Meanwhile, back on the ground, Nat's mother (Ripa) discovers him missing and becomes worried, until she and the other mothers catch a broadcast of the space mission through the window of a TV store. Nat, I.Q. and Scooter miraculously appear in the capsule alongside the astronauts, glimpsed not only by their nervous families, but by a mission control technician and Russian flies monitoring from the other side of the globe.

Anxious to keep the Americans from reaching the moon before them, the Russian flies activate their spies within NASA and order them to sabotage the mission by any means necessary. Fortunately, another Russian fly named Nadia (Sheridan) arrives at the home of Nat's grandfather, with whom she once had an affair, and warns them of the danger.

As their families work to thwart the Russian spies, the young trio do their part to help out in space. Their adventure is cut short, however, when they are discovered and labeled as "contaminants." As the capsule approaches the moon, the flies are captured and placed in test tubes. Will they manage to escape in time to achieve their dreams of landing on the moon, or will the entire mission be disrupted before they even make it there?

Too many flies in this ointment

It's hard to know where to begin cataloging the problems with this film. Perhaps the writers should have begun with choosing better protagonists. While other films have certainly featured animated insects with some degree of success (A Bug's Life, Ants, Bee Movie), there's just something wrong about the idea of cute, cuddly flies as main characters. The idea that a bunch of flies could wind up not just on the first moon mission, but in the helmets of the astronauts, is just too disturbing to base a movie around.

As if to soften the impact of that idea, the characters have been designed to look as little like flies as possible. Their faces have human features, including eyes, noses, mouths and straight, white teeth. Their color is not a threatening black, but a soothing light blue. The young baby flies--often used as comic relief in the film—are pink and plump, but it's hard to get over the fact that they're essentially just maggots. There's not enough talent here to make maggots adorable.

Still, it might be tolerable if the film had a strong story to fall back on. As it is, the writing is barely at the level of a Saturday morning cartoon. The underdeveloped characters spout aphorisms like "If it ain't an adventure, it ain't worth doing" in between bad puns and jokes about eating dung. And the outlandish subplot with the Russian flies seems like an afterthought to bulk up a thin plot that doesn't go very far beyond its implausible premise.

On a technical level, it's worth noting that this is the first animated film ever created exclusively for 3-D. Which means that audiences young and old will have to sit through it wearing glasses that range from uncomfortable to headache-inducing, depending on the viewer. It's a lot to ask, especially for a film without a decent script or interesting characters. What a waste of technology. The good news is that this will only be playing in theaters capable of projecting in 3-D, so it probably won't be taking up valuable space at your local multiplex.

The final awkward insult comes at the end, when Buzz Aldrin himself (the live-action version, not animated) comes on screen to thank the men and women who worked on the space program for their efforts—which is admittedly admirable--and informs us that the events of the film are completely fabricated. According to Aldrin, no "contaminants" could ever have actually made it onto the spacecraft in real life. Well, that's a relief.