UP is the latest offering from children’s dream makers Disney-Pixar, and the second with Pete Docter at the helm.
It’s been 14 years since Toy Story revolutionised the animated-feature film genre. After wowing movie goers consistently with an award-winning combination of wonderful storytelling and stunningly warm animation, each new release from Pixar sees the pressure rise as critics are convinced that the bubble surely has to pop one day. Today, is not that day.
Beware of giant floating letters
The Plot
The film starts with a quick brush through the life and times of Carl Fredricksen, documenting his relationship with his childhood sweetheart and their shared passion for adventure.
We rejoin Carl as a 78-year-old widower having lost his wife before ever being able to realise their dream adventure to the mythical Paradise Falls in South America. Balloon-vendor Carl has resigned himself to grouch about on his porch for the remainder of his days, when property developers conspire to oust him from his house a pack him of to Shady Acres retirement home. In a last-ditch attempt to save his home, Carl unleashes thousands of balloons tied to his house and literally floats on up-and-away.
The Characters
Pixar have long been the masters of the ‘buddy movie’. But where UP differs from the double teams of Toy Story’s Woody and Buzz, and Monsters Inc.’s Sully and Mike Wazowski, is the double teaming of old-timer Carl with Russell, an 8-year-old Wilderness Explorer. This move is as brilliant as it is unexpected.
We meet Russell as a nerdy-but-sweet, ultra-keen boyscout, badgering to help elderly Carl in order to earn his ‘assisting the elderly’ badge.
What really swings this film is the underlying sadness behind the characters that endears them just as much to each other as it does to the audience. Carl, a heartbroken widower, filled with regrets of never having accomplished his lif’s ambition of adventure, and Russell, a child from a broken home who longs to earn boyscout badges inorder to be able to see his father at the presentation ceremony. From the trials of these two unlikely friends comes a truly heartfelt relationship which has proved to be vital to Pixar’s brilliance.
I was also very pleased to find that one of the two protagonists (Russell) was from an oriental background, showing us that not only has Pixar led the way in film for so much innovation, they are once again brave enough to give a leading role to a character from an ethnic minority.
Modern-day adventurers
3-D
The main gripe with this film is the persistence of studios pushing the uninspiring format of 3D. The continuing argument for this ‘innovation’ has been well documented as a novelty money-grabbing exercise by studio executives, that they claim adds more depth to the cinematic experience. This, however, has the exact opposite result in UP.
UP is the success it is, is not in any minor way due to the wonderful use of colour and texture in the animation. I am a firm believer that in an animated film, the animation is the star performer. This is especially relevant in a film such as UP, where the exoticness of some of the sets is paramount to its storytelling. For me the gimmicky input of 3D lessens the impact of other excellent directorial decisions, and a lot of what is normally subconsciously appreciated is understated by this ‘third dimension’.
The Verdict
UP is a thoroughly delightful movie, both funny and heartfelt. It may not be my very favourite release from Pixar, but is definitely not far off, and will certainly have me queuing up for their next releases… probably not in the 3D line though.
out.
