Today’s Prayer Focus
MOVIE REVIEW

Fly Me To the Moon 3D

also known as “Les Mouchonautes”

Reviewed by: Patty Moliterno
CONTRIBUTOR

Moral Rating: Average
Moviemaking Quality:
Primary Audience: Kids, Family
Genre: Animation, Adventure, Kids, Family
Length: 1 hr. 24 min.
Year of Release: 2008
USA Release: August 15, 2008 (500 theaters)
DVD release: December 2, 2008
Copyright, Domestic distribution: Summit Entertainment / International: nWave Pictures Copyright, Domestic distribution: Summit Entertainment / International: nWave Pictures Copyright, Domestic distribution: Summit Entertainment / International: nWave Pictures Copyright, Domestic distribution: Summit Entertainment / International: nWave Pictures Copyright, Domestic distribution: Summit Entertainment / International: nWave Pictures Copyright, Domestic distribution: Summit Entertainment / International: nWave Pictures Copyright, Domestic distribution: Summit Entertainment / International: nWave Pictures Copyright, Domestic distribution: Summit Entertainment / International: nWave Pictures Copyright, Domestic distribution: Summit Entertainment / International: nWave Pictures Copyright, Domestic distribution: Summit Entertainment / International: nWave Pictures
Relevant Issues
Copyright, Domestic distribution: Summit Entertainment / International: nWave Pictures

Have scientists discovered the moon's origin? Answer

The Moon in the Bible

Answer to your astronomy

Flies in the Bible

Insects of the Bible

Insects of the rainforest

click for Kid Explorers
Adventures in the rainforest! Learn about the Creator of the universe by exploring His marvelous creation. Fun for the whole family with games, activities, stories, answers to children’s questions, color pages, and more! One of the Web’s first and most popular Christian Web sites for children. Nonprofit, evangelical, nondenominational.
Featuring Buzz Aldrin, Adrienne Barbeau, Ed Begley Jr., Philip Bolden, Cam Clark, Tim Curry, Trevor Gagnon, David Gore, Steve Kramer, Christopher Lloyd, Mimi Maynard, Scott Menville, Lorraine Nicholson, Robert Patrick, Kelly Ripa, Nicollette Sheridan, Sophie Simpson
Director Ben Stassen
Producer Gina Gallo, Charlotte Clay Huggins, Mimi Maynard, Domonic Paris, Ben Stassen, Caroline Van Iseghem
Distributor Domestic distribution: Summit Entertainment / International: nWave Pictures

“It took a monkey to get man into space, but it will take three flies to get them back!”

Fly Me to the Moon is a story about 3 young flies Scooter, IQ, and Nat who spend their days in a junkyard close to Cape Canaveral and they are trying to build a rocket to the moon. Nat’s Grandpa McFly (Christopher Lloyd) fills his head with adventure stories of his younger days and yearns from some adventure of his own. On the day of the Apollo 11 launch, Nat, Scooter and IQ decide to sneak into a NASA employee’s lunchbox and take a trip to the moon.

Nat’s mom (Kelly Ripa), Scooter’s mom (Adrienne Barbeau), and IQ’s mom (Mimi Maynard) find out what their sons have done and fly over to NASA to try to stop them. Obviously, they are too late and must wait until the crew of Apollo 11 return to Earth. Meanwhile, Comrade Poopchev (Ed Begley Jr.), a Russian fly, is not going to be outdone by the American flies and uses Russian operatives in the United States to try to foil the Apollo 11 mission.

OFFENSIVE CONTENT: While this movie was rated G, it had content that pushed the limits and was unnecessary. The sexual comments and suggestions were totally unwelcome in my opinion. I wonder why the person who came up the naming of the TV station (DCUP-TV) was not immediately fired and someone with a love for children and what is appropriate was not hired instead.

A comment is made to a group of fireflies about them growing up (because they now light up) and they are told “now the girls will be all over you”. Grandpa is one of the worst offenders of off colored comments—“You know any hotties that want to go honey dipping”, “AH—women”, etc. The Russian fly, Nadia, who was Grandpa’s love interest years ago, has an overly large bust. At the end of the movie, Grandpa dips Nadia and kisses her passionately.

There is other language that is just plain unnecessary—stupid and idiot is said repeatedly, as well as crap. Grandpa tells a joke about telling the difference between boys and girls “3 were on the beer can, 3 were on the phone”. “Oh my lord of the flies” was said several times. “Get your butt into it”, “I should kill you”, “Dreamers get swatted”, etc.

OTHER OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT included drinking and talk of drinking by the adult flies. An ashtray full of cigarette butts is on a desk. Some violence—hitting, fistfights, an evil Russian fly pulls a knife during one fight, the evil fly has a scar on his face, etc. Scooter, Nat, and IQ run away from home and when they return they are given a hero’s welcome with no adverse consequences for their actions.

There are a few redeeming moments in this film. Nat and his grandpa have a very wonderful relationship. Grandpa McFly spends time telling stories about his glory days and Nat is willing and excited to listen over and over again to the same stories. Nat pursued his dream of flying to the moon with fierce determination. We need to teach our children to pursue their goals with such a determination. If you feel called to do something, you need to pursue that even when obstacles get in your way. Nadia also shows extreme courage as she leaves her homeland of Russia to fly to America to stop the Russian’s from destroying Apollo 11. She gives up all she knows to do the right thing. Sometimes to follow Jesus and do the right thing, we must be willing to give up what is comfortable for what is right.

When I agreed to review this movie, it was said that there would be over 2000 theaters showing this movie. This 3-D technology is new and this is the first movie of this kind being shown. As of right now, there are only about 500 theaters showing this movie. We drove for over an hour to see it, and then found out that there was a surcharge because the theater had to pay for this new technology. Of course, the 3D itself was very, very good, however, the great visual effects don’t make up for a dumb movie with very little plot that gives the appearance of random scenes being thrown together. If nWave wants to impress us with 3D technology, they need to give us content worthy of viewing. However, if you are convinced you need to see this movie because of the great visual effects, be warned—my 4 year old son was afraid in many scenes and took his glasses off repeatedly, there were younger children crying in the audience, it is very hard to view this movie without the glasses, and the content of this movie is not worthy of a G rating.

Violence: Minor / Profanity: Mild / Sex/Nudity: Minor

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.


Viewer CommentsSend your comments
Positive—This was a good kid movie. The story is funny, and there is a good friendship between the three flies that end up going to the moon. There are some bad guys, but nothing much happens on that side. I think it was a clean movie, I don't remember having heard bad words. It was great to see the grand-father figure helping his grand-son to reach for his dream.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Average / Moviemaking quality: 4
David, age 34 (Canada)