Underplayed Gems

Apollo 10½ (2022)

Apollo 10½ poster
Original title
Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood
Directed by
Richard Linklater
Genre
drama film, science fiction film, teen film, coming-of-age film
Country
United States
Runtime
1h 38m
Rated
PG-13
Rating
7.0 of 10 from 323 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
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How it feels

Set in the late 1960s, this animated story follows a fourth-grade boy who gets drafted for a secret moon mission before the Apollo 11 landing. It mixes a fictional space adventure with memories of growing up in Houston during the Space Race.

nostalgicwhimsicallightheartedretrodreamlikeupbeatplayfulwarm

What happens

Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood is a 2022 American animated coming of age comedy film set during the events preceding the Apollo 11 Moon landing, loosely based on the childhood of writer, director, and producer Richard Linklater. It presents a fictional tale of a fourth-grader who becomes the first person to land on the Moon. The film stars Glen Powell, Zachary Levi, and Jack Black. Linklater, who conceived the film in 2004, planned to film it in live action, but instead pursued an animation style influenced by Saturday morning cartoons due to the playful nature of animation. Home movies created in Houston, Texas during the 1960s were used for research with some included in the film. Principal photography began in February 2020 at Robert Rodriguez's Troublemaker Studios in Austin, Texas, and wrapped in March 2020. Parts of the filming were done in front of the largest green screen in Texas, while other parts, which were shot in live-action, were animated during post-production using a technique similar to the rotoscoping used in Linklater's Waking Life (2001) and A Scanner Darkly (2006). Apollo 10½ premiered at South by Southwest on March 13, 2022, and was released in select theaters on March 24, 2022, before premiering on Netflix on April 1. It received positive reviews, with praise for its writing, visuals, and nostalgic feel. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

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