Review: UP

And those days come sooner than later when he finds an abandoned house where he meets another thrill seeker in the form of a young girl named Ellie (Elie Docter). Carl rarely utters a word as the tomboy Ellie shares her dreams of beautiful, distant places. And as the two become friends, they find themselves sharing a life together through happiness and darker times. Yet very little of their continued adventures stray any farther than the house the two share. This is a moving sequence that explores the very strong bond of this couple as they get married and grow old together. And the beauty of this is that much of it takes place in a charming, dialogue free, and ultimately heartbreaking montage. There is more story in the first five minutes of UP than most every other film that finds itself in the local Cineplex.

When Carl (Ed Asner) finds himself alone, in the house where he shared all his hopes and dreams with the love of his life, he is threatened by land developers to sell. And while that could’ve been the first sign of a sappy and painfully dull statement on society in the form of animation, it takes a completely different direction. It is thrilling to actually sit through a modern day film and really be surprised by where it takes you. With animation, I feel like they sometimes play it a little too safe and don’t really challenge the viewer. Not so with UP, as there is so much here that not only opens the heart, but it also expands the mind, the way a great story should. This near perfect tale is a resounding success as it explores the relationship between the older and sadder Carl who befriends a boy scout named Russell (Jordan Nagai). The two present a touching relationship that grows in a sincere manner. How refreshing to have the heroes be an old man and a weak and slightly overweight child.

When it comes to family fare, I am certain that some will find a couple of the sequences a little uncomfortable when the young ones are watching. The opening montage is enough to get nearly anybody teary-eyed. At the screening I attended, the character of “Kevin” caused some serious distress as a couple of girls questioned whether he’d be okay. But this is not terribly surprising for Pixar, or for Disney for that matter. Again, it comes down to a wonderful script by Bob Peterson and some fine directing by Peterson and Pete Docter. And yes, the animation is absolutely wonderful. It seems like it would be a difficult task to make something like this look as good as it does here. The idea of thousands of balloons lifting a house way up into the clouds, all the while trying to make the movement of the wind, rain and all the “natural’ looking effects work seamlessly would have been an immense challenge. Yet the filmmakers working at Pixar continue to succeed on so many levels, from character design to the rich landscape of South America, it is just simply stunning.