Up

Review by Loc

I speak in reverential tones when discussing Pixar films. There isn’t another studio that embraces the creative process in today’s Hollywood. The foundation of telling quality, character-driven stories is bred in Pixar’s DNA, and you’ve seen that from its very beginnings. In the days of Toy Story and A Bug’s Life, the focus was on creating a great story imbued with heart and care, and this was so successful that these stories resonated in the audiences. Even as Pixar became a money-minting machine, they never bowed to the temptation of box-office bonanzas. They produced one film at a time because that’s what their staffing could handle, and if it meant an 18-month wait between Pixar flicks, that’s what it meant.

So now, we find ourselves in the new age of Pixar, subsidiary of Disney. Has the cycle changed? Yes, there’s basically a new Pixar flick scheduled for every year. Has the quality changed? No, they approach every new story with wide-eyed wonderment and aim to tell something unique. Will it last forever? I doubt it. But is this shift evident in their latest offering? Quick hit: Up is a fine fine movie.

Let’s get this out of the way. The technology, the CGI, the visual and auditory offerings from Up: magnificent. It’s not so cutting edge, it’s not like WALL-E’s opening junk-pile sequence where things were near photo-realistic. But Up looks very nice, classic Pixar, and nothing to sneeze at. For the most part, CGI-animated flicks are now the standard and Pixar doesn’t cut any corners with Up.

That leaves us with the story, and what a strange concept it is. On the surface, one might think a story about a cranky old man tying a bunch of balloons to his house to travel around the world is sorta weird and mostly uninteresting. Even the early trailers didn’t offer much other than CGI and Pixar branding to sell it. Yet, as you settle in, you begin to realize this story has little to do with the balloons, little to do with the house, a little more to do with the relationship between old man and young boy, but mostly to do with old man.

And that’s where this flick, more than any other Pixar film, treads firmly in the adult-themed arena. Sure, WALL-E was a pretty obvious knock on human consumerism and over-consumption. Something like The Incredibles had some hinting of family-life and mid-life crises. Ratatouille was all about pursuing your calling in life, damn be the critics. But Up, this film is almost a downer, a story wholly focused on fulfilling the dreams of youth that have since long slipped away in the midst of surviving life’s speedbumps.

Carl Fredricksen, voiced by Ed Asner, is the gruff old man whose life is much more than this simple stereotype. Conveyed in the first five minutes of the film, we see how Carl met his sweetheart as a young kid, we see them grow up and get married, we see how they manage to live a fulfilling existence even while maintaining youthful dreams. Honestly, in the first five minutes of this film, you experience the bittersweet reality of…reality.

And from that fun recap, we jump into the meat of Up. Facing a retirement home, Carl concocts the most unlikely of plans, sail away with house-in-hand and find the one paradise that always eluded him and his true love. Unfortunately, a young “wilderness adventurer”, read “boy scout”, ends up on Carl’s porch and now we have a funny odd-couple. However, this is where Up diverges from the preconceived notions of the film. The story isn’t about journeying in the house of balloons, it’s actually about what happens after they’ve journeyed. There’s little time spent in the atmosphere, and most of the plot revolves around where they land and the characters they meet. It’s funny that a film called Up is really about what happens after you come down. Deep, I know.

Overall, this is a solid film. It’s touching at points, especially as you see Carl’s “This is your life” montage. It has funny gags, things that make both the kids and adults laugh out loud. There’s not a whole lot of clever bits, as this story really isn’t a comedy at all. But little things like the HSN Schneider lens clip is great for those of you who watch too much Youtube. The talking dogs are funny, but if you’ve read We3, then you get the joke already. This is a good-hearted Pixar offering, not their absolute best, but nothing to sneeze at. Out of 1000 helium balloons, Up floats off with 750. More than any of its predecessors, this is an adult-Pixar offering.