Movie review - UP!

For various reasons, the prime one being 'saving' the movie so I could watch it with various people and then not being able to see it with any of them, I was unable to see the latest Pixar movie until just now. Up has also just been nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, the second animated and first computer animated film to be so (the first being Beauty and the Beast *sniff*). Here's my take!

Carl Fredrickson (Ed Asner) is a grumpy old man. But he wasn't always a GOM. In a very clever and touching introduction, we see him in childhood as dreamer who wanted to travel to South America and emulate the adventures of his hero, Charles Muntz (Christopher Plummer). One day he meets Ellie, a tomboy with similar dreams. The two grow up, get married, and build a life together. When they realise they can't have children, they decide instead to save up to travel to Paradise Falls, the place where Muntz discovered a mysterious bird. Over the course of their lives, a series of unfortunate financial events occur and Ellie dies before being able to travel. Heartbroken at being unable to fulfill his promise to her, Carl ends up the GOM he is today. To add insult to injury, Carl ends up in a position where he loses their house and is being forced into a retirement home. To stop this from occuring, Carl sneakily attaches thousands of helium balloons to his house which then floats away. However, he has an accidental stowaway, young 'wilderness explorer' Russell, who is intent on helping Carl in order to receive his last badge to make his father attend the ceremony. And so we set off on the adventure in Carl's flying house!


So that's quite a detailed plot summary that doesn't even go into what happens after the house takes off. I however felt it necessary to give the background to the characters because even though Up only goes for 96 minutes, it packs a helluva lot of backstory of the characters' motivations. The film concentrates on each of the characters, the ones who can talk, the ones who can't, and the ones who sorta do (Dug), and gives each one a reason for why they do what they do. I cried during this movie and a number of people said they did the same. This is the strength of the film - that it manages to emotionally involve the audience because it shows a number of characters striving for what they want most.


Unlike other Pixar films, I don' think Up was intent on changing the game by testing what they could do with computer animation. But being a Pixar film, what they have done looks absolutely gorgeous, from the character design to the incredible rocky scenery of Paradise Falls. But a large part of the fun in Up is the lack of overt realism - no uncanny valley here, people! Carl is kinda cube-like and Russell is himself round like a balloon, and while each of the dogs are clearly identifiable by breed they're stylised enough to make you think that it doesn't really look like a bulldog/doberman/retriever. The little details are what makes it different though - from marking time by the way Carl's facial hair grows throughout the film to the iridescent feathers on Kevin, the mystery bird. Also, I watched Up in 2D - anyone know whether the 3D version enhanced the animation?

And so, Up is a delightful, gorgeous-looking, story-driven, adventure movie. Oscar winning? Lets just say I think it did a lot more in 96 minutes than what Avatar did in almost 3 hours. Oh yeah, it also made me (and a lot of other people) cry. Can't get much better than that!
8.5-9/10
pictures from rottentomatoes.com