Pop Smart - Seeing double: Space Chimps vs. Fly Me to the Moon

I saw Kit Kittredge: An American Girl at 10 a.m. the day it opened, so I got to check out a bunch of trailers for upcoming kid-oriented films. The shocking thing was seeing the previews for two computer-animated talking-animal comedies, Space Chimps and Fly Me to the Moon. They’re the same movie!

OK, they have cosmetic differences. Space Chimps, as the title suggests, depicts a trio of chimpanzees on an outer space rescue mission (complete with aliens) and opens July 18. Opening August 8, Fly Me to the Moon depicts three young houseflies who secretly stow away on the Apollo 11 mission and thus share in the first moon landing experience with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. I shudder to think of the puns based on his name.

Now, I can get how the arm’s race-style competition between Hollywood studios yields to suspiciously similar movies like Antz and A Bug’s Life, or Deep Impact and Armageddon, or Dante’s Peak and Volcano (I could go on and on), but does either of these look like a good enough idea to be made — let alone twice? I dare you to watch them: