'Up', Disney Pixar's latest animated film, soars!
"Up," the latest lovely fantasy from the artists at Disney's Pixar
animation, is a truly fantastic adventure, a lighter-than-air daydream
about a cranky widower (the voice of Ed Asner), a chubby boy and
their amazing journey.
No matter what else is released this year, at least one Best Animated
Feature nomination - if not the winner - is already picked out.
Russell is shocked to hear what Dug
has to say.
"Up" has a delightful prologue, set in the '30s, and the sort of slam-bang chase scene at the end that used
to mark the "Wallace and Gromit" stories. It's a delight pretty much throughout.
Music, no Lyrics
What's true genius, though, is a sequence about five minutes in, where Carl and Ellie - the kids at the very
beginning of the film - grow up, get married and grow old. It's pure, visual filmmaking, without a word
spoken - just the haunting music of Michael Giacchino - and it'll be talked about the way the first halfhour of "WALL-E" was discussed.
The rest of this movie isn't quite at that perfect peak, but it's still great fun and inventive animation.
Unlike most cartoons, which go for cutesy caricature, this one is practically a geometry lesson; irritable old
man Carl is all squares and rectangles, pesky pudgy Russell a rolling mass of circles and ovals.
Balloons, Stowaways and Talking Dogs!
The story, from co-director Bob Peterson, who also wrote "Finding Nemo", has
the elegant simplicity of a children's picture book, too. Forced to leave his house, a
lonely retiree decides simply to take it with him. So, after tying thousands of
balloons to it, he flies off to Peru not realizing, unfortunately, that he has an 8-yearold stowaway on board, intent on earning his Wilderness Explorer badge.
Ed Asner provides Carl's voice and young Jordan Nagai does Russell's, and they're both effortlessly
believable. Delightfully different, too. I mean, just look at them. A grumpy old man and a chunky AsianAmerican kid - these are not a big studio's typical heroes; but heroes they become once
they land in South America and find themselves facing an unexpected challenge from
the past.
It's here, perhaps, that the movie goes a little too far. A film that features a Victorian
house sailing through the sky is magical enough, adding an army of talking dogs is
pushing things (never mind having those dogs then fly around in ancient biplanes).
But there are plenty of bright silly things here, like a giant squawking bird that Russell
soon takes under his wing. And at least when the dogs do speak (courtesy of some sci-fi
collars that translate their barks) they say all the stupid things you know your pet would
(mostly excited chatter about squirrels, treats and tennis balls).
Up, up and away!
Heroes in Disguise
None of these later scenes quite matches the grown-up artistry of that early, wordless sequence. But by
the time the film reaches its final, breakneck chases, there's nothing to do but surrender happily to the
excitement and cheer our unlikely heroes on. I don't just mean that cranky senior citizen and his misfit
friend. I mean the heroic band of animators who have spent the last 15 years or so, with "Toy Story," with
"The Incredibles," with "WALL-E", giving us back the giddy, guiltless joy of cartoons.
And so, if you enjoyed the creative work of Monsters’ Inc., Finding Nemo and the Toy Story trilogy then
come fly with me, Russell and Carl in this delightfully uplifting movie for all the family.