Fly Me to the Moon is an animated European film created by Summit Entertainment and N-Wave Entertainment in 2008. It started out as a 4-D Ride in various theme parks. It's about three flies named I.Q., Nat, and Scooter stowing away on a flight to space, after hearing about space flight Apollo 11 launching to the moon. Unfortunately, some Russian flies are trying to sabotage the launch because they can't stand the idea of Americans reaching the moon before Russians do.
Not to be confused with the manga of the same name.
This film provides examples of:
- Ace Pilot: You have to be an ace pilot to be an astronaut, but Nat, Scooter and I.Q., along with Amos, manage to get a pass from this due to them being stowaways. However, they do show some skill by unknowingly helping the astronauts as well as Amelia Earhart.
- And Mission Control Rejoiced: The flight controllers cheer when the moon landing is a success and again (represented by the fly characters) when the astronauts and the flies survive reentry.
- Artistic License – Biology: In this film, flies can live for several decades and not all fly "children" are maggots.
- Badass Bookworm:
- It's NASA. This skill needs to be on the resume of each team member.
- I.Q., the brains and voice of reason of the fly trio, comes up with the idea to escape the tube they are captured in.
- Bittersweet Ending: Downplayed. Apollo 11 safely returns to Earth, but Nat is sorry that his grandfather did not go to the moon with him.
- The Captain: Both Nat and Neil Armstrong are the calm, cooled captains of their respective trios.
- Color-Coded Characters: Nat's spacesuit is blue, I.Q.'s is green, and Scooter's is red.
- Cool Old Guy: Nat's grandfather Amos McFly. He's an awesome storyteller, and even got to fly with Amelia Earhart on her 1932 flight.
- Dirty Communists: Some Russian flies are trying to sabotage the launch because they can't stand the idea of Americans reaching the moon before Russians do.
- Disney Death: Done in quadruple fold.
- The first is a two at the price of one. At Launch Control, Nat and I.Q. are separated from Scooter, whom they assume is another fat fly that got crushed by one of the flight directors. After Scooter shows up, the fly in question is revealed to have survived the crushing, injured, but happy.
- One of the astronauts sprays the flies with a numbing spray and Nat is the first to awaken. He tries in vain to wake up his friends and it's implied that he lead them to their supposed deaths. They wake up a few minutes later, though.
- Nat rescues Scooter from the Lunar Module Eagle when it is jettisoned, but they fail to show up to a mournful I.Q. until Scooter offers him a glob of orange Tang.
- Similar to Apollo 13 (which took place about 9 months after 11 returned from the moon), there is a communications blackout during re-entry, and all the audience can see is Launch Control and the families of Nat, Scooter and I.Q. awaiting for contact to be re-established. After three minutes and forty-five seconds, there is still no contact. Eventually, there's contact, and the flies cheer when they see Columbia descending from the sky on its parachutes.
- This also happened during the real Apollo 11 mission. If you listen to the mission audio
, CAPCOM Ron Evans tried contacting the spacecraft through ARIA (Apollo/Advanced Range Instrumentation Aircraft) without much success. In the end, it was USS Hornet that managed to establish contact with Apollo 11 when, after one attempt, Neil Armstrong gave the coordinations of their current position. This was because the airwaves between Columbia, Houston and Hornet were interfering with one another. It was only after Mission Control gave up contact that Hornet was able to get a clear communication with the crew of 11.
- This also happened during the real Apollo 11 mission. If you listen to the mission audio
- Double Entendre: When the film was redubbed for Brazilian viewers, IQ's Mother's line about telling him "never go beyond the fence" is changed to "never jump the fence". Among Brazilians, "to jump the fence" is a slang term that refers to someone cheating on their spouse.
- Four-Legged Insect: The flies are depicted with a human-like body plan, including one pair of arms and one pair of legs.
- Heel–Face Turn: Nadia, fed up with being Comrade Poopchev's personal chef as well as a brief flashback with her and Amos, flies all the way to Cape Canaveral from Russia just to warn Amos about Igor's plan to sabotage the Apollo 11 mission.
- Interesting Situation Duel: A battle between flies inside of a computer at launch control during a space mission, with one of the flies fighting with burning matches.
- Pun-Based Title: Flies fly to the moon.
- Space Is Noisy: Lots of booming and hissing noises from the spacecraft, as shot from outside.
- Trip to the Moon Plot: The film follows trio of flies sneaking on Apollo 11 before its launch to the moon.
