Beautifully done animated film that touches on the aspects of real life

Rating: Null/10 (18 September 2011)

Up is a touching computer-animated film that the whole family is sure to love. The film opens up with Carl Fredrickson (voiced by Ed Asner) as a young boy who happens upon an abandoned house where he meets Ellie his future wife. The night he meets Elle he makes her a promise to one day fly her to Paradise Falls and he spends the rest of the movie trying to keep that promise.
Carl and Ellie marry and spend their days saving for their trip to Paradise Falls and growing old together. Carl and Ellie eventually save up enough money for their trip, but Ellie dies before Carl can fulfill his promise to her. The film continues with Carl a crabby aging widower who happily spends his days alone in his house. However, after being forced into a retirement home by the courts, Carl decides to fulfill he and Ellie's lifelong dream and head to Paradise Falls in South America. In order to keep his promise to Elle he decides to take her with him by tying thousands of balloons to their house and floating it to South America. Content to be on his way, Carl is shocked to discover he has a stowaway aboard his floating house. Carl is inadvertently joined by Russell (voiced by Jordan Nagai), a short attention spanned chatterbox who happened to be at Mr. Fredrickson's house while attempting to earn his "Assisting the Elderly" badge.
Carl and Russell are off on their adventure and although along the way they hit a few bumps and encounter talking dogs, a childhood hero turned evil, and a brightly colored rare bird named Kevin, Carl refuses to give up on his childhood promise to take Ellie to Paradise Falls. The unlikely pairing and age difference between Carl and Russell provides for much of the films humor and the relationship that is formed is much like that of a father and son.
This Pixar/Disney team makes films that are nothing short of incredible and this film is no exception. There were many techniques used to create such an amazing film, such as the musical score and the viewpoints. The music really set the tone for the film; the songs that were chosen really amplified the mood at that specific point in the film. For example during the montage in the beginning the music is happy and uplifting while life for Carl and Ellie is happy, but during the disappointing moments in their life (a miscarriage, sickness and death) the music changes and becomes much softer and slower. Another technique used to add to the overall viewer experience was the director's use of subjective viewpoints. There were certain scenes that made the viewer feel like they were right there with Carl. The best example of this was when Carl was looking through Ellie's scrapbook in the beginning of the movie, if felt as if the viewers were right there looking over his shoulder, turning each page and feeling every feeling Carl felt.
The theme of this movie is appropriate for all ages; it is a wonderful idea to teach both children and adults that no matter their age, dreams, promises and goals should have no have expiration date.