The summer of 1969 we follow Stan in his coming of age moments in the suburbs of Houston, Texas all based around the historic Apollo 11 moon landing.
The build up to the moon landing during that summer is shown within the film from two different perspectives, from the astronaut and mission control getting ready for the landing which was very publicised and pretty well known already. We also are then shown a lesser thought about perspective, that of an excited kid living near NASA and following it on TV like millions of other people.
The balance between both stories and the memories of what a kid was feeling during the very special effects and time of his life was pretty special to mash together and witness unfold. Mashed together with nostalgia of popular culture and highlighted how important it was, in particular going to the cinema to see The Sound of Music with his grandmother was mentioned.
The style of the animation was truly fantastic and made it actually feel like a comic book page had come to life, that was what it really looked like and quite frankly it worked in the best possible manner. Either way though the story being told and excitement was all incredible in the way it was presented.
A truly engaging story and considering that I hadn’t even heard about this film before watching it I really enjoyed it from start to finish. The way it flows makes it super easy to watch and I feel Richard Linklater has really created a special way to tell this story. Jack Black leading the voice cast felt so utterly perfect as he is a great storyteller and that really did help linking with Milo Coy as the younger version of the character.
I rank this very highly in the best original features from Netflix, as we know they churn out a lot of films and this one deserves plaudits and credit for essentially as many people as possible to watch and enjoy it.
