Review: Up (2009)

Up (2009)

4.0

ADVENTURE/ANIMATION
U.S. Release Date: 05/29/2009
Running Length: 96 Minutes
MPAA Classification: PG (Peril, Action)
Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 1:85:1
Cast: Edward Asner, Christopher Plummer, Jordan Nagai, Bob Peterson, John Ratzenberger
Director: Pete Docter, Bob Peterson
Screenplay: Bob Peterson
Music: Michael Giacchino
U.S. Distributor: Buena Vista Pictures

Review by: Carter Moulton

05/23/09

This is truly special. It’s been fourteen years, ten motion pictures, and Pixar has yet to make a bad film—and there’s been a crescendo as of late. Ratatouille was phenomenal, and when Wall-E was released last year, critics and audiences alike thought the studio had created its crowning achievement, a film that couldn’t be topped. Well, I’m happy to report that Pixar’s latest installment, Up is the most heartfelt Pixar film to date, and, colorfully popping out in 3D, its even more entertaining than Wall-E.

Up, along with Wall-E, has the simplest storyline of Pixar’s canon. It begins with Carl Fredricksen (voiced by Edward Asner) sitting in a movie theater as a young tater-tot of 8 years old. It’s the 1930’s, which means that newsreels exist—I wish they still did. While watching, Fredricksen learns that his hero, dare-it-all explorer Charles Muntz (Christopher Plummer), has been officially discredited and deemed to be a phony—this will come into play later on.

On his way home from the movies, Carl—skipping playfully with a balloon—overhears another child pretending to be on a Muntz-led excursion. The child is Ellie, an 8-year-old tomboy with a mouth that moves like a game of “hot potato.” Ellie and Carl become friends, with Ellie sneaking over to Carl’s house at night. After Ellie opens up to Carl, telling him about her dream home, Carl promises—and crosses his heart—to take Ellie to Paradise Falls, a “land lost in time” that was discovered by Charles Muntz.

What comes next is perhaps the most moving four-minute montage of film one will see all year. It’s a wordless segment that shows Ellie and Carl as they fall in love and spend their lives together, and how the little things like flat tires and looking at the clouds turn out to be the most important. The ending of the montage tells of Ellie’s death and Carl’s everlasting dedication to her. It demonstrates all of the beauty and heartache of life’s romances and hardships in such a successful way that, as an audience, we are drawn in, willing to offer all of our emotional assets to Carl Fredricksen and travel with him step by step through the rest of the picture.

With his wife no longer with him, Carl is all alone, destined to fizzle out. Then he gets an idea. In honor of Ellie, he decides to travel to Paradise Falls—and take the house with him. He inflates thousands and thousands of brightly colored balloons, attaches them to his house, and takes off! As his house soars above the city, above the state, and above the clouds, the 3D works beautifully, with colors and shapes bursting out of the screen. The ever-expanding technology does wonders here, making the scenes from above truly perilous.

All’s going well, until he hears a knock on the door. It’s Russell, an annoyingly cute boyscout, standing on the porch. He’s a firecracker, and he has his own back-story as well. Russell and Carl’s relationship provides many of the laughs in Up, and their adventures in the air are matched by their adventures once they reach Paradise Falls. There are a few more characters including Dug, a cleverly-named talking dog that steals scene after scene, but you can count all of the characters on one set of hands.

Up is only the second Pixar release to be rated “PG.” The Incredibles, the other “PG” feature, is much more violent than this film, but Up has you holding your breath time after time, so be conscious of that before you take the little ones. Up is also a tearjerker—the rousing score by Michael Giacchino helps—and this aspect makes the film even more Oscar-threatening than Wall-E. Yes, Wall-E had its touching moments, but Up will make you cry. It’s a simple, genuine tale full of nostalgia, humor, pathos and adventure—all placed perfectly. The final image in Up bookends the film with an emotional punch that I can only hope will get awards voters talking: This is the best film I’ve seen this year to date.