CAPCOM Go!: The Apollo Story

I took my son and daughter to see this dome show at the beginning of the year. It's a fantastic insight into the achievements of all those involved in making the many Apollo missions happen. The Apollo 11 launch sequence gave me goosebumps! Good fun. Recommended.

With so much incredible Apollo footage available why use animation? I knew it wasn't going to be good 1 minute in with still pictures and silly line drawings. It tried to cover too much in too short a time. Soulless stuff. Politically correct to the point of being misleading. Rubbish really.

This movie about Apollo 11, to the best of my recollection, does not use any actual launch footage or other video footage. The motion sequences are all computer generated, although there is creative use of still photographs of the mission. Additionally, the film is laced with political correctness, including the recent Katherine Johnson revisionism. The worst bit of this is the very end, when they are "recruiting" future astronauts, where they show images of smiling young people in space suits - not a single white, male face among them.

This documentary covers a huge amount of ground in 26 mins, but still manages to explain the incredible achievements of NASA's Apollo program clearly and in much detail. Most of the show is beautifully CGI animated, and often you are left wondering if what you just saw was real footage. The Saturn V launch sequence in particular is an emotional roller-coaster ride. The use of original still photography in a 3D environment is also very well done, and helps brings the photography alive. The show seems to be catered towards a younger audience, but young and old with learn a lot about the remarkably brave men who dared journey to the moon and back, and the thousands of dedicated individuals who made those journeys possible. Certainly one of the best planetarium shows I've seen in recent years, and a must see for any Apollo mission nuts like myself.