Movie Review: Up
Up (2009)–****
The greatness of Pixar isn’t hard to define. It is, however, hard to believe. After 14 years, the animation studio still has greatness in spades, and Up, the latest wonder from the folks who brought us Toy Story, Monsters, Inc. and Ratatouille, is beyond great. It’s perfect.
From its opening moments where a young Carl meets Ellie, the love of his life, to the final shot of Carl (Ed Asner) and his young Wilderness Explorer friend Russell (Jordan Nagai) together on a school auditorium stage, Up embodies all that is great about cinema and, more importantly, about life.
The film’s first 10 minutes or so are dedicated to Carl’s journey with the woman he loved, Ellie. The pair were brought together as children through a shared love of adventure and a mutual adoration of explorer Charles Muntz (Christopher Plummer). When they marry, they move into the abandoned house that once served as their playground for imaginary adventures. They plan to one day travel to Muntz’s mysterious South American stomping grounds, Paradise Island, an mountain that acts as an island in the sky. They get older. They have quiet, lovely moments and a few setbacks. Time goes by, and Ellie dies before the trip to Paradise Island.
As developers encroach on his house and life in a nursing home becomes inevitable, the curmudgeon attaches thousands of balloon to the house and flies it to Paradise Island, just as Ellie imagined when they were children.
Carl’s big adventure to Paradise Island, like his life with Ellie, doesn’t go as planned. Carl discovers a stowaway on board, a young Wilderness Explorer scout named Russell who is set on earning his assisting the elderly merit badge. Russell will earn the badge by the end of the film with honors as he and Carl make it to Paradise Island. There the pair befriend a colorful, flamboyant monster bird named Kevin (even though she’s a girl), meet a pack of talking dogs (one of which becomes particularly found of Carl), and encounter a very old Muntz who after many years is still determined to capture Kevin.
At first glance, you may be inclined to describe the story above as magical. It is to a point, but this fantastical adventure is so grounded in emotional reality that you can’t help being swept away by every scene, every frame. We see in the aged Muntz everything that Carl could become, a single-minded adventurer set on achieving one great feat. We see in Carl’s interactions with Russell, as well as his past with Ellie, everything that is possible when we open up ourselves to exploring life with a genuine connectedness to the world around us.
It’s no surprise to see Tom McCarthy’s name on this story. The Pixar outsider wrote and directed last year’s The Visitor, which earned Richard Jenkins his first Oscar nomination. McCarthy’s The Visitor and director Pete Docter and co-director Bob Peterson’s Up are essentially the same film, an old man reawakening after his wife’s death. But Up with Pixar’s trademark whimsy and its ever-improving storytelling prowess is far and away more enchanting.
Of course, the animation helps, too, but to describe Docter and company’s visual aptitude is moot. Pixar is far and away the best animation studio in the world. We come to expect a work of art on screen with every Pixar movie. We aren’t disappointed, especially not with such a rich color palette, its vivid hues and, when necessary, its muted tones. The animation isn’t the story, though. Docter’s profound emotional storytelling is what counts here, and Up connects with its audience in a way no other Pixar film has.
Up does succeed in one other instance. It thankfully renders impotent the theory that 3D will save motion picture exhibition. As someone who saw Pixar’s first 3D film, I can tell you that you gain nothing from putting on those 3D specs. I didn’t even realize I was watching a 3D movie until I walked out of the theater with the wrong glasses on. If other studios made movies this good, no, this great, we wouldn’t have to talk about technology saving movies at all.
Up, featuring the voices of Ed Asner, Christopher Plummer, and Justin Nagai, and directed by Pete Docter is in theaters now.
Get Email Updates
