FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON

THE STORY

In America, 100 years before the moon landing of Apollo 11, the bellicose bemoan their fates because the federal War is over and they all have fallen into inaction. They are reminiscent of the glorious past and feeling uncomfortable with the mournful clothes remaining unused in the closets and the green grass and the cotton growing back in the fields, as Verne writes characteristically!

At that exact moment, the president of the Gun Club, Impey Barbicane, provided the solution by announcing that he has a plan to fire a cannonball to the Moon, an act that also constitutes the first substantial contact of man with the satellite of the Earth and will glorify the 36 United States of America all over the world.

An implacable enemy of the president and a strange Frenchman who will demand and eventually manage to get into the cannonball and travel to the Moon are only a few of the elements that make the rest of the story moving and hilarious.

CREDITS

Script, direction, animation: Angelos Spartalis
Music: Zinovia Arvanitidi
Sound design: Luc Messinezis
Sound Recording: Kostas Timbakianakis
Editing: Yorgos Paterakis

Song performed by Dionysis Savvopoulos & Psaradonis

Starring:
Manos Vakousis, Aleksandros Logothetis,
Stratos Tzortzoglou, Dimitris Starovas

Producers: Angelos Spartalis & Angela Svoronou
Co-Producer: Paris Karagiorgos, Greek Film Center
Production: Wish You Luck films (c) 2013


Impey Barbicane Cannonry Commander	J. T. Maston Cannonry Major	Michel Ardan French Adventurer	Captain Nicholl Navy Commander
(Manos Vakousis)	(Aleksandros Logothetis)	(Stratos Tzortzoglou)	(Dimitris Starovas)


Typographer	Radio Operator	Cannonry Major	Cannonry Colonel
(Dionysis Savvopoulos )	(Psaradonis)	(Dimitris Papadakis)	(Angelos Spartalis)


Scientist	Politician	Astronomer	Engineer
(Marianthi Menegaki)	(Panagiotis Stavropoulos)	(Vretos Milonas)	(Andreas Chatzimarkakis)

A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE FILM "FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON" The creation of the first Greek long 2D animated film began in the summer of 2008 and was completed in March 2013. Its duration is 87 minutes. Based on the homonymous book by Jules Verne ("De la Terre à la Lune", 1865), this film focuses mostly on the author's humorous yet scathing criticism of the bellicose worldwide, not failing to stress out their unparalleled bravery. It is a “handmade” film that winks to high aesthetics and vulgar laugh. The film was created based on collage technique. Thus, the faces and the bodies are made of parts of various people as well as mechanical components since the heroes –all of them are brave soldiers of the USA artiller – are rarely able-bodied. The same applies to the houses, the objects and the animals which are also made of various parts stapled together. The collage technique also permeates in the script. As a result, the audience very often comes across anachronisms, e.g. a reference to the Beatles or a Bolshevik hat or the use of a high-tech electronic component - and all this in 1896, which surprises even the heroes themselves!
FILM STILLS click images for higher resolution

Major Maston and Colonel Blomsberry at the Gun Club’s library are recalling the glorious days of the war. Now that peace has prevailed, they are bored.		The Gun Club’s members at the meeting of October 5th, 1868. After a proposal made by Impey Barbicane, the president of the Gun Club, they decide to launch a projectile to the Moon.
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The news spread all over the world…		… in every possible way.
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The radio operator and his friend, the printer, in a SALOON at Baltimore, engage in a lively discussion about the cannonball fired to the Moon and, as is always the case in SALOONS, they end up fighting.		Belfast, the astronomer, at the Observatory of Cambridge, confirms Barbicane’s calculations about the feasibility of launching a projectile to the Moon.
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Tampa Town. This is where the gigantic operation of launching the projectile from the Earth to the Moon is organized. At the outskirts of the town the Columbiad, the huge cannon, is being built.		The President of the USA, despite his initial objections, is finally persuaded by Barbicane to order the government to sponsor the Gun Club’s operation.
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Barbicane and Maston are approaching Tampa Town in submarine “Nemo” while Michel Ardan is sailing off from Marseille with steamer “Atlantic" heading to the same destination.		Michel Ardan is planning to talk Barbicane into letting him get in the projectile and travel to the Moon!
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In France, charming Madame Curie invented an oxygen device for Ardan without knowing that he would take it and leave for America before she has the time to confess her love for him.		The giant cannon of 300 meters is being casted in the soil. Everybody is participating in the process: Hendrix, Marilyn, Presley, Lennon, Mozart, the 7 dwarves and of course, Superman!
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A few days before the launch of the projectile from the Earth to the Moon, Maston has a very strange dream.		The big day is approaching with joy and festivities…
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… but the end is going to be unpredictable.
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THE MOVIE'S SONGS download here free audio files (wav / 16bit / stereo / 48kHz)