Up Review [2]

Posted by Shawn S. Lealos on 06.02.2009

Pixar returns with their first 3D movie. Does the film fail to match up to classic films of Pixar's past or does it have the wings to soar higher than anything out there today?

Directed by Pete Doctor
Written by Bob Peterson
Animated by PIXAR

Cast
Edward Asner ... Carl Fredricksen
Christopher Plummer ... Charles Muntz
Jordan Nagai ... Russell
Bob Peterson ... Dug
Delroy Lindo ... Beta
Jerome Ranft ... Gamma
Josh Cooley ... Omega
John Ratzenberger ... Construction Forman Tom



Rated PG for some peril and action.


When I went into Up, I expected to see a movie about a crotchety old man and an annoying little boy on a misadventure, an odd couple if you will. That is what every trailer leading up to the movie showed me and it seemed Pixar might be pushing something out lower than the bar they had set for themselves. I was so wrong.

Pixar has always gone above and beyond the typical children’s animated movie storylines. This isn’t just a movie about friendship and loyalty and discovering oneself. Yes, those traits are on display in this film but it also shows us very real, very adult topics such as the treatment of the elderly in today’s society, the loss (read: death) of a loved one, the realization that all your dreams have not come true, the lack of parental love for a child, and the disappointment when you finally face your heroes.

Up is the latest Pixar masterpiece and might be the best of them all.

Carl Fredricksen is a young, awkward boy when we first meet him. He is wearing aviator goggles and is watching a movie about his hero, explorer Charles Muntz. Muntz has just returned from Paradise Falls in South America with bones proving the existence of a giant creature. However his hero was embarrassed when anthropologists claim the bones were fabricated and Muntz left for Paradise Falls once again, determined to prove the creature exists, never to be seen again.

On his way home, an excited young Carl comes across an old, abandoned house and hears a voice inside, excitedly talking about Charles Muntz. He sneaks in and meets the owner of the voice, a young girl named Ellie. Ellie proudly gives a very nervous Carl a badge and announces they are now part of an exclusive explorer’s club. She makes Carl promise her that they will take a trip to Paradise Falls to explore and shows him a book she will document their adventures in.

The next ten minutes are possibly the sweetest, most heartwarming and tender scenes ever displayed in a Pixar movie. Wall-E proves that Pixar can make a silent film and keep kids interested throughout. The opening of Up is not a silent film, but is as close as you can get with minimalistic dialogue and the most magnificent musical score I have ever heard.

Carl and Ellie fall in love and marry. They begin to save for their trip to South America but life gets in the way. Broken bones, car repairs and storm damage continuously force them to break into their savings. The two decide to have children but Ellie finds her body incapable of bearing a child. The two grow old together and on the day Carl buys plane tickets to South America to fulfill their lifelong dream, Ellie falls ill and Carl soon finds himself alone. This is all scored with beautiful, touching piano music.

Michael Giacchino, who last worked with Pixar on Ratatouille, deserves all the credit in the world for how well this film works. His music is beautiful, minimalistic and fits the moods of the movie, changing throughout from sorrow to adventure to loneliness to tenderness, never missing a beat. The man should be standing at the front of the line come Oscar season and deserves all the accolades he receives. This is, without a doubt, one of the greatest scores I have ever heard in a motion picture. It is the music, as much as the silent narrative of this sequence, which breaks your heart before the main story of the movie gets underway.

The trailers that make Carl look like a mean old man are completely false. Carl is a lonely man, preferring to be left alone, but still kind hearted, never cruel or brash. He and Ellie had purchased the house they met in and designed it into their dream home. In the present day, developers have purchased all the homes and land around Carl’s house and are in the process of building an industrial type landscape. Carl refuses to sell his home and sits on the porch every day watching them destroy the neighborhood he once lived in with his wife. When Carl loses his temper and strikes out against a construction worker who breaks the mailbox he built with Ellie, the developers take him to court and he is found unfit and a danger to society. His punishment is to be put into a retirement village.

Before this happens, he meets a young boy named Russell, a wilderness explorer scout who needs one more badge to advance to the next level. That last badge is to assist the elderly and he tries to find some way to help Carl and earn that last badge. Russell is a fat young boy whose father has practically abandoned him. His dream is that by earning this last badge, his father will be so proud he will show up at the awards ceremony and share in his joy.

Carl finds a way to escape the confinement of the retirement village by using hundreds of helium balloons to lift his home off the ground and carry him to South America and Paradise Falls. To his surprise, Russell happens to be under his porch when his house lifts off and is now travelling with him into South America. Upon their arrival, they encounter a pack of dogs with voice modifiers allowing them to talk, a giant bird and an old explorer still determined to one day prove to the world he is not a cheat.

What makes kids happy is the crazy hijinks and humor of an animated film. Up is filled to the brink with humor and I was shocked and surprised at how much I laughed during this movie. There is a scene early where we meet the main core of the pack of dogs and once the leader of the pack begins to speak, I lost it. Dug, the outcast dog that latches onto Carl and Russell, possesses the best lines in the movie and will have kids repeating the lines ad nauseum upon leaving the theater. The action is fast and furious, from the pack of dogs chasing our heroes through the jungles to the final sword vs. cane fight aboard a Zeppelin, there is never a lack of intense adventure.

Humor and adventure can be all an animated film needs to be a success to the kids but it takes much more to cater to the adults. Toy Story possesses a story of abandonment, as the toys find themselves no longer wanted by their beloved master. Wall-E is, at its core, a tale of environmental devestation with the loneliness and desolation of the robot to top it off. Monsters Inc. is a story of overcoming your fears while Finding Nemo is a tale of being separated from your parents. Pixar has specialized in ignoring pop culture references just for the sake of seeming cool and has perfected telling poignant stories that both tug on the heart strings while also making you think.

Up continues that tradition and might top everything that came before. With strong, emotional character arcs for both Carl and Russell and heartbreaking moments, 70 years difference in age doesn’t mean anything if you are still young at heart. For adults, animated films are for people still holding the memories of youth in their hearts and souls and this is a movie rewarding that joy. Carl needs Russell and Russell needs Carl. It is the relationship between two individuals who on the outside look like complete opposites but on the inside are two sides to the same coin that makes the movie special. They take the adventure of a lifetime and, while it is Russell who is trying to aid the elderly, both characters complete each other.

On a final note, I went to the 3D showing and for those curious about how Pixar handled the new technology there is not too much difference between 3D and 2D in this case. Pixar used the technology in a way to bring out the textures of the world and only used it as an aesthetic device. It is more noticeable in Partly Cloudy, the short film that preceded Up. When things fly by, they clearly stand out from the background. Clouds float almost seamlessly across the air, standing out from the sky. The most striking use of 3D in Up is in the close-up features of the character’s faces, which are beautifully rendered and look more 3-Dimensional than anything I have seen yet. It is a beautiful film, both visually and textually.

The 411: Pixar has created odd couples in the past that play off each other in memorable ways. Woody and Buzz give each other what they need to survive and move on to the next stage in life. Wall-E and Eve complete a union that not only helps save all humanity but also finds the actual meaning of their existence. In Up, Carl and Russell find each other broken and in pain and by the end of the film have given each other the pieces missing in their lives. It is a fantastic story amplified by a magnificent musical score that works hand in hand to take you from heartbreak to excitement to contentment in what might be the best movie of the year. Up is perfect.

Final Score:  10.0   [ Virtually Perfect ]