So the story in Fly Me to the Moon is cute and clever… but how did it look? After all, this was no Pixar production. I’ve read drastically different opinions on this issue, but my take was that while the human characters could’ve moved a bit more smoothly and the flies’ mouths weren’t in sync with their words all of the time, overall I thought the film’s animation was impressive. The flies weren’t as cute as I expected them to be, though. Young children who’ve grown accustomed to the friendly-looking insects in Antz, A Bug’s Life or Bee Movie might be a tad frightened by the bug-eyed trio of friends — Nat, Scooter and I.Q — and their family members. The preview below will give you a great feel for the film’s strengths and weaknesses in animation:
Fly Me to the Moon was better than I expected it would be; it makes for great family viewing. Now that I’ve seen it, I’ll think twice before swatting away any flies next summer. The moral of the story is: bugs are people, too!
