Richard Linklater's 'Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood' Is An Animated Adventure That Looks Like A Blast!
Writer/director Richard Linklater has made a career out of portraying childhood with the backdrop of an ever changing world. With Dazed and Confused, Boyhood, and Everybody Wants Some!!, we got a glimpse of simpler times which turn out to be anything but for the youths portrayed in his narratives. With his new film, Apollo 10 ½: A Space Age Childhood, he seems to be crafting a fantastical story set during the 1960's space race with the Russians, told from the perspective of a coming of age tween who is asked by NASA to pilot the Lunar Lander, which they built too small for an adult.
According to the official synopsis,
"Apollo 10 ½: 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. Taking inspiration from Academy Award-nominated® filmmaker Richard Linklater's own life, Apollo 10 ½: A Space Age Childhood is a snapshot of American life in the 1960s that is part coming of age, part societal commentary, and part out-of-this-world adventure."
Animated through a technique called rotoscoping, which Linklater used for previous film A Scanner Darkly, incorporates filming actors and overlaying animation over their movements. This surreal art style looks to bring an element of fantasy while injecting a realistic feel. Linklater spoke about his choice of using rotoscoping to tell his story,
"The look of the film was primarily inspired by the time that the story takes place. The challenge was to take an entirely digital process and imbue it with the analog influence of that era. The beautiful look of Kodachrome film is where we started. We decided to animate on 2's to give it a retro feel and chose handmade animation over digital effects. We thought of new ways to show the different textures and designs to mirror the analog world and subjective and creative memory of Stan. Classic animated films of the past and Saturday morning cartoons of the '60s were a big inspiration as well. We also invited our animators to leave their fingerprints on the film and celebrate the collective creativity of our artists and feel their impressions all over the film."
Always the innovator, his films tend to balance the emotional growth of his subjects with his carefully crafted world-building. Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood looks to be doing just that with it's lighthearted tone and societal observations of the 1960's. The film stars Zachary Levi, Jack Black, and Glen Powell.
Apollo 10 ½: A Space Age Childhood begins streaming on Netflix April 1st. Check out the trailer below.
