[Movie Review] UP
Pixar has the best track record in the business, bar none. The quality of their output of work is something truly awe-inspiring. Even the worst of their films is still light-years ahead of their competition. However, as good as they are, I was highly concerned about Up. The trailer did absolutely nothing for me. It looked very odd to me, and I was worried that I wouldn’t like this one. It’s happened before. I did not like Ratatouille. Cars sucked. So, off I went with my friend to see Up in 3D, hopeful that Pixar would not let me down. I knew ten minutes in that I was watching the best movie of the damn year, and arguably Pixar’s magnum opus.
Yup, that is no exaggeration. Up is an absolute masterpiece, a marvel of film-making and the best film that I have seen this year, no argument. It’s funny, smart, and boy is it sad. I mean, tragically, poignantly sad at times, to the point that you will utterly forget that you are watching a cartoon. If you are in a relationship with someone that you truly love, you need to take them with you to watch this film simply for the first ten minutes alone. I am telling you, I heard audible sobs and weeping coming from the parents in the crowd during the opening sequence. Hell, I’m single and loving it and I was openly sobbing on my friend’s shoulder within the first ten minutes (he cried too!), and the waterworks did not cease for too long. I really don’t know what I could possibly say about this film that has not already been said. It is even better than you think, even better than you’ve heard, and if any film comes out this year that tops this, that film should be given the Best Picture Oscar. Up is that damn good, in every way possible.
The film tells the story of Carl (voiced by Ed Asner), a grumpy old man who…you know what? Any other film would just let Carl be a grump without giving any explanation as to why he is such a grump, but Pixar wisely takes pains to show us Carl’s backstory, in the aforementioned heartbreaking opening of the film (I can’t say enough how deeply this opening moved me and how shocked I was at how much it got to me. I was a total mess after watching that and I’m tearing up again thinking about it. Damn you Pixar!), where we see a young Carl meet a young, talkative girl named Ellie, who shares his love of adventure, particularly the adventurer Charles Muntz. In the span of ten dialogue-free minutes, the two fall in love, face the trials of life, grow old together, and the tragically inevitable happens. Now, Carl is alone in the couple’s home, threatened with losing his home to developers. Rather than lose the last thing that he shared with his beloved wife, he attaches a crapload of balloons to his house and takes off, heading for Paradise Falls in South America, the very place that he and Ellie had always wanted to go before life got in the way. Problem is, he’s got a stowaway: a pudgy little Boy Scout named Russell who is hellbent on getting his “helping the elderly” badge and has his own share of emotional baggage with regards to family.
Now, this seems so far like a typical buddy-movie set-up. The grumpy old guy and the cheery little kid traveling together, getting to know each other, and eventually becoming buddies. While this stuff does take place, Up is much deeper than that. This isn’t just some kiddie cartoon, but a touching film about growing old, losing and finding love, and learning how to let go. Sounds like heavy stuff for a Pixar flick, and I was taken aback at times at just how adult this movie is. Now, I’m not saying that it isn’t safe for kids, but there is a lot of stuff, particularly during the saddest opening of all friggin’ time, that is going to sail right over their little heads and bitchslap you instead. I really have to commend Pixar for not shying away from the reality of life and death. So often in Disney films, death is glossed over, made pretty in order not to upset the little ones, but Up handles death in a poetic, beautiful way that I still can’t believe that they pulled off, with such elegance and subtlety. Just the juxtaposition between two shots in this film carry more meaning in them that the bulk of most overblown death scenes I’ve seen (if I see one more person cradle their dead lover and scream “NOOOOOOOOOOOO!” to the heavens…). Pixar has really outdone themselves here, and they should be so proud of this film.
Now, I’ve gone on and on about the sad, serious stuff, but what about the funny? While Up is Pixar’s most serious film, it’s also the funniest, thanks largely to a bunch of very special talking dogs. These aren’t your typical talking dogs, either. They’ve been outfitted with special collars that translate their thoughts into words, allowing them to still act like real dogs rather than Disneyfied talking animals. The funniest part isn’t so much the things that they are saying (“SQUIRELL!”), but that they look and act like a dog would act. Dug the friendly talking dog is the funniest character in the film, and he is put to perfect use here. There’s an entire army of talking dogs who all get the best gag in the movie, from a literal aerial dogfight to a great shoutout to those tacky ”Dogs Playing Poker” paintings. Genuinely funny stuff here. In fact, all of the characters get a bunch of laughs, and there isn’t a weak character in the bunch, save perhaps for the villain of the piece, who we barely get five minutes with before he is mustache-twirlingly eeeeeevil. His motivation for trying to take out Carl and Russell isn’t fully justifiable, but I can sort of understand why the villain gets short-changed here. The focus is on Carl’s arc, as it should be, so there isn’t much time to develop the villain.
Special note has to be made of the gorgeous animation here. The movie looks truly amazing in 3-D, although I’ve heard some folks say that the colors are much more vibrant in 2D. I don’t know about that, but in 3D, the depth perception as Carl’s house flies high above ground is a knockout effect. Also, I don’t know how Pixar did it, but they managed to perfectly animate what light looks like when it passes through a balloon. There is a shot in this film that you can see in the trailer, of a little girl in her room as the balloons fly past her window, and it creates a beautiful light show in her room. On my computer screen, it was cute. Onscreen, it made my jaw drop. So many shots in this film, from the first time you see the balloons unfurl, to a shot of Carl pulling his house against a pinkish-red sky, to the final shot that set me weeping all over again, are screensaver-worthy. Absolutely flawless work here by Pixar. There’s also a lot of attention to detail here. Watch closely and you’ll notice Carl grow stubble over the course of the film, or the first ”aww!” moment in the film: when Carl first meets Ellie as a child and she touches him for the first time, you can just barely see a blush creep into this shy little boy’s cheeks. It’s adorable! And be sure to sit through the credits to see even more of it! The score is simplistic and yet incredibly evocative, particularly (here we go again) during that opening, where the music has to tell the tale in place of dialogue.
I don’t think that I can do this film justice in a review, but I’ll tell you this: I literally HAD to sit through the credits to compose myself. That is how much this film got to me. Someone asked me before if I preferred this one to Wall-E, and I wasn’t ready to answer. I’ve seen Wall-E dozens of times. I’ve only seen Up once, but dammit, that little robot has got some serious, serious competition. May not end up being my all-time favorite animated movie (that is STILL The Lion King), but this one is in the top 5 already (right now I’d go Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Wall-E, Up, and Spirited Away) . I highly doubt that any film released during the rest of this year (especially since we’re getting a ton of crap strike-rushed films), will move me nearly as much as Up. Thank you, Pixar.
This isn’t nearly enough popcorns for how good Up is.
SQUIRELL!
8 Responses to “[Movie Review] UP”
The movie freaking rocks, hands down, best Pixar film since The Incredibles……Yeah…I left out Wall-e on purpose…sorry. Nice review………….
………..SQUIRREL!
This is one of those movies I would never watch with my friends. This and Ghost.
I freaking went with my little brothers+
but if you have friends that will make fun of anything you do dont go to a movie like UP with them
Jesus, did they purposely make it that sad? The grape soda thing? Really? And the Russel having no dad thing…Mr Fredricson saying “Us” like Ellie was still with him…The eating ice cream on a curve with his dad…I am glad I didnt see this with my buddies i cried like a bitch
I took my little brothers and they didnt cry…they didnt freaking get the movie
They thought Ellie was a boy lol
Even the short movie about clouds was sad!
DAMNIT PIXAR!
Aaron, you didnt like Wall-e?
I loved Wall-e! Especially the way Eve pronounced Wall-e’s name
I liked the incredibles a lot too but its obvious they ripped off the F4
Pixar movies arent usually as sad as this movie though..Wall-e had one sad scene after he gets crushed..the cow girl from Toy Story 2 had a sad scene…Boo had a sad scene…but UP was sad from beginning to end!
It was almost to the point that it depressed me!
But it was a damn good movie
It was a great movie. No I liked Wall-e, I just think it’s overrated, sorry.
You’re not the only one who cried at UP, but who says it was me? lol
They thought Ellie was a boy? Lol gay Carl
Well…Dumbledores gay so I wouldnt care
But yeah they wouldnt shut up about her being a dude…when she was little and had bucked teeth she looked like a boy…and then when they showed her grow up and she was a girl I was like
“HA! i TOLD you it was a girl! now give me your Dibs…”
Wall-e wasnt overrated, Ratatouille was. Theyre both great though.
Good review though Kristina, I was afraid youd give it a 3 1/2 (which would have been up to you anyways so its fine but…still…wtf)
Hey- theres people at Rotten tomatoes that are giving it rotten tomatoes in the tomatometer…I was reading their reviews and I had to stop or else I would have punched a whole through my monitor
Yeah Rotten Tomatoes can be frustrating at time..god thing I have the best account on there lol
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