4 stories
Fly Me to the Moon
The narrator explains that in 1957, the Soviet Union launched Earth's first satellite Sputnik 1 into orbit. Four years later in 1961, when NASA was putting a monkey named Enos aboard Mercury Atlas 5, astronaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man on Earth to go to space. Feeling the sense of urgency to overtake the Soviets in the space race, U.S. President John F. Kennedy made a huge statement toward a joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961, stating that before the decade is out, he plans to launch a man to the Moon and return him safely to the Earth. 8 years later, in 1969, an 11-year-old fly named Nat and his two best friends, I.Q. and Scooter, build a "fly-sized" rocket in a field across from Cape Canaveral, Florida, where Apollo 11 sits on the Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39. From his earliest memory, Nat remembers his grandfather, Amos, telling him of his daring rescue of Amelia Earhart when she crossed the Atlantic Ocean on her historic flight in 1932. Wanting to be an adventurer like his grandpa, Nat, defying the notion that "Dreamers get swatted", tells his friends his plan to get aboard Apollo 11 and go to the moon. They, with some reluctance, are in. The next morning, the three flies make it in to Mission Control. In their homemade space suits, Nat, I.Q. and Scooter manage to stow away inside the space helmets of astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins. Back on Earth, Grandpa, Mom and the others watch TV to get news of their offspring's adventure. As the astronauts appear on camera, the heroic flies wave in the background, visible to other flies but barely seen by humans – except for the attentive NASA flight controller Steve Bales, who informs Armstrong that there appear to be "contaminants" on board. In the Soviet Union, there are other flies watching TV – Soviet flies who cannot tolerate the idea that American flies might get to the moon first. A Soviet plan is hatched and special operatives are enlisted to interfere with the American mission. The Soviet Union puts all its hopes of success on the back of one nasty operative named Yegor. Fortunately, a pretty Soviet fly named Nadia also sees the flies on board and hears Scooter calling out Grandpa's real name, the very name of the fly Nadia met in Paris and loved so many years ago. Back on board the space ship, as the burn cycle to enter the moon's trans-lunar injection orbit begins, the spacecraft is violently rocked. There's a short circuit in the service module that must be fixed manually or the ship won't be able to complete its mission. Nat and I.Q. fly through a maze of wires, find the problem and repair it just in time. Unaware of the flies' aid, the ship enters orbit and all is well... or so they think. Just as they congratulate each other, the little flies are sprayed with a numbing aerosol and held captive in a test tube vial. The flies manage to break the vial. Nat sneaks into Armstrong's helmet just in the nick of time. The Lunar Module Eagle lands on Mare Tranquillitatis. From inside the helmet, Nat beams with every awe-inspiring historic step. I.Q. and Scooter join him on the surface inside Aldrin's helmet. After a climatic rescue with Nat bringing Scooter back to the Columbia, the Eagle is jettisoned. Back on Earth, other plots are being set in motion. After more than 30 years apart, Nadia finds Grandpa, though the joy of their reunion is brief. She tells Grandpa and Nat's Mom about the Soviet plot to divert the mission. Nat's mom faints while Grandpa takes off with a renewed youthful vow to save his grandson. At Mission Control, the Soviet operatives prepare to alter the descent codes. Unaware of the potential danger looming, the astronauts and the little flies sit back and prepare to come back home as heroes. Grandpa, Nat's mother and Nadia join forces to stop Yegor and the Soviet plan as the Command module Columbia hurtles closer and closer toward Earth's atmosphere. In a series of death-defying stunts, they crush the Soviet threat. After a short period of radio silence due to ionization blackout, the Columbia splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean, where it is recovered by the USS Hornet. Returning as heroes, the three little flies share a slogan embraced by all: "Adventure forever! Dreamers get swatted? Never!" At the end the real Buzz Aldrin explains that no flies were on board during the historic flight, and it is scientifically impossible for a bug to go to space.
A Turtle's Tale 2: Sammy's Escape from Paradise
Sammy and Ray are supervising their new grandchildren, when seagulls attack them and both Sammy and Ray and two of their grandchildren Ella and Ricky are captured on trawler. While Ella and Ricky are separated and sent to the seabed, Sammy and Ray are taken to an aquarium with Lulu, a lobster with dissociative identity disorder and Jimbo a bug-eyed blobfish. Escape plans are run and tried by the leading seahorse Big D. Ella and Ricky set out with Annabel and Margaret, the pink octopus mother and daughter in order to rescue their grandfathers, getting chased by a pair of barracudas when they get there. After much communication trouble, Ella and Ricky interpret from Sammy that in order to escape the aquarium several squids expel ink into the ventilation system, while all the aquarium inhabitants play dead. Before initiating the escape plan, Sammy and Ray get the tyrannical Big D out of the way. The reluctant aquarium manager opens the emergency doors allowing all sea creatures out to freedom.
A Turtle's Tale: Sammy's Adventures
In 1959, Sammy, a Green sea turtle, hatches on a deserted beach and while trying to climb up a sand slope is caught by a seagull. He manages to escape along with another hatchling sea turtle named Shelly who was caught by another seagull. Sammy falls onto an old raft and gets carried into the open ocean, losing Shelly. Later he befriends a leatherback hatchling named Ray. The two friends grow up together. One day Ray shows Sammy his new found Octopus friend Slim, but they are forced to take shelter from an oil spill, caused by an oil tanker shipwreck. After the raft collapses, Sammy and Ray are caught in trawler nets and separated. Hours later, Sammy is thrown back into the sea, but is revived by a dolphin. Sammy makes it to shore and the next day finds himself in an enclosure, taken in by human hippies and has the company of a cat named Fluffy. Eventually Sammy shares the enclosure with a larger turtle named Vera, however Vera is released into sea as it seems the two are not mating. Not long after that, the unauthorized hippies are evicted by the police, leaving Sammy behind. Sammy returns to the ocean and is rejoined by Vera. On a search for food, Sammy and Vera rescue a female turtle, who turns out to be Shelly. Sammy and Shelly travel the oceans and ask around in search of the secret passage Sammy heard of. Finally the two turtles brave the dangers of the Panama Canal but separated as they try to pass a lock. Sammy follows her trail to the Antarctic, where is picked up by Ecologists and taken to California where he meets Fluffy once again. Soon after he is released back into the ocean, Sammy is requested by two leatherbacks to help a trapped turtle in a container. His rescuee is none other than his old friend Ray. With help from Ray's girlfriend Rita, Sammy explores a wrecked galleon and finds Shelly dating with another turtle. Rita reveals that turtle named Robbie is only a playboy. To win Shelly's heart, Ray enlists the help of the toothless shark Albert for Sammy to stage a rescue. Finally reunited with Shelly, the two turtles along with Ray and Rita return to their birthplace to make their own hatchlings.
Rango
A pet chameleon (Johnny Depp) becomes stranded in the Mojave Desert of Nevada after his terrarium falls from his owners' car by accident. He meets an armadillo named Roadkill (Alfred Molina) who is seeking the mystical "Spirit of the West". While wandering the desert, he narrowly avoids being eaten by a vicious red-tailed hawk before meeting the desert iguana Beans (Isla Fisher). Beans takes him to Dirt, an Old West town populated by desert animals. The chameleon presents himself to the townsfolk as a tough drifter named "Rango". He quickly runs afoul of outlaw Gila monster Bad Bill (Ray Winstone) but avoids a shootout when Bill is scared off by the hawk's return. Rango is chased by the hawk until he accidentally knocks down an empty water tower which crushes the predator. The town mayor (Ned Beatty), an elderly tortoise, appoints Rango as the new sheriff. Meanwhile, the townsfolk worry that with the hawk dead, the gunslinger Rattlesnake Jake (Bill Nighy), who is afraid of hawks, will return. After discovering Dirt's water reserves—stored in the town bank inside a water cooler bottle—to be near empty, a skeptical Beans demands Rango investigate where the water has gone. That night, Rango inadvertently assists a trio of bank robbers, led by a mole named Balthazar (Harry Dean Stanton), mistaking them for prospectors. The townsfolk find their water bottle stolen the next morning, so Rango organizes a posse. During the search, they find the banker, Mr Merrimack (Stephen Root) in the middle of the desert dead, but oddly the cause of his death was drowning. The posse tracks the robbers to their hideout. They fight Balthazar's bat-riding clan over the stolen water bottle before discovering it to be empty. The robbers profess that they found it empty, but the posse brings them to town to put them in jail while the citizens want to lynch them. Rango confronts the mayor about his buying of the land around Dirt, but the mayor denies any wrongdoing and shows Rango that he is building a modern city with the purchased land. The mayor then summons Rattlesnake Jake, who forces Rango to admit that he lied to the townsfolk and runs him out of town. Rango returns to the road where he fell from the car, crosses to the other side, and passes out. Rango wakes and meets the Spirit of the West (Timothy Olyphant), whom Rango identifies as the Man with No Name. After telling him what he did to the citizens of Dirt, the Spirit tells Rango that he must go back and set things right, telling him that "No man can walk out on his own story." With the aid of Roadkill and mystical moving yuccas, Rango learns that Dirt's water supply is controlled by an emergency shut-off valve in a water pipeline to Las Vegas, which the mayor has been manipulating to cause a water shortage so he could buy the land. Rango returns to Dirt to challenge Jake to a duel, a diversion so the yuccas can turn the pipeline's valve to flood the town. Rango then holds Jake at gunpoint and makes clear his resolve. The mayor, however, forces Rango to surrender by threatening Beans' life and locks them inside the glass bank vault to drown. He then tries to shoot Jake with Rango's gun, intending to kill Jake along with the rest of the Old West, but the gun is empty. Rango has taken the bullet, which he uses to crack the glass and shatter the vault, freeing himself and Beans. Impressed, Jake salutes Rango and drags the mayor into the desert. The citizens of Dirt celebrate the return of the water and recognize Rango as their hero.
