Up (includes trailer)
May 5th 2010 10:39
UP is Pixar Animation Studio’s most recent offering. It was the opening night film at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, which added an air of prestige to Disney’s already impressive back catalogue of animated features. I initially had no interest in seeing Up but surrendered to the hype in light of Pixar’s previous film – the truly wonderful, ‘Wall-E’.
Pixar seem to be constantly raising the bar for themselves, especially with the approaching, highly anticipated Toy Story 3. What struck me about Wall-E was it’s visionary quality and social commentary. With ‘Up’, we have something else entirely, a nostalgic and emotional adventure that can make you well up with tears and burst out laughing in the same breath. Up’s creator, Pete Docter is an Oscar winning jack of all trades, including everything from animator (Toy Story), writer (Wall-E), doing voices (The Incredibles) and now writing/directing for the second time since Monster’s Inc.
Up includes the voices of Edward Asner (El Dorado, JFK), Christopher Plummer (The Last Station, The Insider) and Jordan Nagai (The Simpsons). It tells the sentimental tale of an old man, Carl Fredricksen, who was introduced to us as a boy, keen for adventure, who’s life has now passed him by. Mr. Fredricksen is grumpy and alone, mourning the death of his wife. He spent his life as a balloon vendor, happily married and he now clings to his memories. All this is presented in the form of wacky characters with big, fat, moon faces, with their antagonists somewhat resembling stick figures. Each small movement and detail of this world is embellished with enchantingly, upbeat animation that puts a smile on your face and puts you in touch with your inner child. This will appeal to kids, whose attention should be dazzled, as the film visually sugar coats these complexly sadder themes of life, along with all of it’s visual gags and lovable humour.
The story continues as Carl Fredricksen’s life begins to close in on him, the chips are down and a small fat kid from boy scouts, named Russel is constantly pestering him. When he is finally cornered by his life, Fredricksen retaliates with one final act of defiance as thousands of balloons burst through his roof and his house floats away, so he can live in the sky, in peace. The plot thickens however when he gets a knock on the door, while floating through the sky – Russel is still on his porch, begging to be let inside! Wacky adventure ensues when their house is blown towards a South American jungle.
The thing that struck me the most was that for an animated film, it really addressed some mature concepts, it sets up camp there, all with a backdrop of gorgeously vivid colours, bright, unique detail and ground breaking, eye popping, fun filled animation. The characters are firmly established, you love them, they’re fun, each appealingly unique and you really care about Mr. Fredricksen and his house, they’re set on a journey, that could go anywhere, but where we land up feels like a bit of a let down in the end.
It seemed to me that when the film’s tone changed to pure sugary entertainment, it seemed forced. I felt like the story went down the wrong path. The quality of the fun doesn't maintain itself and the quota of laughs even decrease a bit. It could be that the story idea of Up isn't enough to follow through all the way, the sub-plot's seem to fit incongruently with the rest of the film and we are left with a novel idea that spreads it's self thin.
It’s unfortunate that this happened. Their was a point in UP where I wondered if it could possibly rival 'Wall-E', after 45 minutes into the film, it was clear to me that it certainly couldn’t. This shouldn’t take away from Up’s fantastical ride. It’s very funny, the humour consists not so much of visual gags but instead very sharp humour which feels like the result of the film’s extraordinary attention to detail and imagination. There’s some great character humour that’s achieved through Up’s generally excellent standard of writing. Their’s a seriously fun treasure to found for children and adults in this one. The elegantly beautiful score adds to the emotional peaks of the film and the astounding animation and visuals make it a must for Blu-ray. This is truly, A-grade, caviar quality animation.
Even though Up’s quality of story slightly falters and the actual directing is a little inconsistent, it has a lot to offer as you watch it with a smile on your face and a sparkle in your eye. ‘Up’ had the potential to be better than it was but it’s still up there as one of the best animated films so far.
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Comment by Jason King
Sydney Table
Salty Popcorn
Total Randomness
Cracks me up and makes me cry every time I watch it.
Cool post!
Comment by ShaunK
Screen Adventure
The blu ray for it is amazing
Comment by Matt Shea
Comment by ShaunK
Screen Adventure
thanks, I really enjoyed the whole thing but at a certain point I started to wonder why I was watching talking dogs (of all things) flying airplanes. There was a disconnect for me there, as if a half baked idea, that they didn't know what to do with, was shoved into the storyline.
I really did like Up a lot despite this - and yes - Wall-E probably never will be topped.