Flies appear to dart and hover just beyond your arm’s reach in this animated 3-D film for kids. Set in 1969 in Florida, this adventure puns on “fly” to take a trio of young male flies—Nat (Trevor Gagnon), IQ (Philip Daniel Bolden) and Scooter (David Gore)—to the moon as stowaways on the Apollo 11 trip. The film’s mission is to rebut Nat’s overly protective mom who’s overly fond of saying “Dreamers get swatted.” Compared to another vermin adventure, “Ratatouille,” this one is unusually drab in hue. But the same kid-friendly icky bits are here. “Flyboy” grandpa (Christopher Lloyd) tells Nat about flying up the nose of Amelia Earhart to awaken the sleep-deprived aviatrix over the Atlantic in 1928. Burps are propellants for weightless flies. Didactic bits include warnings about childhood obesity. More heavy-handed is a cameo by retired astronaut Buzz Aldrin. “Hold the credits,” he commands. “No flies” and “no contaminants” were aboard his moon flight, he testifies with no detectable sense of humor. Director Ben Stassen and writer Domonic Paris do manage to teach kids a little about the post-Sputnik Cold War, though. With Kelly Ripa, Nicollette Sheridan, Ed Begley, Jr., Tim Curry and Robert Patrick. 89m. (Bill Stamets)
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