Up marks Pixar’s tenth feature length animated film and I would say it is their most mature feature to date. While there are plenty of fun and goofy moments, similar to those that have made their films audience favorites since Toy Story in 1995, Up takes on more adult themes. Dealing with the loss of a loved one serves as the film’s guiding light beginning with an opening 15 minutes that had several of the female audience members in my screening tearing up right out of the gates, but don’t take this to assume Up is a downer of any sort. This film is an uplifting celebration of the human spirit and Pixar has once again managed to create characters the audience can easily connect with and instantly care for. While it didn’t have me falling head-over-heels as I did for WALL•E last year, it still stands as an impressive effort from a studio that would seem to have to actively try to deliver a snoozer.
The story begins with the budding romance of Carl and Ellie, two children fascinated with the idea of exploration and both enamored with the world-renowned adventurer Charles Muntz (Christopher Plummer). Their life-long relationship is the subject matter of that opening 15 minutes I referenced earlier and it is a delicately handled passing-of-time that, as I said, managed to move audience members to tears. The segment is short and early enough in the film to establish a story for the adults in the audience while children won’t be inclined to get antsy, a technique Pixar seems to have down to a science. We move on from here as the groundwork is established and the story of Carl’s life after Ellie begins.
Carl (voiced by Ed Asner), now a recluse hiding away in his house, passes the time talking to his late wife as if she were there and keeping a tight grip on his home, which now sits in the middle of a construction site with Carl unwilling to sell the home where he spent the best years of his life. However, things are about to change as inspiration strikes and this aged balloon salesman decides he’s going to pack it up and fly away… in his home that is. Thousands of balloons sprout out of Carl’s chimney, the foundation cracks and away he goes. His destination, Paradise Falls, the last place Charles Muntz was said to be going before he disappeared and the one place he promised Ellie the two of them would one day go and he isn’t about to break that promise, even if it means Ellie will only be there in spirit.
Keeping the kids in the swing of things is the addition of an accidental passenger on this floating habitat in the sky named Russell (voiced by Jordan Nagai), a Wilderness Explorer Scout who is one patch away from becoming a Senior Explorer. As chance would have it, that patch is the requirement to assist a senior citizen. The two soon arrive at the beautiful landscape of Paradise Falls where they meet up with a crazy bird, talking dogs and the film’s ultimate antagonist.
Up is Pixar’s first film to be released in both standard 2-D and 3-D, and I would suggest you skip the 3-D screenings and stick strictly with 2-D. The 3-D adds absolutely nothing to the film and actually only offers up an additional distraction even though I don’t have any immediate complaints about the presentation. Pixar films are gorgeous to look at and to add a bit of 21st century gimmickry is worthless. Up benefits from fleshed out characters and imaginative story-telling, and the beauty of the film is found in its animation and its story, not in its third dimension.
This is a film you would have to actively try to dislike as there is nothing to pick on. As I said early on, it didn’t floor me, but it had my attention the entire way and offers up plenty of laughs (the audience I saw it with seemed to enjoy it immensely). I still think WALL•E is the animation house’s crowning achievement and I don’t think I will be returning to this film as much as I do Ratatouille or Toy Story, but to make such a statement is to put this film in the upper echelon of animated filmmaking and not at all meant as a negative.
