Richard Linklater lives in Austin, but he carries Houston with him.

It’s evident in how the Houston-born director, along with fellow Houstonians Wes Anderson and Bun B, threw himself into the effort to save The River Oaks Theatre last year when it looked like it might face the wrecking ball. It’s evident in his 2014 movie “Boyhood” which includes a scene at an Astros game. And it’s evident in his latest film, “Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood,” an affectionate medley of fantasy and memoir about growing up in Space City in the late ‘60s, that debuts Thursday at the Alamo Drafthouse in Katy and Cinemark 18 in Webster and then April 1 on Netflix.

Shot in live action and then manipulated with animation, “Apollo 10 1/2” tells the story of Stan, a fourth-grader at El Lago’s Ed White Elementary, who has been chosen for a top-secret mission by NASA, where his dad works. This is set against the very real backdrop of a three-TV-network universe in a city that seemed perpetually on the cusp of the future — space travel! heart transplants! Astroturf! — where a Texas kid’s biggest worry was how to beat the crowds and get on the best rides at Astroworld (the amusement park, not the music festival).

The idea is something that Linklater has been kicking around for nearly 20 years.

“It was 2004 when I first thought about it,” said Linklater, 61, during a break at South by Southwest in Austin where “Apollo 10 1/2” premiered earlier this month. “It was while I was making ‘Boyhood’ when I first thought about it and I was like ‘that was an amazing time (to be a kid).’ That’s when we landed on the moon. And then I remembered this fantasy I had of…this kid in space, kind of ridiculous. I mean, in the tangible world, it's ridiculous, right? But it's with a kid and I actually had that fantasy.

REVIEW:'Apollo 10 1/2' is like an MCU movie for Houston obsessives.

“这是一种特权的电影not only recreates a moment in time but also recreates footage from Houston in the late ‘60s. And so it's that same kid fantasy of ‘Harry Potter’ or ‘Princess Diaries’ or something like that where the bigger world kind of needs you…So it's a childhood fantasy: not only are you chosen but you're needed to save or help our country. It’s funny, but the trick in the movie is to play that very straight.”

‘Don’t forget the canned ham’

While much of “Apollo 10 1/2” is based on Linklater’s childhood — “it’s embarrassingly personal,” he said at the Q&A after the SXSW screening — he says Stan is not his doppelganger. Linklater also tapped into the memories of families and friends to resurrect this world.

“I called my sisters and I said, ‘Hey, what was our full (dinner) menu? I remember a lot of meat stuff’,” Linklater said. “And they go, ‘Don’t forget the canned ham.’ I’m like, of course, the canned ham. Deviled eggs, of course. So I had many consultants.”

One friend, in particular, was especially invaluable. Though Linklater himself went to a variety of schools around the Houston area, producer Mike Blizzard actually went to therealEd White Elementary.

“Some of my friends’ parents were important players in Apollo missions,” Blizzard recentlytold the Chronicle.

In 2017,Linklater even put out a callfor Houstonians to share their home movies and archival footage. “There is no wrong material, as long as it's from Houston in the 1960s we want to see it," the news release said.

“I was more like the city kid but we were just out there (near NASA) for a little while. And I was trying to really draw the suburban comparison where it’s just flat land and houses and everything’s new,” Linklater said, noting he wasn’t out to make a documentary. “(My father) didn’t work at NASA but I had friends whose dad did. Bottom line, I’m trying to make an entertaining movie.”

Outside of its setting, “Apollo 10 1/2” is notable in that it is Linklater’s third animated movie, following “A Scanner Darkly” in 2006 and “Waking Life” in 2001. Originally, Linklater had thought about making a traditional live-action film.

“That’s kind of a natural default mode,” he said. “But, along the way, it was pretty clear that at some points, ‘Oh, this just doesn’t work as live action.’ In my mind, it was a little too literal for the fantastical element. I started thinking animated…There’s something kind of playful about animation to me. And one of our influences was Saturday morning cartoons, that vibe.”

And that’s why Linklater chose to make his movie within the confines of Robert Rodriguez’s Troublemaker Studios in Austin — where he and animator Tommy Pallotta had access to the latest technology — instead of the streets of Houston. It was a move that caused some grumbling on this end of US 290.

“In a way, a lot was shot in Houston because we kind of crowdsourced a lot of images or pulled from Houston history,” Linklater said.. “We had people sending us home movies, some of which are in the movie. All the documentary stuff (about) the Astrodome. The historical elements are so Houston. It really didn’t matter where we captured the actors doing their parts because the movie felt so Houston.”

Okay, boomer

Much of “Apollo 10 1/2” will resonate like a tuning fork with sixty-somethings who were around at the time, seeing movies at the Alabama, watching “It’s About Time” on TV, playing Stratego and eating Jiffy-Pop. But what about Gen X, Gen Z and millennials who only know this era from history books or Thanksgiving dinner reminiscences?

“Whatever cultural analysis that’s going on in the movie, that might be a little lost,” Linklater said. “(But) I think kids like it. People seem naturally curious about previous eras. I see it with my own kids. I’ve got two 17-year-olds, high school kids, and they’re really interested. They love the ‘80s. They like the music. They like the culture. They like the ‘90s. They want to explore. I certainly did that. I loved other eras that you didn’t live through.”

And Linklater is not done with putting Houston on screen. On his to-do list is a biopic of the controversial comedian/social critic Bill Hicks who cut his teeth on the area comedy scene in the ‘80s, earned a national reputation in the early ‘90s and died from pancreatic cancer at the age of 32 in 1994.

“It’s still in some stage of development. Biopics are difficult,” Linklater said. “We’re pretty much the same age. We graduated from Houston high schools the same year. I’ve always felt an affinity for him. I think there’s something begging to be told there. Bill is still talking to us all these years later, for sure.”

Freelance writer Don Maines contributed to this report.

cary.darling@chron.com