To Fly Where No Flies Have Flown Before

Posted by Josh Radde (josh@filmschoolrejects.com) on April 11, 2008

There’s a 3-D animated adventure out there you probably haven’t heard about yet. Summit and nWave Entertainment are bringing director Ben Stassen’s 3-D animated tale of the historic 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing, Fly Me to the Moon. Except, instead of just telling the story of Neil Armstrong’s “big leap for mankind,” the moon-landing is actually the side-plot to a story involving three ambitious houseflies who find themselves on Apollo’s flight.

The plot takes a turn when the Russians send their own housefly (voiced by the magnificent Tim Curry) to NASA to disrupt the flight, at which time one of the lunar-bound houseflies’ grandpa (voiced by Christopher Lloyd) must lead a defense attack to protect his grandbug-son.

The animation is actually pretty intricate and fascinating (you can see a trailer and several stills over at flymetothemoonthemovie.com) despite a relatively small budget. Sounds like Stassen is making good use of 3-D effects by making a movie where the 3-D actually adds to the story (because who doesn’t want to see a richly detailed outer space), unlike something like Meet the Robinsons or Superman Returns where 3-D was just thrown in for aesthetic purposes.

So if you’re interested, go check out the website. Fly Me to the Moon is now playing in your local Belgium cineplex and is arriving in the US August 22nd.

Also, take a look at the first teaser poster from the film, which was sent over to us by Summit Entertainment:

Read more articles by Josh Radde