Review for Fly Me to the Moon

Director: Ben Stassen

Released: 2008
Genre: Animation

Fly Me to the Moon is an animated tale about a group of young flies who manage to sneak onto the Apollo 11 spaceship and accompany Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the moon. It could have been an interesting film if done correctly on at least a few levels. Unfortunately, Fly Me to the Moon is not and was not, respectively.

Before watching Fly Me to the Moon, I had never seen a computer generated film that was badly made. I steered clear of any features that did not involve Pixar, with the exceptions being Dreamwork's Shrek and the first Ice Age. I had convinced myself that, if a CGI project made it through development and saw a theatrical release, there was no way it could be ponderously dull, or worse, aggravatingly flawed. I ignored advertisments for Hoodwinked, Arthur and the Incredibles, and other such productions so as not to burst this bubble of mine, but I knew it was only a matter of time before I stumbled upon a heap of halfheartedly rendered drek that passes itself off as a film. In this sense, Fly Me to the Moon is a revelation for me; it is a watershed moment in my attempt to properly review films.

I will begin with the dialogue: in Shrek and The Incredibles, the remarks and allusions characters make are witty and spontaneous- everything flows naturally and gains momentum, not unlike watching a professional theatrical performance. In Fly Me to the Moon, the conversations seem forced and stiff, and are rife with slight pauses between lines and overly effuse replies. Instead of watching something akin to a Broadway production, I felt I was being forced to sit through a middle school play put on by students in an entry level drama class. The irritating cultural references do not end with the title, and include exclamations such as, "oh my Lord of the Flies!" How very inspired...

In addition to the insurmountable issues with the script, watching Fly Me to the Moon is like going back in time, in two respects: through the storyline we are transported back to the year 1969, and through the animated visuals we are transported back to the year 1999. The latter remark is not meant to be a compliment; if I were shown Fly Me to the Moon without being told when it was created, I would have guessed it was made around the same time as Toy Story 2, or perhaps A Bug's Life, but Fly Me to the Moon was in fact released in 2008. There is also a great disparity in visual quality between scenes- some shots of the human characters lack even the textural detail of people in Toy Story, which was released thirteen years prior. The work was even submitted by Paramount Pictures for Oscar nomination in the best animated feature film category, along with thirteen similar movies from different production companies. Other nominees for 2008 included Kung Fu Panda, The Tale of Despereaux, and the Pixar juggernaut Wall-E. It goes without saying that Paramount's apparent pride and joy was not nominated, because having Fly Me to the Moon go up against such formidable competition is like forcing a newborn lamb to fend off a Chimera.

After watching Fly Me to the Moon, I find the fact that Pixar has not yet created a poorly received film to be all the more impressive. Granted, Wall-E was made on a budget of $180 million, as opposed to Fly's $25 million, but that does not excuse the latter from being a bland, boring and ultimately uninspired polygon fest that happens to be the first 3-D animated feature... and a premature nail in the coffin of such a superfluous medium.

To director Ben Stassen: when Space Chimps garners twice as many positive reviews as your own movie, you know you're in trouble.

1.00/4.00