TxMike This was a DVD from my local public library. I enjoyed it more than I expected to. The animation is just superb, and it has a very well engineered surround-sound track. All in all a very enjoyable short movie.The story is set in July 1969 when Apollo 11 was to launch and make its historic trip to the Moon. As history witnesses it did and, even though the 3-man crew were on the Moon for less than 3 hours, it opened the way for possible future exploration of worlds beyond the Earth.The central characters here are all various types of flies. One of them, Grandpa McFly (voiced by the great Christopher Lloyd of BTTF series of movies) told his grandchildren flies his story over and over, how he was on the plane when Amelia Earhart in 1928 flew solo across the Atlantic, and when she fell asleep he saved the day by flying up her nose to make her sneeze and to recover from the dive just in time. That scene is very graphic!Well, the grandkid flies wanted to do something exciting too, and living in Florida devised a plan to hide out in a worker's lunch pail to gain entrance to the Apollo 11 preparations.The animation is really very, very good, and it was fun watching these little animated flies, and listen to their dialog. The animation of the spaceship in orbit and on the moon's surface is very nicely done.SPOILERS: The 3 small flies make it onto Apollo 11 and their fly relatives and friends get to a TV and see them in the background during a broadcast from the space ship. A crisis happens when the Lunar Lander is about to go into Moon orbit when an electrical problem shows its ugly head. The flies find the problem, an unplugged wire, and pool their strength to push the plug in just in time. So, just as Grandpa McFly had saved the historic Earhart flight, these little flies saved the Apollo 11 flight.

Jamie Ward 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)

vinov1260 While the 3-D animation (the highlight of the show) did it's job well, most other elements fell flat. It was as though the filmmakers thought "well, it's gonna be 3-D so we don't have to work that hard on the plot or character development." And the fact that it's a children's movie is absolutely no excuse. The public is drawn to three dimensional characters (Shrek, Nemo's Dad) just as much as they are drawn to three dimensional graphics. The only dimension any of the main characters showed was two dimensional Scooter who twists the plot from time to time with his compulsion to eat everything in sight.And the absolute kicker? Buzz Aldrin's appearance at the very end (after watching a very robotic cartoon version of the same historical figure for an hour and half) comes on the screen and ruins everyone's good time by calling the film's main characters "contaminants" and announcing that the situation put forth on screen was actually an impossibility.???!!!??? Did you just wanna tell the kids the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus don't exist while you're at it?

Kristine Honestly, I did have a feeling from the trailer that Fly Me to the Moon wasn't going to exactly my style. But I had the opportunity to see it today for free and I just wanted to give it a fair chance, I don't know what's with this year, but it doesn't seem like all the animated films are gold, now we had WALL-E and Kung Fu Panda, that's about it when it comes to the good animated films, but then we had Space Chimps and now Fly Me to the Moon that are just average. See, what bugs me is that this movie is just for kids, I think we should have those kind of films, but this was semi-boring. The humor didn't even seem to exist, also flies are not cute or interesting to watch and just because a film is made for 3-D doesn't make it a great film. I'm not trying to hate on this film because the story is decent, it's just the way it's told that makes it a little dull.Nat, I.Q., and Scooter are young flies who are just day dreamers, but Nat dreams of going to the moon one of these days. When he talks to his adventurous grandfather, he decides to just go for it. He talks I.Q. and Scoother into it as well, they sneak onto the rocket ship that is taking Americans to the moon for the first time. But with the mothers freaking out at home and Russian flies who can't stand the idea of these American flies getting the credit, it may not be a happy trip home.Fly Me to the Moon is alright for the kids under 7, that's it. Like I said, I think we should have movies that are aimed for kids only, but this was just dull and didn't interest me. The humor is very tame and the characters aren't the best to relate too. There are a couple of nice things about the movie, like the animation is beautiful and the story is fun. Even though 3-D doesn't make a movie wonderful, it does make it a lot of fun to watch and a lot more interesting to look at. Over all, I'd say to see this as a matinée if you want to see it on the 3-D screen, otherwise, it's a rental, there's nothing special about it, but it's a nice movie.5/10