Fly Me to the Moon

The 3D animated film is certainly not a new idea, and while the extent of applying real 3D through the use of glasses dates back to before Toy Story graced our screens, the technology has been somewhat underused. This is no coincidence however, as most will agree that with 3D glasses, along comes gimmick at the expense of story or narration. Fly me to the Moon certainly doesn't do much to shun away such allegations, as the experience is essentially a lame excuse to try out some really nice looking 3D effects and animation, but it is this impressive aesthetic that gives the film life that it would never have had before. Through this extra dimension the movie achieves a sense of compulsion with the viewer, engaging on a level only touched on by the greatest of cinematographers; Fly me to the Moon certainly feels like a trip into outer space, and on this basis alone should you decide whether or not to give this one a try.

Outside of the obvious sensory appeals of the film, the remainder of the much more standard and straight forward elements of film-making are dull and uninteresting in comparison. The story, which follows a trio of youngster fleas as they go on a brave adventure into space through means of hitchhiking in astronauts helmets, has its wonderful moments which will be sure to resonate with anyone interested in space travel. Although once again, without the punctuation of the wonderfully animated environments and smooth, crisp character designs, such moments would probably be fruitless; a little like watching a grainy, black and white version of 2001 with the sound switched off on the ten inch display. Nevertheless, the characters, although extremely standard fare for children's movies, provide adequate motive for the film to move forward and keep exploring all the images of space that lie ahead. The adventure is nonsensical, overly contrived and more than predictable, but for children at least, it will provide some entertainment. For the adults, it's all really just a timid excuse to watch all the glitter fly around on screen.

Where the film begins to lag behind however lies in the tacked on subplot involving some seedy Russian antagonists out to blow the moon-mission out of sheer jealousy. Although the depictions of Russia at the time is a little distasteful, lacking the needed comical edge to win over the audience in regards to their obviously caricature nature, this isn't the major flaw inherent to the development. Instead rather it is simply that it lacks any real coherency and fails to establish any sense of relevant link to the much more engaging main plot. Plus, taking place largely inside the brown hues of wherever these fleas live, and lacking any real amusing characters outside of ex-adventurer Grandpa, the segments which are spliced in between all the adventure and action feel perfunctory for the sake of maintaining standard structure expected of the genre and all the more uninteresting as a result.

In the end, whether or not you will enjoy Fly Me to the Moon depends on two factors: what age you are and what your disposition is in regards to 3D movies. While it would help to be under your teens and be fond of the three-dimensional gimmick, there are nevertheless other areas in which the movie can please. The main focus being that of space exploration and living out your dreams at the cost of risking your normal, everyday life is always playing out in the subtext of the film, but its presence is palpable enough to warrant engagement with all that is going on behind the fancy effects. Sure enough with such films as Space Chimps and big-shot WALL-E not long behind cinema goer's minds, it would be hard to justify another trip into space without having some serious backing from other elements within the film. In this respect, Fly Me to the Moon too often fails. With an overly formulaic script, flat character development and some spotty plotting, the feature does little to convince you that it is anything but a treat for the eyes. So unless you really enjoy your animated-children's-3D-space movies, I wouldn't necessarily recommend this, but there is still fun to be had here for those who are.

• A review by Jamie Robert Ward (http://www.invocus.net)

The animation in this wasn't too bad, and the story wasn't the most original concept (surprisingly sentient characters, in this case flies, piggybacking on an existing human story or adventure), but still entertaining enough for a kiddie/family cartoon movie.

What made this awful was the voice acting by the kids that voiced the three main characters. All of the others were passable, but dialogue between those three made me feel like I was sitting through a table-reading in a second grade classroom.

I don't know if it was bad coaching or directing, or the kids themselves (who sounded just fine in the live-action features I've seen featuring them). Regardless, this was one prime example of a studio being so obsessed with finding a voice that was even mildly recognizable that they passed on quality.

That awkward line-reading made it almost seem as though they made the rest of the movie and then found kids to read the words that had already been animated, or as if they just plugged in dialogue from a read-through when they auditioned. All entertainment would cease as soon as the main characters started talking, and we just sat and waited impatiently for them to finish awkwardly pushing out their lines.

Ugh. Good job pushing this piece of crap instead of funding 3 or 4 other productions that may have been worth watching.

"Fly Me To The Moon" has to be the worst animated film I've seen in a LONG TIME. That's saying something since I have taken my son to see every animated release for the last 4 years now. The story is to be generous...trite. The voice acting is atrocious, Too cute sounding. The humor is of the Romper Room variety. The animation is passable for a Nickolodeon type of cartoon but this is being released on the big screen not cable television.

It gets a 2 only because of it's OK 3-D visuals. Some of the scenes had a mildly stimulating image but We've seen much better in the past. I also question the insistence of the filmmakers to have characters fly away from the screen rather than into it in most of the scenes. While that is interesting at first it became tiresome after the 3rd or 4th time. It seemed to smack of indifference to me on the part of the creators.

I will say this though, It had a pretty cool soundtrack. And for the record my son wasn't too crazy about it either. Bad movie.

No big action scenes, no adult humor that the kids don't understand, this is just a nice calm cartoon that you can watch with your kids before bedtime. It won't rev them up or get them to jump up and down. Thy might even like flys after watching this flick.

Postitives, The color palette of the movie, reminds me of a bygone era. The scenery is pleasant. Music is calm.

Parental guide, The flies use the word Crap a few times and one of the flies refers to the others as idiots.

Plot is slow but it does tell a good story about the space launch that put a man on the moon. It is not a Pixar or Disney high end animated feature that we are so programmed to expect in animation nowadays. It just a slow nicely done movie for young kids...it probably not for you if you are an adult and watching it without kids.

Actually, this is a lie, Shrek 3-D was actually the first 3d animated movie. I bought it on DVD about 3 years ago. Didn't Bug's Life also do that? I think it was at Disneyworld in that tree, so I'm saying before they go and use that as there logo. Also, Shrek 3d was a motion simulator at Universal Studios. They should still consider it as a movie, because it appeared in a "theater" and you could buy it for DVD. The movie was cute, at least the little flyes were. I liked IQ. I agree with animaster, they did a god job out of making a movie out of something that is just a out-and-back adventure. I recommend it to families and kids.