Up: Pixar Soars Into the Clouds Once Again
These Jehovah’s Witnesses are getting really aggressive. Sheesh…
Rating: 9.5 out of 10
Very few movie companies can step to the plate time and time again and still manage to knock it out of the park. Inevitably somewhere in the line-up, one film will falter and bring people’s expectations back to the land of reality, but Pixar is bucking that trend, keeping their level of quality and integrity far above the rest of the pack. There were some who said they stumbled with Cars, but in terms of box office and DVD profits, it actually beat out the original Toy Story and A Bug’s Life. Up to this point, nothing they have released has generated less than $350 million dollars, which ranks pretty high in terms of a solid track record. Floating calmly into the skyline of the summer movie season, Pixar continues it’s impossibly amazing track record with Up.
Up is a story of love, loss and rejuvenation for one cranky old man named Carl Fredricksen. A born adventurer, Carl finds himself alone and on the verge of losing his home, when he makes the life-altering decision to follow the dream set out by him and his wife to live on the edge of a cliff in a mysterious place called Paradise Falls. Not seeing any reason to leave his house behind to be destroyed by corporate construction companies, he attaches his house to hundreds of balloons and off he goes, soaring into the great beyond. Things get a little complicated, as things are prone to do, when he finds an accidental stow-away, the excitable and determined Russell, who just wants to help an elderly person with anything and receive his final scout badge. This unlikely duo goes with the wind and finds adventure, excitement and danger beyond their wildest imaginations.
Oh, and there are talking dogs. (That’s pretty much enough to get me into a movie theater right there.)
From the top, Pixar brings out the big guns and does what they do best, completely visual storytelling. Including yet another hilarious short film in front of the movie, an early montage showing Carl’s early years is shown with only music and no dialogue at all. No matter how long it has been since the age of the silent movie, the power of visual storytelling will never lessen. Just look back to last year with Pixar’s last effort, Wall-E, which ran through nearly 25 minutes of the film with rarely a word spoken. The main character had a total vocabulary of maybe a dozen words, yet viewers all around the word understood and loved him nonetheless. I can only hope the people in the live action world are watching and learning from the thought and effort put into these animated masterpieces and pull some of that into the more common mainstream films.
Right next to the genius of silence, Pixar also triumphs in the bringing to life of animals and inanimate objects. In Up, we meet Dug, a rambunctious, joy-filled dog who can talk due to the technology of the collar around his neck. He loves and devotes himself to anyone he perceives to be his master, but learns that some masters are better than others. Also joining in the roving gang of adventurers is Kevin, named such by Russell, who is a rather large, colorful and rare bird thought by most of the world to not exist at all. Kevin squawks, sings and does all the playful things we want from a Pixar pet and fits in very nicely to the tone and humor of the film. Kevin is also on a quest, which leads the gang into more trouble and excitement, but I can’t tell you what the quest is without giving away major spoilers. Deal with it.
Recommendation: This is another in a long string of hits for the Pixar gang and in my opinion only falls short to Wall-E and Finding Nemo (honestly, has there ever been a funnier character than Dory?). The movie is out in 3D as well, which was how I saw it, but I didn’t find anything in the film to be particularly amazing with the extra dimension. So save a couple bucks on the glasses rental and see it regular digital 2D.
DandyID
Facebook
Twitter