USAToday
Claudia Puig
A tribute to a giant leap for mankind feels like a clumsy shuffle backward for animation.
Fly Me to the Moon (* out of four), which bills itself as "the ultimate 3-D animation," has a strained, silly and inconsistent story, bland acting and decent 3-D effects - if you relish the idea of having an insect burp or sneeze in your face. The movie's only saving grace is that it might introduce very young audiences to space exploration and NASA's glory days.
Apollo 11 is the setting for this tale, and the only interesting dialogue is based on actual NASA transcripts from the 1969 moon landing.
Nat (Trevor Gagnon) is inspired by the tales of derring-do he hears from his grandpa (Christopher Lloyd), who hid aboard Amelia Earhart's historic flight across the Atlantic. Nat and pals Scooter and IQ decide to stow away on the Apollo flight. Nat even manages to attach himself to Neil Armstrong during his historic moon walk.
Then things get really silly. Russian operatives, apparently upset that the U.S. has beaten them in the space race, send a fly-spy (Tim Curry) to sabotage the re-entry plans. Nat's family must save the mission and save the trio of fly boys from imminent disaster.
The concept of a swattable team of insects making it inside a rocket is a scientific impossibility, we are told at the movie's conclusion by none other than Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin. So, if it's not technically feasible, and flies are not exactly the most visually appealing or endearing creatures, why bother making this movie?
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