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Here’s a movie for dog lovers, the elderly, children of divorce, FOBs (Friends of Birds), primitive Boy Scouts, people yearning for adventure, and anyone who has ever loved… and lost. Up is for everyone. It made me laugh out loud, and it made me roar.
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I notion it would be tough for Up to match the emotional power of Wall-E. The two Pixar films are similar in their lack of dialogue in the first act, which helps deepen the emotional impact. Up begins with Carl, a insecure young boy star-struck by a famed explorer; and kookie Ellie, who has a similar obsession. The two kids become snappily friends, and pronounce to one day fade to Venezuela’s Paradise Falls. After getting married, they prefer their dream home and fix it up, hoping to absorb it with children. Carl and Ellie’s life together from childhood through feeble age is depicted, silently, with delicacy and subtlety. The first 15 minutes is like a celebration of a glad marriage, and you truly feel Carl’s damage when he is left alone. He sits slumped in his chair, talking to the house as if it is the missing Ellie.
When developers finish in on Carl’s beloved home, he decides to fulfill his promise to Ellie and move to Paradise Falls. A venerable balloon vendor, Carl lifts his home with hundreds of shiny balloons. Stowing away on the porch is Russell, a fat, valiant kid trying to net a scouting badge.
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After landing in Paradise Falls, the archaic man and the tiny boy are joined by a golden retriever named Dug who can talk with his collar, and a titanic rare bird that bonds with Russell (he names her “Kevin”) . Dug is priceless: spot-on for every dog that ever lived, including an obsession with squirrels. Through a series of finish calls and adventures, the quartet vanquishes a villain, saving the day. And Russell earns his scouting badge.
In the process, Carl learns to let go of his murky mourning for Ellie, and live life again. When this happens, a truly magical thing happens. Before, Carl’s craggy face is gray and monochromatic. At the moment of his transformation, Carl’s face is awash in color, and he is surrounded by pretty hues. It reminded me of The Wizard of Oz, when Dorothy steps out of her gray world and into a candy-colored Munchkinland. Carl, too, enters a whole modern world.
Up is a deeply emotional film, plump of truth. It’s the year’s best film. Gain another triumph for Pixar.
Someday, Pixar is going to do it — they’re going to effect an emotionally uninspiring, lackluster though-provoking movie. But in the meantime, they’re unruffled putting out delicious though-provoking movies like “Up,” which defies the usual kid-movie conventions by starring a crotchety dilapidated man. It’s a charming, fun shrimp adventure narrative with flying dogs and balloon-powered houses, but underlying it is a bittersweet itsy-bitsy anecdote about loss and esteem.
As a child, the apprehensive Carl Fredricksen bonded with the oddball Ellie over their shared savor of adventure, the explorer Charles Muntz, and Paradise Falls. They later married, travel into their “clubhouse” together, and lived a long, sadly childless life together. When Ellie died, she had never fulfilled her dream of going to Paradise Falls.
Now crotchety, alone and harassed by a proper estate developer, Carl (Ed Asner) is finally ordered to a retirement home. But he isn’t going quietly — instead he attaches thousands of balloons to his house and floats it away toward South America. But he accidentally takes an interested, naive Wilderness Explorer (a thinly-veiled Boy Scout) named Russell (Jordan Nagai) along for the waddle. Terrible kid was unprejudiced trying to gain an “assisting the elderly” badge.
And the jungle trudge to Paradise Falls turns out to have some surprising obstacles: a ample emulike bird that Russell names Kevin, a talking dog named Dug (”I am jumping on you, bird!”), and a mysterious used man who lives deep in the heart of the jungle. Turns out the venerable guy is very familiar to Carl — and to remove Kevin, he’s willing to sacrifice Carl and Russell.
Industry experts were babbling about how “Up” wouldn’t be as approved as the previous Pixar movies, because the protagonist is basically a crusty ragged coot. Well, shows what they know. It ended up becoming one of those classic movies that somehow appeals to all ages — while the humor and action appeal to children, adults can be pleased Carl’s cherish for his lost wife, and his stupid realization that he’s clinging to the past.
In fact, the first ten minutes are some of the most heart-tugging, quietly bittersweet scenes I’ve seen in a long time. Without a word, they reveal all the ups and downs of a realistic marriage — joys, sorrows (Ellie’s inability to have children), growing extinct together, and finally loss.
But it’s not a depressing movie by any stretch — in fact, it’s like a childhood fantasy arrive to life, complete with a floating house suspended on hundreds of balloons, and biplanes piloted by a talking dog army.. Plenty of enormous dialogue (”Do you want to play a game? It’s called Observe Who Can Go the Longest Without Saying Anything.” “Icy! My mom loves that game!”) and an action-packed climax in an frail airship.
Ed Asner is absolutely perfect as ubergrouch Carl — crotchety, grumpy, and clear to fulfill his wife’s lifelong dream, but gradually realizing he’s clinging to the past. Nagai is equally perfect as Carl’s polar opposite: a naive, chattery Scout who is positive to reunite Kevin with her baby chicks. And the utterly adorable Dug and the other dogs deserve special scrutinize. These creatures are utterly hilarious — they talk (”I hid under your porch because I treasure you”) and act the plan dogs would if they talked. Three words: cone of shame.
The two-disc edition is going to have some very nice extras, but once again people with regular-def DVDs are going to acquire shafted because the Blu-ray edition will have a bunch of outlandish stuff. Grr. As for this one, there’s a digital copy, the director’s audio commentary, kinda-alternate-ending “The Many Endings of Muntz,” and the documentary “Adventure Is Out There” about the research for this movie.
There are also a pair of adorable sharp shorts. “Partly Cloudy” has a much-abused stork having to direct potentially atrocious baby creatures from a kind but clueless cloud. And “Dug’s Special Mission” is a sort of backstory for the adorable Dug, explaining what the heck he was doing before he met up with Carl and Russell.
“Up” continues Pixar’s running tally of gloriously bewitching, emotionally layered movies that the entire family can bask in. With that, I have only one more thing to say… SQUIRREL!
