What's Uuuuuuuuuppp? This movie is!

Rating: 9/10 (8 June 2009)

Upsy daisy! It's time for you to wake up and read my quirky pun-induced film review of Disney Pixar's "Up". Not up for it? Come on, it will lift your spirits up! OK, enough uppers already! Do not want it to be a downer for you guys. "Up" is yet another creative Pixar tale about a lonely geriatric widower named Carl Frederickson who fixates on fulfilling his deceased wife Ellie's wishes of flying their house to a paradisiacal land in South America. This idea might not fly with many, but grumpy Carl just wants to be happy by his lonesome in his own isolated South America Paradiso. However, Carl did not expect a junior wilderness explorer to come along for the ride. What's up with that? Russell is the aforementioned boy scout who accidentally gets stuck in the house during Carl's upward liftoff. Nevertheless, Frederickson was in no mood to be "bringing down the house" even with Russell on board. Frederickson and Russell end up landing in the paradise land (house and all), and there they befriend a talking dog named Dug and an eccentric female bird who Russell names Kevin. Their nemesis comes in the form of the devious explorer Charles Muntz who masters a pack of menacing talking dogs. So therefore, Frederickson and Russell are confronted with plenty of "ups" and "downs" during their adventurous experience. There are many humanistic elements in "Up" such as aging, loneliness, acceptance, and detachment that many kids might not be up for; but provides invaluable life lessons on character education to our future generation. "Up" does play with your heartstrings plenty, so bring a hanky! The former Mr. Grant, Ed Asner, was granted a perfect role to voice as Frederickson; that impressed me Ed Asner! (Only "Tonight Show with Jay Leno" fans got that pun upper). Bob Peterson's tender & uplifting screenplay was superb while Pete Docter doctored a successful directorial uperation of "Up". Big Thumbs Up for "Up"! ***** Excellent