Going UP - Pixar's Latest: Reviewed!

Alright, I'm back with yet another movie review for you, and this one has been a long time coming. I mean, it's not every day that I get to review the latest from PIXAR, so away we go - let's get to it.



UP Review:

- With each new Pixar movie, the pundits always line up and speculate about whether this, at long last, will be the one where Pixar drops the ball. Everyone is waiting for that other shoe to drop, for a Pixar movie to be a dud. And yet, the incredible creative process at Pixar consistently prevents that from happening. The place is a virtual idea factory, and when a creative company is built on great ideas - on imagination, visual splendor, and state of the art technology - well, it's a formula for success that Pixar has cornered like lightning in a bottle. Last year, WALL-E was perhaps their greatest achievement yet - a visually spectacular epic that was one one hand futuristic sci-fi, and on the other hand an homage to the silent pictures of old. Like other Pixar films, and perhaps to an even greater extent, Wall-E worked on multiple levels and could be enjoyed by people of all ages. It may well have been Pixar's definitive classic of this era.

The good news with UP is that it is yet another memorable, imaginative, and multi-layered movie from Pixar - certainly up to par with the level of quality that they have become known for. The bad news, if you can call it that, is that I wouldn't put this one on quite the same level as Wall-E. I mean, Up will still likely make it to many end-of-year Best-Of lists, and it is still likely a shoe-in for Best Animated Picture at the Oscars. But is it the all-around classic that Wall-E was? Again, I wouldn't put it quite on that same level.

The thing I loved about Up going in may also have been partly responsible for its shortcomings. Because, going into Up, I really appreciated the fact that we knew almost nothing about the movie. The trailers, at least the ones that I saw, gave us the iconic imagery of an old man with a flying balloon house. But beyond that, we could really only guess at what adventures such an unusual abode might lead him, and in turn us, to experience. The fact is that the reality of Up's adventure story doesn't quite live up to the spectacular promise of those trailers. For those expecting some kind of Oz-like wonderland at the other end of this balloon trip, you don't quite get that here.

But what you do get is an absolutely brilliant character piece. Moreso than maybe any other Pixar flick to date, Up is a character study, a focused-in portrait of an old man seeking purpose in his life following the death of his beloved wife. It's an ambitious central theme for a family film, but Pixar pulls it off as only they can. The movie's opening narrative, told in quasi-montage fashion, is perhaps the movie's crowning achievement. A mostly dialogue-less sequence, the movie's opening introduces us to a young Carl Fredrickson (skillfully voiced for most of the movie by the great Ed Asner), and shows us his early love for adventure, as he giddilly enjoys newsreel footage of his hero, Charles Muntz's, latest exploits. We then see a young Carl's chance encounter with an equally young Ellie, and the two instantly bond and become inseparable. We follow the two as they grow up, get married, and grow old together. And a lot more. The detail, the storytelling, and the nostalgic emotion of this sequence is just amazing, and Pixar handles some of the more tragic aspects of the Carl and Ellie story with the utmost care, nuance, and artistry.

Back to Ed Asner for a second, his voicework is definitely one of the real highlights of this movie. You definitely get the feeling that there is more than a little of Asner himself in the character, and the veteran actor really shines in this movie. The rest of the voices are also great - there aren't a lot of supporting characters to speak of, but one high point is definitely Christopher Plummer as the aged Muntz. Very fun stuff from Plummer.

I guess where I find some fault with Up is that it soars as a character piece (pun intended), but never quite comes together in terms of plot or story. A lot of the situations seem a bit thrown together. For example, Muntz has all the makings of a classic Pixar villain, and yet we never really learn enough about him to really "get" what his deal is. Why did he go from intrepid adventurer to embittered villain? Why and how does he keep an army of super-advanced dog soldiers? There isn't really enough meat to Muntz's story, and the effect is that the meeting and eventua lconfrontation between he and Carl feels pretty rushed. I guess it felt to me like Up had some untapped potential in terms of its story - it felt like there was some grand mythology lurking in the background that we never really got a chance to play with.

But again, this is at its heart a character piece. And the focus of the movie is Carl's personal struggle, as well as his budding relationship with the young and hapless boyscout named Russell. The overactive Russell and the curmudgeonly Carl seem like a real odd couple, but in fact they turn out to be kindred spirits, and that journey that they experience together is front and center here. I can't say it enough - it's amazing how much character and nuance Pixar is able to pack into these movies.

Finally, I have to emphasize just how stunning Up is visually. While the setting isn't quite as exotic or imaginative as that of Wall-E's, the imagery here, the direction, the sense of wonder and emotion conjured up by the animation, is second to none. Seeing the movie in Disney Digital 3D, the clarity and crispness of the picture was jaw-dropping. But at the same time, the greatest moments of the movie are those that take their time with the images on screen and let the iconography of what's happening speak for itself. It's a downright Spielberg-style film in that regard - the movie is almost ET-like in its use of storybook imagery to convey a sense of awe, wonder, and emotion. It's for that reason that I have to give Up major props despite a couple of flaws with the story. Pixar has done it yet again.

My Grade: A-


Coming Soon: Reviews of THE HANGOVER and LAND OF THE LOST!