Fly Me to the Moon is a Belgian-American CGI animated 3D feature film. It was released in digital 3D in Belgium on 30 January 2008 and in the USA and Canada on 15 August 2008. The film was also released in IMAX 3D in the USA and Canada starting 8 August 2008.
Plot[]
A preteen fly named Nat and his two best friends, I.Q. and Scooter, build a “fly-sized” rocket in a field across from Cape Canaveral, Florida, where the Apollo 11 sits on the Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39. From his earliest memory, Nat remembers his grandfather, Amos, telling him of his daring rescue of Amelia Earhart when she and Fred Noonan crossed the Atlantic Ocean on their historic flight in 1937. Wanting to be an adventurer like his Grandpa, Nat knows what he has to do. Defying the notion that “Dreamers get swatted!” he tells his friends his plan to get aboard the Apollo 11 and go to the moon. His buddies, with some reluctance, are in. The next morning, as their families realize they are missing, the three flies make it in to Mission Control. In their homemade space suits, Nat, I.Q. and Scooter manage to stow away inside the space helmets of astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins. As they blast off, our three tiny adventurers are about to make some history of their own.
Back on Earth, Grandpa, Mom and the others watch TV to get news of their offspring’s adventure. As the astronauts appear on camera, the heroic flies wave in the background, visible to other flies but barely seen by humans – except for the attentive NASA flight controller Steve Bales, who informs Armstrong that there appear to be “contaminants” on board. One other problem: in the far-away Soviet Union, there are other flies watching TV – Soviet flies who cannot tolerate the idea that American flies might get to the moon first. A Soviet plan is hatched and special operatives are enlisted to interfere with the American mission. The Soviet Union puts all its hopes of success on the back of one nasty operative named Yegor. Fortunately, a pretty Soviet fly named Nadia also sees the flies on board and hears Scooter calling out Grandpa’s real name, the very name of the fly Nadia met in Paris and loved so many years ago.
Back on board the space ship, as the burn cycle to enter the moon's Trans Lunar Injection orbit begins, the spacecraft is violently rocked. There’s a short circuit in the Service Module that must be fixed manually or the ship won’t be able to complete its mission. Nat and I.Q. fly through a maze of wires, find the problem and repair it just in time. Unaware of the flies’ aid, the ship enters orbit and all is well... or so they think. Just as they congratulate each other, the little flies are sprayed with a numbing aerosol and are captives in a test tube vial – contaminants indeed.
The flies manage to break the vial. Nat sneaks into Armstrong’s helmet just in the nick of time. The Lunar Module Eagle lands on Mare Tranquillitatis. From inside the helmet, Nat beams with every awe-inspiring historic step. I.Q. and Scooter join him on the surface inside Aldrin’s helmet. After a climatic rescue with Nat bringing Scooter back to the Columbia, the Eagle is jettisoned. Back on Earth, other plots are being set in motion. After more than 30 years apart, Nadia finds Grandpa, though the joy of their reunion is brief. She tells Grandpa and Nat’s Mom about the Soviet plot to divert the mission. Nat’s Mom faints while Grandpa takes off with a renewed youthful vow to save his grandson. At Mission Control Center, the Soviet operatives have infiltrated and are preparing to alter the descent codes. Unaware of the potential danger looming, the astronauts and the little flies sit back and prepare to come back home as heroes.
Grandpa, Nat’s Mom and Nadia join forces to stop Yegor and the Soviet plan as the Command Module Columbia hurtles closer and closer toward Earth's atmosphere. In a series of death-defying stunts, they crush the Soviet threat. The Columbia splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean, where it is recovered by the USS Hornet. Returning as heroes, the three little flies share a slogan embraced by all: “Adventure forever! Dreamers get swatted? Never!”
At the end the real Buzz Aldrin spoils the film by explaining that no flies were on board during the historic flight.
Cast[]
- Christopher Lloyd - Grandpa
- Kelly Ripa - Nat's Mom
- Nichollette Sheridan - Nadia
- Tim Curry - Yegor
- Trevor Gagnon - Nat
- Philip Daniel Bolden - I. Q.
- David Gore - Scooter
- Ed Begley, Jr. - Poopchey
- Adrienne Barbeau - Scooter's Mom
- Robert Patrick - Louie
- Buzz Aldrin - Himself
- Sandy Simpson - Commander Armstrong
- Eddie Frierson - Commander Aldrin
- David Cowgill - Commander Collins
- Steve Kramer - Leonid
- Mimi Maynard - I. Q.'s Mom
- Lloyd Sherr - Mission Control 19b9
- Charlie Rocket - Mission Control 19b1
- Phil Proctor - Senior Official
- Nicholas Guest - Fly Buddy #1
- Archie Hahn - Fly Buddy #2
- Lynnanne Zager - Fly at Launch
- Scott Menville - Butch
- Cam Clarke - Ray
- Michael McConnahie - American Newscaster
- Doug Stone - Russian Newscaster
- Max Burkholder - Mom's Maggot
- Jessica Gee - Maggot #1
- Mona Marshall - Maggot #2
- Barbara Goodson - Maggot #3
- Toby Stone - Mosquito
- James Frederick - Horsefly #1
- Jeffrey Braer - Horsefly #2
- Greg Berger - Pale Russian Flies
- Sophie Simpson - Katie
- Lorraine Nicholson - Polly
- Auguste Paris - Kid Fly At The Party
- Michael Consuelos - "Party Mold" Kid Fly
Loop Group[]
- Angelica Huggins
- Archie Hahn
- Barbara Goodson
- David Cowgill
- David Jolliffe
- Dean Wein
- Donte Paris
- Doug Stone
- Gigi Perreau
- Grant George
- Jackie Gonneau
- James Frederick
- Jessie Lifton
- Jessica Gee
- Lynnanne Zager
- Melora Harte
- Mona Marshall
- Nicholas Guest
- Oliver Paris
- Phil Proctor
- Steve Kramer
- Wendy Hoffman