Up
Seventy-eight year old Carl Fredricksen travels to Paradise Falls in his
home equipped with balloons, inadvertently taking a young stowaway.
Directors:Pete Docter, Bob Peterson
Writers:Pete Docter (story), Bob Peterson (story)
Stars:Edward Asner, Jordan Nagai, John Ratzenberger
Storyline
A young Carl Fredrickson meets a young adventure-spirited girl named
Ellie. They both dream of going to a lost land in South America. 70
years later, Ellie has died. Carl remembers the promise he made to her.
Then, when he inadvertently hits a construction worker, he is forced to
go to a retirement home. But before they can take him, he and his house
fly away. However, he has a stowaway aboard: an 8-year-old boy named
Russell, who's trying to get an Assisting the Elderly badge. Together,
they embark on an adventure, where they encounter talking dogs, an evil
villain and a rare bird named Kevin.
User Reviews
If there's a list of
great computer animation movies of all time, Pixar would dominate most
of the top positions. Great story, great voice talent, great timing,
great for all ages. It'd be hard to pick just one above another and
perhaps another viewing of Up may be in order to figure out where I'd
place it among so much stellar work.
Up is by far the most
emotional human drama of any Pixar movies thus far, very heavy, so much
so if you're looking for pure fun with some jaw-dropping chase and/or
thematic scenes and no downer moments, Up may not be for you. I saw it
in a packed theatre of about a 65% adult, 35% adult split audience and
it's the only time I can remember being in ANY animated movie where
there was sniffles and watery eyes, and that was within the first 10
minutes of the movie. There's an undercurrent of life after losing a
loved one in this movie, which I don't feel gives anything away. It's
pretty heavy subject matter, Pixar handles it, like they do everything
they touch, incredibly well, but it doesn't make it any less sad to have
the material threaded throughout much of the movie you're reminded of
it, but I suppose it's up to one's own interpretation of loss and how to
place it in your life that perhaps will have an emotional effect on
you.
Story is what makes a great movie great. Without story, you
don't really have anything, maybe some effects, some action, maybe some
cute or clever sight gags, maybe some laughs, hopefully some emotion,
where Pixar shines above all others in animation and over a good 99% of
the movies out there is they can intertwine it all and do it seemingly
effortless, which is an incredible feat. To do this in a few movies is
one thing, but Pixar has pretty much nailed this now for their entire
career of making movies, that's just simply unprecedented.
I
should note I saw the 3D version which, to be honest, didn't really take
the movie to the next level. One of the more well known syndicated
reviewers had said you're better off seeing the non-3D version on
screen, and I actually agree. The 3D glasses added little to nothing to
the movie except for an eye-strain headache later in the night. It
didn't take away from Up mind you, it just didn't add to it either.
Up
is a great movie either way you slice it and it should be noted, the
theatre I saw it in gave it a fairly loud round of applause at the end.
It's pretty rare these days that an audience applauds after a movie,
perhaps we as a society has become too jaded, or too just expecting of
the goods or feeling we're entitled to the entertainment. It's nice when
a movie hits on all cylinders and elicits such a range and emotional
reaction people who don't know each other in a packed room all gasp,
laugh, cry, and applaud together. Great movies however can do that and
Up is truly a great movie.
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