A Kid Lives Out the Ultimate Space Age Dream in New Trailer for Richard Linklater’s ‘Apollo 10½’

Richard Linklater puts a fantastical spin on the moon landing in the new trailer for his upcoming animated film, Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood, which is set to arrive on Netflix April 1.

Set in the summer of 1969, at the height of the space race, in Houston, Texas — near NASA’s Johnson Space Center — the film blends fact and fantasy as a young boy named Stan gets caught up in the impending Apollo 11 moon landing and finds himself at the center of his own space adventure. In the opening moments of the trailer, two NASA employees approach Stan and tell him they need his help testing out the first lunar module — because they accidentally made it too small. 

As much as the film is about Stan’s “preparations” for his mission, the trailer is also packed with classic Linklater-style scenes of everyday life in the Houston suburbs at the end of the Sixties. Like in one scene, Stan’s mom puffs on a cigarette and offers a taxonomy of hippies to all the curious children in her car. (The film will certainly draw at least somewhat on Linklater’s own childhood as he not only grew up in Houston but would’ve turned nine not long after the actual Apollo 11 moon landing.)

Apollo 10½ features a voice cast of Milo Coy, Lee Eddy, Bill Wise, Natalie L’Amoreaux, Josh Wiggins, Sam Chipman, Jessica Brynn Cohen, and Danielle Guilbot. The film will also feature appearances from Zachary Levi, Glen Powell, and Jack Black. Apollo 10½ marks Linklater’s first film since 2019’s Where’d You Go, Bernadette. 

From Rolling Stone US.