Apollo 10 ½ was a secret NASA mission before to famous moon landing of Apollo 11.  After a lunar lander was built just a little too small, NASA had to ensure that the vessel was still serviceable, so they recruited a young Stan (Jack Black) to test out the spacecraft.  While the country had their eyes glued to the television watching Neil Armstrong make that “one small step,” for Stan, he recalls his own time spent on the moon, even if it was only in his imagination. 

The rotoscope animated film released by Netflix from the memories of writer/director Richard Linklater recalls growing up in Texas in the summer of 1969.  The care and detail that went into each frame is very clear and the bright, sun-soaked colors fill each frame with life.  Unfortunately, though, the film is told almost exclusively through Black’s voiceover which, while not monotone or droning, is a very stilted way to deliver a narrative.   

Where the film excels is the sheer amount of detail imbued into each frame of each memory.  It is like peeking behind the curtain and looking directly into the formative memories that helped to shape Linklater’s career.  A young boy with a vivid imagination, that aspect of this film is relatable to anyone in a creative or creative-adjacent field and while Apollo 10 ½ is homed in on a very specific time, escaping into one’s imagination is universal.  Recalling a childhood from a bygone era can often come with a condescending attitude about “the good ol days” and thankfully Apollo 10 ½ recognizes the changes in society but not in a way that talks down to modern sensibilities. 

The film, however, remains a tough nut to crack.  The stream of consciousness story – if it can be called such – is a collection of enjoyable moments but the through line is very weak.  We are introduced to the concept of this top-secret mission early in the film before it takes off on an impressive forty-minute-long tangent before returning to the NASA training course, but the latter half continues to volley back and forth from NASA to Texas life.  Apollo 10 ½ is enjoyable in the moment, but that appreciation is fleeting as there is very little narrative here.  The animation works well in being about to peruse the vaults of memory, but the overall execution in the script leaves much to be desired as far as on overarching story is concerned.  It is a strange critique to have as the NASA scenes, due to their fantasy, are some of the looser and weaker moments but the recollections do not really form a full story either.  It is still a sweet and nice film that is nostalgia in its most pure form – it is not using it to bait in an audience to a reimagining of a childhood property – but rather it is a rambling recollection of one filmmaker’s childhood.  Its innocence is its shining feature, but that kind tone is not enough to ignore the glaring lack of story.