Up
I've always had an aversion to Pixar films for some reason, even though I've never sat down and watched one since Toy Story, the only other Pixar film I've seen.
I had my reasons for avoiding these films. First of all, Toy Story was a kids movie. About toys and kids and their fantasy world. And I found it in my memory to be devoid of facing any real hard truths of this world. It was all kind of glossed over with the problems being about a child's level of interaction between people. Maybe I'm wrong, but this is my memory. It's a glossed, child fantasy reality.
Then I saw Shrek which I hated. Now Shrek is not Pixar, I know. It's Dreamworks. But they are the primary competitors in the world of blockbuster, computer generated animation, family oriented films. Shrek features the same glossed over and simplified look at the world with the added annoyance of extra mindless pop stars and singers being tied in. Anyone else find that Smash Mouth cover of "I'm A Believer" at the end of the film to be as aggravating as me?
And then since then I've felt like I've already seen all of these movies. The marketing campaign for this genre of films might be bigger than any other. I really can't go anywhere that advertisements could possibly appear without seeing ads for these kinds of movies. Not only that, the ads seem to come out almost a year before the movie. So I'm already sick of these movies almost a year before they are even released.
So I didn't plan on seeing Up. But I was out with a big group of friends who all made the decision to see a movie. There were some films I might have wanted to see more, and (as is usually the case with the majority of films at the mainstream movie theatres at any given time) a lot of films I wanted to see a whole lot less. I don't think I'd seen a full length film in 3-D with the special glasses and everything before, so I was kind of interested in that as well.
I was confused at first, and then I remembered hearing that all of these Pixar movies always begin with a short film. When that was over and Up began, I was surprised how moved I was. The film started out with some kids, but suddenly we were cruising through a montage of their relationship, marriage, and all of their life. Until the kid is in his seventies. I've talked to several people who watched this, and I don't think I'm in the minority that I found myself tearing up during this montage. (and again later when he opens up his scrap book). I was trying to reflect on this and see if I felt in any way manipulated in a bad way here. And I don't think I was. There was some subtle and expert filmmaking here. Like a good Frank Capra film, the emotion might have been a bit sappy, but I liked it.
Some of the rest of the film was of course a bit kiddy, family friendly, and sheltered. But in the end I was shocked how much I liked this. The protagonist Carl Fredricksen is what made the movie. As a character, he was identifiable. The joy came from him.
The whole floating house with balloons aspect I think was pretty much created just as a challenge by the animators to see what kind of unusual physics and scenarios they could try to animate.
A couple other points:
If Charles Muntz was well into his adult years when Carl Fredricksen was still in grade school, wouldn't Charles be getting close to 100 years old when Carl was in his 70s? Yet Charles looked almost younger than Carl at this time.
Also, please don't confuse this film with Russ Meyer's Up!. Although that might be a fun movie to see in 3-D as well!
I may consider watching another Pixar movie, yet somehow I still have the sense that this film was more of an exception.
Rating: 9/10