Fly Me To The Moon is a 3-D animated movie from Disney nWave Pictures & Illuminata Pictures that is about three fly's who stow away on Apollo 11 and have the adventure of their lives going to the moon and back with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. Well, that's the basic boring marketing premise. In actuality it was really more of a showcase of Disney's new 3D movie making techniques and a lot less about the flys, their adventures, or even the moon for that matter.
The movie starts with the 3 young "teenage" flies hanging out in a junkyard building their own model rocket and dreaming of their own opportunities for adventure. They are quickly taunted by two apparently"cool" flies who are off to a great adventure of visiting a neighboring town. At this point the story goes into one of it's many lulls and the viewer is subjected to a 3D travel sequence. These generally meaningless segments of the movie happen quite a bit but I suppose they aren't any worse than the boring and stereotypical group of heros; the rebel and his two friends (the smart one and the fat one), the soft but cagey old grandfather, the boring and oft-fainting mother, and the too-good-for you cool kids. Add into this mix the typical cold-ware fare Russian stereotypes (where in Soviet Russia even the Fly's are Communist) such as the beautiful and mysterious lady who falls for the roguish American, the scarred spy, and the short and belligerent colonel. In general the cast of characters was pretty lame and predictable (kind of like the incredibly shallow story).
The boys adventure to space attracts the attention of the Soviet flies and the impending danger helps the old American fly reunite with his lost Russian love as well as brining all of the American flies together to save our intrepid heroes. Yawn. To top it all off the price of admission was $27 for three people - or, as the cashier put it, 1 adult and 2 children. $9 a person! Why? Because the studio had opted out of actually telling a story and, instead, decided to try and WOW us with their 3D technology. Consider me unimpressed. We did get some high-grade plastic 3D glasses though; however, I doubt we will be able to use them to save money at a future 3D movie.
If it weren't for the fact that my 7 year old daughter liked the movie so much I would say there is nothing worthwhile in the film. However, the 3D effects really did entrance her and she spent quite a bit of time acting like she was grabbing at the various flies, mosquitoes, and maggots that seemed to jump off of the screen. On a scale of 0-5 I'll give this a 1/2 and only because she liked the effects.
Fly Me To The Moon - A Review
3 min read