Jun 30 2008'Fly Me to the Moon' Trailer: WALL-E's Poisoned Apéritif
I didn't make it to see WALL-E this weekend, but a friend of mine who's more fanatical about robot love stories saw it Friday. Always wanting to keep abreast as to what I should praise and what I should ridicule, I asked him how it was.
"Really good," he said, "but there this was a trailer for this flies in space movie that literally almost forced me to walk out of the theater. What was that all about?"
"You mean Space Chimps? Are you sure they weren't chimps?"
"No, definitely flies. And the title was even something stupid with 'fly' and 'moon.'"
"God. What, like Fly Me to the Moon?"
"Yeah, actually, I think that was it."
"Are you sure? I write for a movie blog. There's no way I wouldn't have somehow caught wind of a flies in space movie. This can't exist."
"Well, it does, and it's absurdly bad."
I forgot all about it until today, when I received a message with attached proof-of-existence trailer. He was right. It's so bad. And not even bad in that usual celebrity-voiced, Pixar-wannabe way (see Madagascar 2 trailer). Bad in a very strange, awkward way, like it was made by someone who's never seen an animated film and thus has absolutely no idea what an audience would expect (though there are still celebrity voices, including Christopher Lloyd doing an impression of himself).
After the cut, see the trailer and my biggest points of contention.
Biggest points of contention:
1. The humans. I didn't know it was possible to get all the creepy pseudo-reality of The Polar Express while also retaining that dated quality that makes you think the 3D models were stolen from local commercials.
2. The flies. Adding winged torsos to California Raisins does not equal a fly, nor something comfortable for the eye to see.
3. The main character introductions. I'll accept that the flies are dollar-store knock-offs of Alvin and the Chipmunks that have been drained of all personality, but couldn't they at least demonstrate the traits claimed by the narration? "IQ has the brains." Then IQ stiffly waves to another fly. Hey, I guess he does have the brains!
4. I understand I'm probably not the target demographic for this, but I have to think many children will still find it odd that these child flies have functional space suits. So the only thing holding juvenile insects from beating the U.S. to a moon landing was the expense of rocket propulsion?
5. Fleshy, chanting, cherubic maggots should not be characters, now or ever again.
6. Fly mom: "They are going to the moon!" Next line: "Your boy is going to the moon." In case you didn't catch that.
7. My unsureness in replying to my friend with, "At least there weren't any awkward attempts at humor though." There weren't, were there?
I've never been more confident in the assessment that a movie is based entirely around a stretched pun. Did I miss anything?
Reader Comments
1. Dvq - June 30, 2008 3:16 PM
oh well, that was painful to watch.
2. delic8 - June 30, 2008 3:16 PM
end of days?
3. jonathan - June 30, 2008 3:18 PM
ugh. i was eating my lunch. it's coming right back up. wobbling, freakishly smiling maggots are not appropriate for lunch time. or for anything. i think we need to sign a petition to get this movie unmade.
4. delic8 - June 30, 2008 3:20 PM
also, is this the second coming of the three-dee movie or what?
5. dan - June 30, 2008 3:27 PM
this seems like one of those movies that's financed by some religious crackpot and clandestinely sold to the public as a fun family film... i imagine the message here being something along the lines of going to space is going to get us all killed and science is the devil.
6. Samantha - June 30, 2008 3:28 PM
Holy uncanny valley Batman!
7. OlNoKnees - June 30, 2008 3:33 PM
Also, the fat one somehow ate something in the space ship without the removal of his helmet. Thought you'd like to know.
8. martygras9 - June 30, 2008 3:37 PM
Cool! Maximum 3D! That has to be better than REGULAR 3D, right? Suck it Pixar!
9. emily - June 30, 2008 3:37 PM
The reference to Lord of the Flies was just hi-LARIOUS. Maybe the one of the normal flies will push a moon boulder to make the fat Piggy fly fall off a moon cliff and die, and we can all learn a little something about the darkness of human nature. Even if that scene isn't in there, I think we will anyway.
I'm sure the movie really is just awful, but the trailer itself is just shittily put together. There must have been a better way to edit this crap together to make it seem palatable to at least three year olds.
10. Kinetic - June 30, 2008 3:40 PM
That. Looks. Terrible.
I mean, I expected bad, but - Jesus... I feel sick now. Dirty even.
Just - I mean - Wow. That was bad.
11. hellolover - June 30, 2008 4:03 PM
wall-e was amazing. this trailer made me and my boyfriend spit out or soda. Also, trailers are the worst part of going to see a kid's movie when you are an adult. even if the movie itself is pixar level good, you just have to be reminded how bad kid's movies are these days...
12. Jeremy - June 30, 2008 4:09 PM
Why isn't there a fly hilariously named "Buzz (Aldrin)" or "(Neil) Wingstrong?"
I have a feeling they aren't taking the life span of a fly into account with this story because these flies will probably be dead before the space ship gets back.
13. JohnSmiths - June 30, 2008 4:11 PM
I saw it last night in SF with some friends. I really liked the movie over all. I loved the first 20mins or so of the Wall-e/Eva interaction but as the movie progressed I felt like there were 2 different stories going on.
I really didn’t care for the live action either. That was a huge miss step for Stanton. I understand Pixar was trying to connect the audience more to the OVERLY PREACHY green peace and FAT AMERICAN (poorly designed) soapbox message but give me a break! Pixar should be really careful how political and ‘left-wingish’ they get because it could really come back to haunt them.
The character work for Wall-e and Eva was wonderful but the cockroach had more development then all the rest of supporting cast combined! The Auto Pilot villain seemed to be an after thought… I didn’t even have time to hate him or feeling anything when the captain shut him down. The whole situation between the Auto Pilot, the captain and the ‘human race’ was waaay under developed and lacked feeling and pathos. I really didn’t care about them at all. That’s why there’s such a division in the story. Wall-e’s story of his pursuit and love for Eva dwarfs the whole human story. Well, I could go on and on here… Wall-e is about as good as Cars for me but falls exceedingly short of the story quality of Monsters and Incredibles.
1) I liked it and it’s worth seeing in the theater
2) Story falls short of Pixar’s potential due to the Green Peace Soapbox **BANG THE AUDIENCE OVER THE HEAD** message.
3) Mixed live action and CG didn’t work for me
4) I loved Capobianco’s end credit sequence
14. jimmy - June 30, 2008 4:13 PM
Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey has a movie theater where they show 3D movies while the viewers sit in seats that move and shake in time with the pictures on screen. I went a couple of months ago and the theater was playing about 6 minutes of "Fly Me To The Moon." It was awful.
15. Dukrous - June 30, 2008 4:29 PM
My favorite part of the trailer is the see-through suit of the astronaut that IQ is stowing away on...now that's 3D, baby!
16. MOSkito - June 30, 2008 4:31 PM
hey its Belgian, restecp
17. jimbob - June 30, 2008 4:34 PM
8.2 on IMDB... what has the world come to?
18. Scott - June 30, 2008 4:42 PM
Screenwriter: Hmmmm, I need to come up with a line that emphasizes the size of the problem on board the ship headed to the moon without completely plagiarizing a cliched line used in another astronaut movie. I've got it: "Houston, we seem to have a small problem."
19. bluemukaki - June 30, 2008 5:01 PM
@JohnSmiths: What are you on about?
20. orb205 - June 30, 2008 5:19 PM
Well, in the past movies about animated talking bugs seem to have done well. Even Bee Movie sadly managed to somehow make a worldwide gross of $287,077,002.
Did anyone else happen to see Shark Tale and become enraged at the idea of a fish using an elevator underwater? Sometimes they just cross the line too far.
21. josh - June 30, 2008 5:36 PM
I saw this during a late night showing of Wall-E. After this trailer played you could everyone hear all the boo's people were thinking.
22. Scooby - June 30, 2008 5:45 PM
Wall-E sucked. What a rip!
23. Snoodle - June 30, 2008 5:58 PM
Wall-E was a gorgeous film :) However I saw the 'Beverly Hills Chihuahua' trailer infront of it ...however...HOLY FRAKKING HELL @ 1:51 those maggots comin' at the screen O_________________________O
24. BlightedArt - June 30, 2008 6:21 PM
Gotta admit I chuckled a little at the Lord of the Flies thing... namely because of... well.. you know, the fact that a little kid won't get the reference to a movie that was considered "brutal" in its day. *shrugs*
25. Caligula - June 30, 2008 7:12 PM
How come they only used Brainy, Hefty and Greedy, but not any of the other smurfs?
26. Bryce - June 30, 2008 8:32 PM
@Johnsmiths:
way to give the entire movie away fucktard.
27. Audiosmith - June 30, 2008 8:40 PM
Isn't the lifespan of a fly only a couple weeks? Shouldn't they grow old and die during this mission?
28. chidolitis - June 30, 2008 9:02 PM
It was almost as painful to watch as the trailer of Beverly Hills Chihuahua.
29. Amy - June 30, 2008 10:00 PM
"Gotta admit I chuckled a little at the Lord of the Flies thing... namely because of... well.. you know, the fact that a little kid won't get the reference to a movie that was considered "brutal" in its day. *shrugs*"
I dunno, it seems like the filmmakers didn't really get the reference as they included it ...
30. haley - June 30, 2008 11:02 PM
They didn't have this preview at the showing I saw. But that did have Beverly Hills Chihuahua which hurt just as bad.
31. c45j - June 30, 2008 11:02 PM
i am happy this trailer did not play when i went to see wall-e.
althought, there were many other terrible trailers... like the chihuahua movie
32. proteon - June 30, 2008 11:07 PM
Kung Fu Panda was way better than I thought it would be period
33. Elmo - June 30, 2008 11:45 PM
I wanna see a cartoon fly that's all realistic and freaky
34. Liz - July 1, 2008 2:11 AM
My favorite part of these crappy trailers is always the voiceover, which sounds sort of like Will Arnett maybe but not quite enough. I love the way he delivers EVERY LINE. AS IF IT'S THE MOST IMPORTANT THING. IN THE WORLD.
35. sarah - July 1, 2008 3:33 AM
Heh #21.
How many times did it say 'moon' in that fucking trailer?
Lord of the Fly reference; WTF.
Subliminal point to be made?
or did the writers not seem to understand what they were trying to include here.
Those maggots = horrifying. reminds me of a some acid flashback.
36. doadea - July 1, 2008 8:43 AM
I am a HUGE CGI movie and Pixar fan, and this "Fly me to the Moon" looks horrible, maybe even worse than "The Reef"
37. Michael - July 1, 2008 9:52 AM
JohnSmiths:
Your own blog. Get one. Stop hijacking completely unrelated forums to espouse your unwanted opinions regarding film.
Epic fail.
38. Interslicery - July 1, 2008 12:42 PM
no one mentioned the fact that their "dad" sounds and acts like a 3yr old?
39. rtyd6td - July 1, 2008 1:25 PM
making children watch this film, is like giving candy to 'em kids but the candy is rape!
40. leujin - July 1, 2008 1:32 PM
Hm... I wonder if they're going to the moon. I mean, I thought I heard them mention something about "Nat" and the moon, but I'm just not sure. I hope they clear this up for us in the following 700 trailers.
41. AdamM - July 1, 2008 1:51 PM
Does this qualify as evidence that Bush's No Child Left Behind is working as intended?
Anybody want to bet that we'll find out it was written and directed by Bush? Now we know the reason for the domestic spying, he was gathering dirt on the people in Hollywood until he got enough to get his dream movie made.
42. Kurt - July 1, 2008 2:01 PM
God save us all.
43. dude - July 1, 2008 4:28 PM
No one has mentioned the awful, awful timing of every line delivered in this clip. CRAP!
btw, movie writer, great stuff!
44. zelda - July 3, 2008 12:12 AM
The maggots looked exactly like the caterpillar Heimlich in A Bug's life. The flies all looked like the ants in A Bug's Life. Nice rip.
45. aikenhead - July 8, 2008 11:49 AM
@#13 johnsmiths: I wager the price of admission that you are overweight, and resemble exactly the 'FAT AMERICAN' characters.. am I wrong?
46. Jay - July 8, 2008 12:28 PM
Uh... so does anyone else notice that flies wouldnt be able to fly in space?
47. Brandon - July 8, 2008 2:36 PM
Why Christopher Lloyd, why?
48. bobson - July 9, 2008 8:14 AM
This must be a joke.
49. bobson - July 9, 2008 8:36 AM
Actually, from what I can gather, it's an IMAX film - which explains the "maximum 3D!!!!1" comment.
50. O.M.G. - July 12, 2008 9:16 PM
"Lord of the Flies!!!"
*wants to kill self in the most painful way possible to forget this*
51. Also... - July 12, 2008 9:24 PM
To the people pondering the use of that particular reference, I'm guessing it's a way for the director to connect to the 'grown-ups' in a really 'hip' way.
"Hey, I know! All the great kids movies also appeal to grown-ups! We'll just insert this little pun in here that only adults will get! I am a FUCKING genius."
Well, at least they didn't put the puerile kind of adult humor in there... or DID they?
52. Grinspoon - July 23, 2008 1:52 AM
Wow utterly stupid beyong belief!
Wow where to being?
It appears they have the S-II stage of the Saturn V rocket conducting the trans Lunar Injection burn. It could be the S-1C stage but its hard to tell in the short clip, both are 5 engine stages. It's properly the S-II stage. Of course this stage was only used once and although the j-2 engines could be restarted, the saturn V configuration didn't have this being the case in the S-II stage. It just accelerated the rocket through the upper atmosphere, then jetisoned it. Where it fell into the ocean.
It does in one shot with the launch escape system jetisoning, that it even has the S-1C stage attached. Looks like you can see a fin.. but its too poor quality to tell.
Stupid, Stupid mistakes.
The Trans Lunar Injection burn was done by the s-IVB stage. This was the stage that had one j-2 engine which was re-ignited in low earth orbit to conduct the injection burn. Shortly after the burn it was jetisoned, and just the Command and Lunar modules traved together to the moon. The trailer has the S-IVB, the lunar module and the command module still stacked reaching lunar orbit together? Seriously? What the fuck kind of stupid is that?
It does have the s-IVB re-igniting for a burn on the way to the moon in the trailer? IS this meant to be another trans lunar injection burn? or what exactly? Course correction? They already showed the TLI burn with the s-II.
What kind or moronic stupid is behind the film?
What exactly is meant to be going on with these rocket stages???
53. THAT'S NOT THE MOST STUPID THING ABOUT THIS. - July 27, 2008 5:51 PM
I hope you are being sarcastic, but on the off chance you are not, WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT ROCKET STAGES WHEN THERE IS THE POTENTIAL MIND-SCARRING OF CHILDREN EVERYWHERE INVOLVED???