TRAILER: Netflix “Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood”

TRAILER: Netflix “Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood”

March 7th, 2022

Jerry Beck

One of the most anticipated animated features of 2022 is Richard Linklater’s Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood – and today Netflix dropped the trailer. The film 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. Take a look:

Taking inspiration from Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Richard Linklater’s own life, Apollo 10 1/2: 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.

Linklater recalls his inspiration for the film: “Eighteen years ago, I was pulling out memories of 2nd grade to help me construct the narrative of Boyhood’s second year. Even though that movie is a celebration of the non-extraordinary, it became clear to me I had lived through and close to something truly extraordinary – the grandest and most enduring engineering feat in human history. I think it took decades for us to fully process that the Apollo program and walking on the moon was the apex because we’d all believed it was just a great beginning.

“My “who but me?” thinking kicked in when I realized I was probably the only filmmaker that remembered how exciting it was to be a kid at that moment and was geographically that close to NASA. When I remembered an actual kid fantasy I had at the time, I stumbled upon my way to tell the story from both the astronaut perspective and from the bottom-up, public, TV-consumer perspective. There were three astronauts on the Apollo 11 mission and 600 million people watching its coverage. I’d seen many representations of space missions, but didn’t remember any stories of just how once-in-a-lifetime unique it was to be simply taking it in. And knowing it was an event that would forever be noted in human history seemed to warrant that perspective as well. A thousand years from now, when wars and world leaders that seemed so significant to their times are blurred together, this brief era when we initiated space travel and first went to the moon will always register as one of the giant steps for humankind.

“I also knew it couldn’t look like my two previous animated films. The interpolated rotoscoping technique we had pushed to its limits all those years ago wouldn’t work in a story where everything had to be designed and created. Apollo would be best realized in a more traditional 2D world. To achieve all the necessary textures (vintage period, comic book, newsreel documentary, grandiose fantasy, realistic character piece), it would require a playful combination of various techniques such as 3D and some minimal performance capture within the character animation. The visual goal was a very handmade scrapbook feel. While it was always the longer, more time-consuming answer to every problem, the handmade choice was always the right one.”

CREDITS:
Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood
Releasing Globally on Netflix April 1, 2022
DIRECTOR: Richard Linklater
WRITER: Richard Linklater
PRODUCERS: Richard Linklater, Mike Blizzard, Tommy Pallotta, Femke Wolting, Bruno Felix
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: John Sloss
CAST: Milo Coy, Lee Eddy, Bill Wise, Natalie L’Amoreaux, Josh Wiggins, Sam Chipman, Jessica Brynn Cohen, Danielle Guilbot with Zachary Levi and Glen Powell and Jack Black

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Jerry Beck

Writer, cartoon producer and author of more than 15 books on animation history. A former studio exec with Nickelodeon and Disney; currently on the faculty at both CalArts in Valencia and Woodbury University in Burbank, California.