Originally published Friday, August 15, 2008 at 12:00 AM
Movie review
"Fly Me to the Moon": Houston, we have a problem here
"Fly Me to the Moon" is a dreadful, 3-D animated kids film that juxtaposes the Apollo 11 moon landing with a bizarre story about flies. Even the impressive vocal cast can't help: Christopher Lloyd, Tim Curry and, incredibly, the real Buzz Aldrin voicing himself.
Special to The Seattle Times
"Fly Me to the Moon," with the voices of Christopher Lloyd, Buzz Aldrin, Adrienne Barbeau, Tim Curry. Directed by Ben Stassen, from a screenplay by Domonic Paris. 84 minutes. Rated G. Monroe 12, Pacific Place.
Some movies for kids seem as if they're conceived in a drunken stupor. "Fly Me to the Moon" could easily have been concocted at the bottom of a bottle of gin.
Try getting your head around this: "Fly Me to the Moon" is a 3-D animated adventure about the Apollo 11 moon landing, told from the perspective of three flies attempting to fulfill the space-travel dreams of an older fly who once flew up the nose of Amelia Earhart.
Yes, you read that correctly. Does this not sound like a vintage Bob Newhart telephone routine?
One of the film's more appalling moments is the sight of the accomplished and inspirational Earhart — the first female aviator to cross the Atlantic solo — blowing snot all over her plane's instrument panel. What a wonderful image for those kids in the audience who might otherwise have looked up to Earhart for the first time as a historical role model.
But the bad taste doesn't stop there. While "Fly Me to the Moon" goes to great pains to re-create, in some detail, Apollo 11's flight to the lunar surface, the story's weird focus on flies is anything but enlightening. Director Ben Stassen and writer Domonic Paris proffer ancient, egregious stereotypes about America's space-race rivals in the '60s — i.e., the Soviets, albeit in fly form; and they make every female fly a vamp, a ninny or a helpless mom.
Even the impressive vocal cast can't help: Christopher Lloyd, Tim Curry, Adrienne Barbeau, Ed Begley Jr. and, incredibly, the real Buzz Aldrin voicing himself. (A live-action Aldrin turns up at the end for the strangest coda in film history.)
By the time suspense is supposedly building over whether one of the stowaway flies aboard Apollo 11 can slip into Aldrin's spacesuit — while Russian flies are trying to sabotage the mission back at NASA — you want to run screaming from the theater. Like a surrealist juxtaposition of re-enacted history and some demented vision of a middle-class fly hell, "Fly Me to the Moon" engenders a kind of amazed dread.
Tom Keogh: tomwkeogh@yahoo.com
Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company
New DVDs | 'Up,' 'The Ugly Truth,' 'Enlighten Up!'
Carrey's 'Christmas Carol' wraps up $31M weekend
50 years: Kan. town grieves 'In Cold Blood' deaths
Lawyer: Woods' brother did not get proper care
Dining Deals: Late-night Pike Street Fish Fry expands its hours

Ken Auletta talks about "Googled"
Ken Auletta talks about Google with Brier Dudley at the Seattle Central Library.
nwjobs

Post a comment

Michelle Goodman blogs about work/life balance.
How to tell your office you're gravely ill
Post a comment
nwautos

Choosing a new sedan? Weigh the impact of your choice on your wallet and on the planet.
Post a comment
- 'Missing' SeaTac man found with new name, in new state
- Police: DNA from officer's slaying matches suspect
- Prosecutors consider charges against suspect in police shooting
- Three more fires ignite in Greenwood
- Steve Kelley | Hasselbeck gives Seahawks' sagging season a stay of execution
- Plans call for Triangle to become West Seattle gateway
- McGinn next Seattle mayor; Mallahan concedes as vote gap widens
- Bill Clinton meets with Senate Dems on health care
- Trucker dies as big-rig plummets off SF bridge
- Lt. governor's son shot by co-worker in Kent; gunman then shot self
- House health bill unacceptable to many in Senate
257 - Prosecutors prepare charges against suspect in police shooting
255 - Pelosi tours Seattle's Swedish after health-care vote
180 - Prosecutors prepare charges against suspect in police shooting
144 - Alleged shooter tied to mosque of 9/11 hijackers
136 - Obama puts heat on Senate to speed health bill
125 - Resolute Fort Hood soldiers ready for return
121 - McGinn more than doubles his lead over Mallahan
109 - Josh Smith picks UCLA
74 - Cutaia says replay handled properly on Austin TD
69
- For 80-year-old Maple Valley man, hoops aren't just a dream
- Plans call for Triangle to become West Seattle gateway
- Three more fires ignite in Greenwood
- 'Missing' SeaTac man found with new name, in new state
- Silver Lake restaurant destroyed by fire
- Pakistani-American cafe, bar owner on verge of being Granite Falls mayor
- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tours Seattle's Swedish after health-care vote
- Taste | Ruth Reichl still reigns as queen of America's culinary scene
- All You Can Eat | Fruit flies: thrill to the kill
- Police: DNA from officer's slaying matches suspect





