Squirrel!

Rating: Null/10 (24 March 2010)

Films like Up, with computer-generated animation that captures every tiny human gesture and expression while still presenting a parody of the face and body, are so far removed from traditional animation that they might as well be given a genre of their own. That's not intended to denigrate the work of the likes of Pixar, but simply to point out that what we have here isn't so much another form of animation as another form of non-human images. Where Up! loses the kind of warmth human animators were capable of drawing into their characters, it redeems itself by delivering an emotionally-anchored tale of adventure that relies heavily on it's lead character's melancholy state of mind to keep the audience on board. To this end, Up! is more of an adult's film with elements added to keep the kids entertained rather than the other way around, which is usually the case with films like this.
Ed Asner voices the character of Carl Friedrickson, a lonely old man who misses the recently deceased wife he has been with since childhood. He also regrets that they never managed to embark on the kind of adventures they dreamed about when watching newsreel of famous explorer Charles Muntz. All this is shown in an opening vignette that will nail the viewer's backside to their seat more firmly than an entire tub of superglue. Threatened with eviction to an old people's home, Carl decides to launch his house into the sky with the help of 20,000 helium-filled balloons and drift away to Paradise Falls in South America, which was the dream destination of his late wife. Things don't go quite to plan when Carl discovers he has a stowaway on board in the rotund form of Russell, some kind of wildlife ranger who just needs his 'Help the Elderly' badge to become a senior wildlife ranger.
Beneath the adventure is the rather less exciting message that it's OK to live a life of ordinariness and routine, and that a life lived with the right person is a journey and adventure in itself (Not quite sure I'm inclined to agree when I'm stuck in a five mile traffic jam on the A428 or washing the dishes, but I'll let that one go). As Russell says, with an innocent insight that belies his youth, it's the small stuff you miss when it's no longer available to you, like sitting on the kerb with your dad, eating ice cream and counting red and blue cars.
The film looks incredible, almost to the point that you're drawn away from the story at times to gawp at the growing stubble on the old guy's chin, or the fur on the talking dogs that form the old and embittered Muntz's guard. It isn't really intended to be an out-and-out comedy – it certainly isn't simply out to get as many laughs as it can – but there are a few laugh-out-loud moments and a refreshing lack of sentimentality despite it's essentially emotive subject matter. Definitely worth an hour-and-a-half of anybody's time.