Flying High With UP; A Review On Pixar's Latest Gem
Cartoon, Animation, 3-D, 3d, movie, film
UP
You know what? Pixar’s Up is kinda a downer. I went into it expecting something on the level of Wall-E and what I got was a movie of a little man and a fat boy. (Not to be confused with the movie Fat Man and Little Boy.) But, before I start slowly deconstructing it, I just want to say in advance that this is a great movie, and surpasses Star Trek as the greatest summer film this year. That being said, 2009 has been a rather slow year for movies.
(Spoilers ahead: I tried not to spoil anything that you wouldn’t see from the trailer or read from other reviews, but I had to mention some facts in order to give the film a proper analysis. With that said, I do believe that these are relatively minor spoilers .)
The movie starts out brilliantly, where we see a young Carl, who we know from the posters is going to grow up to be the old fart of the movie. Carl doesn’t talk much, but eventually falls in love with the only major (human) female character of the film. What we get after this are a bunch of single shots that show the couple slowly aging and how it’s affecting their lives. There are comedic moments and major disappointments for the couple. It ends as we see them get weaker and weaker until Carl is left alone with his house and his memories.
All this is very powerful stuff for a kids movie, and make no mistake about it, this is a children’s movie. It’s the most straight forward kids' film that Pixar has made since Cars. But it’s a children’s movie that rarely talks down to the audience, and deals with subjects usually dealt with in movies that target the over 40 crowd. The results are kinda weird.
The next bit of the movie shows Carl waking up and going downstairs. A lot of the humour here is the awkward silence humour, trying to force you to laugh after seeing Carl’s loss. From there, Carl is confronted with mostly friendly construction workers who accidentally damage his property. Carl is mad and reacts, causing one of them to bleed. It’s tastefully done, and I think that this is the first time blood has been in a Pixar film, which I applaud them for. The end result is that Carl is about to lose the rest of his freedom.
At this point, the movie has hit it’s peak in the quality for the adult viewers, from now on, the film will take a less sombre and more kid friendly tone. The next thing we know, Carl takes his balloons and lifts his house off the ground in an FU to physics. But hey, this is what I love about kids’ movies, you can do the impossible and ask everyone not to question you, and they will go along with it. (Good kid’s movies = imagination > physics.)
Of course, if you’ve seen the trailers, you know that Russell, the fat Jr. Woodchuck, was trapped on the front porch and is stuck with him. So Carl decides to take the kid with him to South America to fulfill his wife’s dreams. At this point, the film has three main characters, Carl, Russell and Carl’s wife.
Now I want to mention the presence of Carl’s wife in the film, because it is felt, and the film never resorts to gimmick tricks to keep her in it, like ghosts, or visions or whatever. She is just there, through Carl’s dialogue, motivations, and the house’s decorations. It’s one of the more subtle parts of the film and is communicated mainly through the cinematography. It’s very subtle and very good, and powerful if you stop to think about it, and if you’re over the age of 17, you probably will.
Russell adds the children’s point of view, and acts naive, loud, and optimistically inexperienced. Usually, these types of characters annoy the hell out of me, but Russell didn’t really bug me, surprisingly. I also applaud Pixar for making Russell Asian, it’s nice to see that computer generated characters aren’t limited to Caucasians, and can represent other races of the world that get major screen time.
Then, the movie begins to become more formulaic, with the introduction, of the big giant bird. Yes, the slapstick happy, spunky animal sidekick, that is really easy to market and make toys out of. Thankfully, the bird has a purpose for being in the movie, but with the exception of a Jurassic Park reference, I felt that they didn’t really ad much for the bird to do to cater to the parents/older crowd. As a result, the bird became that annoying kid which I feared Russell would be.
Thankfully, I can completely forgive the bird because of the dogs, the talking dogs, that talk. Okay, every kid wonders what their animal buddies would say if they could talk, and this movie gives us a realistic version of what they would speak like. Enter Doug the Dog; from the first moment you meet him, you will laugh. With the exception of one or two shots in the film, you will laugh. Kids, adults, they will all laugh at Doug, and you will feel like cheering when he helps our heroes out. I hold nothing against Doug, and hope that one day when I meet a talking Dog, it will be like him.
Sadly, this is a kids movie, and as such needs to have a villain. I won’t ruin who it is, but it’s pretty obvious from the first scene who will fit the role, and where the conflict will arise. I really wanted to enjoy the climax, but with the exception of the museum skirmish, there was really nothing in it that I didn’t see in any other children’s film before this. This really detracted from the movie’s quality, because Pixar has constantly shown that they are capable of more. Though, I will give the climax points for the air fighter pilots.
The movie’s ending is nothing extraordinary, but is inevitable and satisfying. As with most of Pixar’s movies, the end credits are extremely well done and tell where our heroes evolve after the adventure ends. However, I stayed after all the credits were over and was treated only to the projector shutting off.
Now one more thing I feel I should mention is the 3-D effects. Yes, I saw it in digital 3-D, and glasses were given, and it did look like a prototype for the what will one day lead to the creation of the holodeck. The 3-D started off amazing, but about halfway into the film, they either stopped using the effects as much, or I became so used to it that I didn’t notice. Thankfully by the end, it became noticeable again. The effect was a good incentive for me to see a film in theaters, but I really wish that the extra price needed to see the effect was less. But this was my first time seeing a 3-D film in theatres, and I think everyone should see this effect once James Cameron perfects it.
So, how does the movie do overall? Well, despite being a more cliched children’s movie than most of Pixar’s recent work, it’s still awesome and has one of the best opening acts ever. Throughout the movie, the most powerful parts are when Carl deals with his house and the revelations he has about it. The dialogue is a bit stale, but the voice acting is perfect. And if (by the rare chance) you are ever bored with the movies, the dogs will appear and make everything more entertaining. Taking all this into account, I give Pixar’s Up an 9 out of 10 to the average viewers (and that includes children), and an 8 out of 10 if you are a person that hates cliches in kids films. * It’s not as good as Wall-E, but still raises a bar for what animation is capable of, not just technology-wise, but for storytelling in general.
*I will be the first to admit that this rating is higher because of the 3-D technology. People who saw this film without the 3-D glasses told me they would give it a lower rating.
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June 3, 2009
Author: Mike M. |
Check out more articles by Mike M.:
Thoughts on the Red Eye Outrage
Problems with American Copyright Laws
Ultimate Avengers: DVD Review |
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Rico E. |
| Interesting thoughts Mike, I plan to go see it soon, I'll tell you what I think fully then. |
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Beth M. |
Pixar’s Up is kinda a downer... That being said, 2009 has been a rather slow year for movies.
The second saddest Pixar movie, if not the saddest is Wall-E. Humans pretty much destroy the earth, and are controlled by robots (as a background) and the only lonely and sad robot left is there to clean up. He falls in love. Love leaves. He dies. Love is sad. Cry.
Sure Up has its share of loss of love but its more adult geared, and children wouldn't pick it up as clearly as they would as poor little squeaky Wall-E crying, and battery life diminishing. Nice try though.
And I don't think this year as started slow at all, tons of movies, including childrens movies (which count) have come out. Taken (well technically 2008), Watchmen, Crank 2: High Voltage, Observe and Report, The Brother Bloom, I love you, Man, Angels and Demons, Terminator Salvation, Star Trek, Up; Wolverine, Night at the Museum and Outlander were entertaining as well. Hell, 2008 hardly had 6 good movies over the year and I just listed about 12. And we can look forward to Year One, Transformers: Rise of the Fallen, Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and Inglourious Basterds later on. So I think you are full of shit, and don't judge the movies unless you've seen them.
I just saw this movie and I can tell you that more people laughed at that fucking awesome bird then the silly dog. Though the dog is still funny, the bird mannerisms were flawless. |
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Mike M. |
| Beth, this is a bad year for movies, I think it's because of some fallout from the writers strike. I lost track of how many great movies came out in 2008. Every film I saw this year has been a disappointment, the two best by far, (that I've seen) are Star Trek and UP, and even Star Trek wouldn't have made my top 10 list from last year. I'd like to see Crank 2 and Drag Me to Hell eventually. Harry Potter was supposed to come out last year, but the studio feared it might compete with Twilight, so it should have been a 2008 movie. And I consider Taken to be a 2008 movie. |
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Mike M. |
Oh, and Beth,
Great movies from 2008:
Grand Torino
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Tropic Thunder
Pineapple Express
Dark Knight
Wall-E
Get Smart
The Incredible Hulk
Kung-Fu Panda
Speed Racer
Iron Man
The Bank Job
Cloverfield
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire
Great movies of 2008 I've not yet seen:
The Wrestler
Froxt/Nixon
Doubt
Let the Right One In
The Reader (but to be fair, no one saw this)
Movies from 2008 that are not great, yet I still enjoyed:
Hellboy II
Hancock
Indiana Jones
Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Forbidden Kingdom
21
Horton Hears a Who
Rambo
Run Fatboy Run
Now granted, the bad movies from 2008 are worse than any that came out this year, I have not seen them, but these are universally hated by everyone who has, some are considered contenders for worst movie Ever:
Meet the Spartan
Disaster Movie
Witless Protection
Drillbit Tailor
The Mummy 3
Prom Night
The Love Guru
The Happening
Bangkok Dangerous
Oh, and Brother's Bloom was a 2008 movie as well, it got released at a few festivals, it just got wide release this year so it wouldn't have so much competition.
Almost everyone I've heard from was disappointed by Watchmen, Observe and Report, Wolverine, Angels and Demons, and Terminator Salvation. If you liked those films more than the first 20 I mentioned, it says more about you than me, and everyone can guess what you're full of and which rock you were living under (in 2008 at least).
But hey, maybe Transformers 2 will surpass the Dark Knight in sales and critical approval, and maybe Inglorious Bastards will be the next Pulp Fiction.
All I can really hope for is Oscar season to blow me away, it's the last chance this year has to redeem itself, (movie wise, that is.) But because this year has been so slow, I was hoping UP would surpass Wall-E so that it'd have a good chance to take home best picture Oscar. Oh well. |
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Beth M. |
That would be a mistype: I meant to write that the first 6 months of 2008 had hardly as many good movies.
Regardless, you did mention a bunch that I completely forgot about. But Wall-E is still sadder for everyone. |
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Tyler S. |
| You two must be into golden showers, they way you two piss on each other. |
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