It's where I'm going

Rating: 10/10 (18 June 2009)

Intentionally or not, with its latest movies Pixar's been trying to get closer to reality. They've invented every imaginary world possible so they started thinking about the possibilities of developing animated fiction in real life. In "The Incredibles" this could be seen in the normal life of a family and the existence of, primarily, a real world; but the characters were superheroes. Brad Bird doubled the bet with "Ratatouille": the non-verbal communication between a rat and a human, the logic possibility of thinking anyone can cook and a rat finally doing it, in an entire human world. You may object this initial development, but there's fact and it's that Remy the rat is the first (and only) Pixar character that wants and tries hard enough to get out of his parallel world; the animal world.
If Ratatouille wasn't perfect it's because the reality would have been total if rats didn't actually speak. It was not possible, and even when in "Up" this has a coherent explanation, the 'speaking animal' factor isn't eliminated. However, in an animated world that lives because of animals that speak, Pixar's recent greatness uses this as a secondary element, something merely comical. It works perfectly that dogs have special collars made for them so they can speak, but remain as stupid as we sometimes imagine them in the real world, therefore are capable of leaving aside any kind of seriousness at the sight of a squirrel or a tennis ball.
The dogs in the film appear long after it's begun, when Carl Frendricksen is in the Paradise Falls of South America, a place he arrived at by flying his own house with balloons tied to it. Frendricksen is a grumpy old man that waited until the day before his home would be destroyed to realize his and his deceased wife's (Ellie) lifelong dream. Not used to getting help, Carl discovers when he's already in the sky that a little boy scout called Russell has come along with him.
As it has always happened, the movie's center is the relationship between the old man and the little boy, but director Peter Docter ("Monsters Inc."), co-director Bob Peterson (who also voices the film's two funniest characters) and their writing team drive "Up" away from every sentimentalism in this particular aspect. The movie is too short and doesn't seem to want to waste time. That's why, during the beginning, in the presentation of Carl and Ellie's love, specifically in a musical visualization of their lives brilliantly handled by Michael Giacchino's perfect and familiar score (Oscar anyone?), the filmmakers get rid of all cheesiness.
Essentially, "Up" is (in this aspect we can relate it to "The Incredibles") an action movie: packed with the usual Pixar dose of comedy and endearing characters, with the particular addition that it goes, within a frame of reality (the dogs speak because of the collar but no other animal speaks this time), to places no other movie –animated or not- has imagined. "Up" is about what its title strategically hides: reaching the limits, of the animal and human world, of the animated world, in every scene, and surpassing them; by giving us a hero in the skin of a grumpy old man, by including an element of surprise, by putting its characters on the edge of death and by making something breathtaking of every scenario.
And don't get confused. "Up" is not only visually breathtaking, but breathtaking in terms of an original story that comes along and leaves before you even notice it, literally taking your breath away. If you pay attention, you'll realize that Carl and Russell get to South America from USA in a frame of second. It's the only element that may question the film's embrace of reality, and that's because a great adventure, in Pixar's terms, can take place anywhere; it's just that this time they decided to situate it up high in the sky, which is also the direction in which their film-making is headed, if they haven't been stopped by the highest existing cloud yet.