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'Fly Me to the Moon'

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BY RAFER GUZMÁN | rafer.guzman@newsday.com

August 15, 2008

Most animated films start with a premise that's funny because it's so unlikely: the rat chef of "Ratatouille" or the surfing penguin of "Surf's Up." But "Fly Me to the Moon" begins with a premise that's so unlikely it's nonsensical: Three young flies hitchhike on the Apollo 11 moon mission in 1969.

What are they hoping to experience? A feeling of weightlessness?

That premise is the first of countless problems in this 3-D animated movie aimed at very young children. Another problem is Ben Stassen's lifeless direction: The animation is so stiff it makes " South Park" look like Walt Disney's "Fantasia." Yet another is Domonic Paris' scant script, in which characters noodle around aimlessly to pad the minutes. (Only Christopher Lloyd, voicing a fiery grandpa fly, has any pep.)

The biggest problem: As our 3-D heroes hover around food and coffee cups, your natural instinct is to reach out and smash them. Now imagine them trapped in your space helmet: Houston, we're going insane.

It gets worse. During the closing credits, Buzz Aldrin appears and vehemently disavows the entire film. There were "no flies in the Apollo 11," he says, nearly shouting. "It is a scientific impossibility!" Talk about a Buzz kill.

(G)

PLOT Three young flies hitch a ride on the Apollo 11 moon mission.

CAST Christopher Lloyd, Kelly Ripa, Tim Curry, Ed Begley Jr.

LENGTH 1:29

PLAYING AT Area theaters

BOTTOM LINE This animated kiddie movie is as tedious and irritating as a real fly.