gossip

Fly Me to the Moon (2008)

IMDB rating: 4.90

Plot: A digital 3D presentation that wows viewers with striking 3D effects, Fly Me to the Moon is a retelling of the 1969 Apollo 11 landing on the moon from the perspective of three young flies that allegedly hitched a ride on the historic flight. Nat, IQ, and Scooter live by the credo “If it’s not an adventure, it’s not worth doing,” so when the three flies get a chance to sneak aboard the space shuttle for a ride to the moon, all systems are definitely go. While Grandpa McFly and Nat’s young maggot siblings applaud the boys’ adventuresome spirits, their mothers stereotypically swoon and fret over their safety. The flies encounter several unanticipated twists including the trip’s week-long duration, a short in the ship’s circuitry, a Russian fly plot to sabotage their mission, and their mid-flight imprisonment in a test tube. Nonetheless, the flies manage to enjoy the experience of weightlessness with an in-space ballet interpretation of “Blue Danube” as well as an orange juice feeding frenzy. Fly Me to the Moon will likely spark new interest in space exploration and the United States’ walk on the moon, especially in today’s children, and the filmmakers made a concerted effort to present fairly accurate historical details consistent with NASA’s notes on the historic flight. There’s even an afterword from real astronaut Buzz Aldrin in which he stresses the impossibility of the existence of flies or other contaminants aboard the historic space shuttle. Fly Me to the Moon is fun entertainment for the whole family as well as an eye-catching display of digital 3D technology. (Ages 4 and older)