Film Revisits Apollo 11, This Time with Additional Astronauts: Houseflies

Buzz Aldrin is going back to the moon. Or rather, his voice is. Aldrin was in New York City yesterday for the premiere of Fly Me to the Moon, a 3-D animated retelling of the Apollo 11 moon landing in which the famous astronaut voices himself from almost 40 years ago. The movie, however, is told from the point of view of three young flies—Nat, Scooter, and I.Q.— who stow away inside the astronauts' helmets in order to become the first flying insects on the moon. It's a kid's movie, full of hokey humor, and the plot doesn't hold too many surprises—the flies and astronauts go to the moon, and then they come back. While not chock-full of plot twists, the film is beautifully rendered and features some funny bits. It hearkens back to the Cold War paranoia of the time by featuring Soviet villains (who are also houseflies) trying to thwart the moon landing—just picture Boris Badenov drawn as a housefly in a communist military uniform. In another scene, "The Blue Danube" plays in the background as the hero flies first float weightless in space. This homage to the film version of 2001: A Space Odyssey is fitting—Aldrin told DISCOVER that the novel's original author, Arthur C. Clarke, helped inspire him to become an astronaut, as did science fiction by writers like H.G. Wells and Jules Verne. So perhaps Fly Me to the Moon will encourage some new young explorers. Just make sure you grab the 3-D glasses; without them the film is a little disorienting. If you've never seen 3-D images without 3-D glasses, check it out here. The movie opens in most theaters on August 15. Image: Courtesy nWave Pictures/flymetothemoonthemovie.com