Up (2009) *****

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Submitted by Managing Editor on Sun, 25/10/2009 - 6:55pm
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Starring: Ed Asner, Jordan Nagai, Christopher Plummer, Delroy Lindo, Bob Peterson, John Ratzenberger, Elie Docter, Jerome Ranft, Jeremy Leary, David Kaye
Writing Credits: Bob Peterson (story & screenplay), Pete Docter (story & screenplay), Thomas McCarthy (story)
Classification: Australia PG | US PG | UK U
Run time: 96 minutes
Directors: Pete Docter, Bob Peterson

It seems as though every new film released by Pixar is tagged with "best yet" or similar. And, though this does get annoying, this recognition is not wrong. Pixar push themselves and their story-telling ability with each film they bring out and constantly prove that they are not only making the best children’s movies, they are making some of the best films around.

Up tells the story of Carl Fredricksen (Ed Asner). As a child, he is a keen wannabe explorer and fan of the exploration exploits of Charles Muntz (Christopher Plummer) and meets Ellie, a fellow wannabe explorer and Charles Muntz fan. They find they share a common dream, to visit Paradise Falls made famous by Muntz. Ellie shows Carl her Adventure Book made for the journey, with a page marked "Stuff I’m Going To Do". What follows is a heart-breaking four minute montage following Carl and Ellie’s life together: growing up, falling in love, getting married, planning a family, right up until, with the dream of Paradise Falls still unrealised, Ellie passes away.

Now, Carl is a 78-year-old grumpy widower who has appeared to have lost his sense of adventure. But when it looks as though he’s about to be unwillingly moved into a retirement home, he attaches thousands of colourful helium balloons to his house and takes flight, setting a course for Paradise Falls. But Carl finds he has acquired a stowaway in the form of over eager Wilderness Explorer scout Russell (Jordan Nagai).

Russell and Carl form the perfect odd-couple, both in personality and visual styling. Carl is very set, angular and, well, grumpy, while Russell is round, almost balloon-shaped, with an exuberant personality. Together, the two unlikely heroes continue the quest to realising Ellie and Carl’s childhood dream of reaching Paradise Falls.

Up appears as Pixar’s most mature film to date, with possibly even more emotional depth than anything Pixar has done before. As this is a kids film, you do get the usual stuff you see in typical kids movies, but Pixar have "upped the stakes" so to speak and have produced a film that realizes children aren’t idiots and can handle complex, tragic stories when presented in the proper form.

The overprotectiveness has seemingly disappeared. Here, characters bleed, there’s implied murder and a twisted sense of humour. Writers Pete Doctor and Bob Peterson will have you teary-eyed one minute and laughing the next. Up also gives us some of the best action scenes since The Incredibles. Up also brings to the screen one of the best villains from Pixar.

Up is a wonderful, thoughtful, emotional, mature, uplifting adventure. Pixar has once again proved that it is leading the charge in animated film today.

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