ReviewNetflix movie review – in engrossing Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood, Richard Linklater blends nostalgia with fantasy for an animated adventure

Combining nostalgia and whimsical fantasy, Linklater’s Netflix film centred in America’s space race era as one boy boldly goes where no kid has gone before

Animated using the Rotoscope method that Linklater has used before, Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood is a visual treat, capturing the time with real texture

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Stan (voiced by Milo Coy) in a still from Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood, directed by Richard Linklater. Jack Black co-stars. Photo: Netflix

James Mottram

Published: 7:15pm, 29 Mar 2022Updated: 4:37pm, 30 Mar 2022

Corrected [4:33pm, 30 Mar, 2022]

[4:33pm, 30 Mar, 2022]
The film's title was misstated in places in this review as Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Adventure. Its name is Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood

4.5/5 stars

There probably isn’t a director working today better than Richard Linklater at capturing childhood and adolescence.

From his remake of The Bad News Bears to his epic chronicle Boyhood, as well as the more adult Dazed and Confused and Everybody Wants Some!!, Linklater has an unerring ability to tap into youthful nostalgia.

So it goes for his latest film, and his first for Netflix, Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood, an animated adventure that shows the director at his most autobiographical.

Set in the 1960s, this tale centred in the era of the space race is a beguiling mix of nostalgia and whimsical fantasy, as one Texan boy boldly goes where no kid has gone before.

Narrated by Linklater regular Jack Black, the story begins in 1969 as Stan (performed by Milo Coy) is recruited for “top secret training” by two Nasa suits to help with the space programme.