Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood
Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood is available to stream on Netflix at the time of publication.
SCREENPLAY: D-
In the 1960s, the Americans and the Soviets were racing to see who could reach the moon first. It captured everyone’s imagination. Perhaps no one’s more so than Stan, a young boy growing up in a Houston suburb where everybody's dad works for NASA. What was it like to be there? Apollo 10½ : A Space Age Childhood tells you.
The story starts with great promise. Two mysterious government agents arrive at Stan’s elementary school. Admirably impressed by his kickball skills, they recruit him to be the test pilot in the rocket that will soon make history. It’s obviously a product of Stan’s imagination, but it’s a pretty fun world to spend time in.
We’re taken from that world too quickly and dropped into a list of things that were great about growing up in the 1960s. Each brief memory feels incomplete as a movie scene. Many feel like they have a beginning and a middle. Some simply a beginning. But there’s rarely any point to them beyond to say, “Wow! Watch this next really cool thing about growing up in the 60s!” These moments feel weightless without the memories.
CHARACTERS: C
Stan is a likable kid. We learn what his life is like, but I don’t think it’s as interesting as Stan himself. I would have been so happy to spend more time in his imaginatory world. Adult Stan (voiced by the indomitable Jack Black) seems stuck with one tone: the “Aw, gee, shucks” tone. It works for a while, but you can’t paint a painting with one color or write a song with one note. I mean, you could … but.
Stan’s family is great. Linklater presents Stan’s parents in stereotype but sprinkles in just enough detail to make them real people. The same can be said for the siblings. They provide much of the movie’s humor.
CRAFT: C-
Have you ever watched a movie with subtitles? They’re all you notice for the first couple minutes but soon enough you barely know they’re there. That’s how I experienced the film’s realistic animation style. I wound up really enjoying it. It makes the realistic scenes feel real, but it also makes the imagination scenes more real. Imagination and reality aren’t as far apart when you’re a kid. It’s a strong move to stick with the same style throughout the film.
One of my favorite things in the universe is watching real people being animated while news clips of their voices plays. I don’t know why. Seeing Walter Cronkite, Johnny Cash, Janis Joplin and others in animated form is almost like watching their multiverse versions, like they’re still alive somehow.
The soundtrack uses the era’s music quite well, providing the sparse supply of emotional push there is outside of nostalgia. And Kelly McCarty’s Rocketship over the closing credits is an absolute banger.
The move from child Stan’s imagination to adult Stan’s memories is too abrupt. It’s nearly an hour before we make it back to Stan’s imagination. A few minutes of what Stan’s life was like would be helpful. The extended digression left me stranded like an astronaut drifting out to space. Watching a fun story and watching someone have fun are two very different things. I can’t help but wonder if it would have been more engaging to jump back and forth between the memories and Stan’s wonderful imagination.
SCHOOL RESOURCE (Elective Class): A
For all its potential, the film feels more like an informational documentary than anything else. The power of animation, combined with Stan’s incredible imagination should have created an imaginary world filled with wonder. Instead, we get a movie split in two pieces. The first half would be a great way to learn about life in 1960s suburban America. The second half bounces back and forth between the days before the real life launch and Stan’s imaginary launch. Even though the second half mostly takes place in Stan’s head, it’s very realistic and could be used in science class. Maybe two social studies and science teachers could use this in an interdisciplinary unit. It would work fantastically.
FINAL COMMENTS:
A million choices need to be made during the course of making a movie. Soundtrack. Specific lines. Camera angles. When to cut from one scene and what moment to begin the next. Nearly every choice is huge, but not necessarily monumental. But story? It’s the most important thing.
This could have been a secret mission, sci-fi thriller - that yes, also showed how wonderful it was to be young, suburban and white in the 60s. Instead, it’s the cinematic equivalent of sitting on your grandparents’ sofa, listening to them drone on and on about the good old days. If you’re looking for information about the times or if you were alive and want to stroll down memory lane, you will love the movie.
I agree with adult Stan - it sounds like an amazing time and place to be a kid. But like a lot of funny stories, maybe you had to be there.