Apollo 10½: A Space Age Adventure

Template:Spoilers

***Apollo 10½: A Space Age Adventure*** (also known as ***Apollo 10½***) is a 2022 American animated coming-of-age science fiction film written, directed, and produced by Richard Linklater. It stars Glen Powell, Jack Black, Zachary Levi and Josh Wiggins. Parts of the film, which was shot in live-action, will be animated using a technique similar to the rotoscoping used in Linklater's *Waking Life* (2001) and *A Scanner Darkly* (2006). The film takes place during the 1969 Apollo 11 Moon landing and will explore children on Earth's fantasies about the event. It premiered at South by Southwest on March 13, 2022, and was released in select theatres on March 24, 2022, before premiering on Netflix on April 1.

## Plot

"Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood" tells the story of the first moon landing in the summer of 1969 from two interwoven perspectives – the astronaut and mission control view of the triumphant moment, and through the eyes of a kid growing up in Houston, Texas who has intergalactic dreams of his own.

## Why It Rocks

1. The animation is absolutely excellent and stunning that is the major upgrade of previous films by Richard Linklater. Much like *Waking Life* and *A Scanner Darkly*, it used the animation-style technique theme effect for live-action once again instead of using CGI characters for live-action, considering that it was directed by Richard Linklater.
2. It introduces itself as a fantastical adventure about a Houston fourth-grader who's plucked out of school for a confidential NASA mission in the spring of 1969.
3. The explanation the film gives for why the capsule is child sized. Even the best mathematicians in the world aren’t going to get it right all the time.
4. This film is beautiful love letter to the space age.
5. Much like other animated films such as *Luca* and *Turning Red*, the movie can be viewed as autobiographical to director Richard Linklater's real life childhood.
6. The narrator talks about how exciting it was to grow up in Houston in the 60s. The footage shown does have the aesthetics of the time period (hair, fashion, technology, the interior of the boys house, and discussions of hippies).
7. Amazing voice acting, especially with Glen Powell, Jack Black, Zachary Levi and Josh Wiggins being highlighted example.
8. It features an interesting and unique premise that were never before seen: **The first moon landing in the summer of 1969 from two interwoven perspectives – the astronaut and mission control view of the triumphant moment and through the eyes of a kid growing up in Houston, Texas who has intergalactic dreams of his own.**
9. It is as much a documentary about the time period as it is a science fiction fantasy and the blend here works wonderfully.

## Bad Qualities

1. It doesn't demand the same kind of deep mining for insight that *Waking Life* or *A Scanner Darkly* does.

## Reception

*Apollo 10½: A Space Age Adventure* received critical acclaim, with praise for its visuals, thematic ingredients, and sweetly nostalgic feel as well as love letter to space age. Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 93% of 60 sampled critics gave the film positive reviews and that it has received an average rating of 7.90/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "The sweetly nostalgic Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood finds Richard Linklater reusing visual and thematic ingredients in a deeply personal, freshly inspired way." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 82 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "universal acclaim."

## Trivia

* Richard Linklater was planning to create the film in live action but instead decided to go with a animation style influenced by Saturday morning cartoons because of the playful nature of animation.