Three-dimensional films, as a gimmick, still seem to be in the relative stages of infancy after all these years of the medium being touted as “the next big thing”. There was the initial phase in the 1950s, with cheesy horror movies that literally jumped out of the screen. Then it graduated into the era of Hollywood special effects, like with Jaws 3-D and Michael Jackson’s Captain Eo in the ’80s. Now in the new millennium, 3-D seems to, once again, be the next big thing… because now it is being tackled with CGI.
Now that is good and all, but save for a few rare cases, all the filmmakers attention seems to be poured into the effects rather than, you know, making a good movie. Alas, such is the case for Fly Me to the Moon.
Since this is a kiddie movie, it is hard to completely roll your eyes at the basic premise. With the excuse of making a movie showing how cool rockets and astronauts would look in 3-D, we have a plot about a trio of fly “kids” who hitch a ride on Apollo 11 to go to the moon. You see, Grandpa (Christopher Lloyd) was once an adventurer himself, and even hitched a ride once with Amelia Earhart (and ended up awash in her boogers, apparently). Cognitive adults in the audience may scratch their heads a little bit at this timeline, as this would make Grandpa a house fly that was at the very least 32 years old (probably older, since, um, he already had a beard when he was hanging with Amelia). This just goes to show, like the biologically, um, “diverse” animated film Barnyard: The Original Party Animals, you should NEVER let your children learn about the animal kingdom from Hollywood animated films.
Anyway, the three tots grab their bags of personal fly-sized astronaut gear and make it into the space capsule just in time for take-off. The astronauts all looks like the same square-jawed generic animated man, but that didn’t really bother me, because I was looking at the spaceship. I have to admit, once Fly Me to the Moon got into outer space, I was pleasantly distracted. These moments in the film are pretty nifty, even the silly moment where the fat fly Scooter (David Gore) sucks weightless drops of orange juice into his gullet. And it actually looked like the filmmakers did their homework when showing the Apollo landing (since obviously they weren’t taking their time reading about the lifespan of a house fly).
And, basically, that is the whole plot. The film is rather drawn-out, even at 84 minutes, with the plot fluffed up with Russian fly saboteurs (that inexplicably disappear for the whole middle chunk of the film), menacing threats like spray cans and glass vials, worried fly moms that exclaim, “Well, Lord of the Flies!” (which was only funny the first time), and such. Filmgoers get to wear the cool 3-D glasses through the whole movie, and I know I wasn’t the only one taking them off to rub my eyes every 20 minutes or so. The first part of the movie drags in setting up the story, wasting time taking gratuitous trips with the camera zooming trough grass and dollhouses and such, just so all the tots in the audience could go, “Ooooo!” and grasp at the air… and the final act hurries a bunch of action sequences, as though the filmmakers remembered that there were some bad guys introduced earlier, and they best give them something to do—and preferably something that flies off the screen.
That said, there isn’t a lot in the film, as far as 3-D goes, that is notably really cool or unique in Fly Me to the Moon. The animation itself is not outstanding, and the story is meh. If you are a fan of space and astronauts, the middle chunk is actually pretty harmlessly entertaining… but other than that you and your child companion will probably get bored and restless with this one.
