Friday, August 15, 2008

If we can put a man -- or, for that matter, a bug -- on the moon, why can't we make a better movie about it? That is the question rattling around inside the lunar module that is "Fly Me to the Moon," the high-tech yet ultimately weightless 3-D cartoon about a trio of intrepid flyboys (of the insect variety) that stow away on the Apollo 11 moon mission.

The first animated movie created specifically for the 3-D format, "Fly" boasts knock-your-socks-off visuals. In the film's opening seconds, a dragonfly will appear to hover quite literally a few inches in front of your nose. You, and everyone else in the theater, will probably try to swat it away.

Yes, the illusion is that good. If only the story lived up to the special effects.

Nat, IQ and Scooter (voices of Trevor Gagnon, Philip Daniel Bolden and David Gore) are juvenile houseflies with big dreams, fueled largely by the tall tales of Nat's grandfather (Christopher Lloyd), who rode with Amelia Earhart during her solo transatlantic flight. Boys being boys -- even when they're the size of raisins -- they sneak onto the 1969 spacecraft carrying Neil Armstrong and crew to the moon.

Needless to say, something goes wrong. Actually, a couple of somethings, one of which has to do with a Russian-spy fly (Tim Curry) trying to sabotage the mission.

OMG. Will the kids -- whom the human astronauts have by now knocked out with bug spray and locked up in a test tube -- escape to save the day? Ya think?

Despite some Cold War humor, the formulaic film is aimed squarely at the youngest of young children. The stakes, like the story, never lift off more than a few feet from the ground. It's too bad, really, when the 3-D technology is actually good enough to make you feel like you've flown to the moon and back.

-- Michael O'Sullivan

Fly Me to the Moon G, 90 minutes Contains mild bathroom humor. Area theaters.