Touching and very very funny.

Rating: 9/10 (11 October 2009)

Pixar grows braver with every film. In Wall-e we were enthralled and enchanted by an animated trash-removal-bot for nearly an hour before a single word, other than his own name or the name of the film's Biblically inflected love interest, Eve, was said. In Up we are on similar ground as we watch Carl Frederickson grow from a young nervous boy fixated on becoming like his air blimping world exploring hero, Charles Muntz, to a balloon selling man married to his childhood sweetheart and exploring compadre, Ellie. They meet as children and plan to travel the world.
We continue through their lives via a wonderfully bittersweet montage of love and disappointment as Ellie and Carl learn that they cannot pursue their dreams of exploring South America, or have children. Get your hankies ready for that one. We watch as Carl, voiced by Edward Asner, becomes bitter, grows old, shuts himself away from the world and tries to out-stubborn the corporation that wants to demolish his beloved house and build, for God's sake, a m-i-n-i mall.
Carl has always been a man for plans, so he plans an escape: attach several thousand balloons to the roof of the house and float away to Paradise Falls; park on the canyon's edge and live out his days knowing that he did for Ellie in death what he could not do for her in life. A great plan if it wasn't for the twelve year old scout, Russell, who stowed away with him and is determined to 'assist an old person' in order to complete his badge sash and get his own father to notice him. This is where the adventure begins: talking dogs, hilarious slapstick sequences, a maniacal bad guy (explorer Muntz, voiced by a rich and gritty toned Christopher Plummer) and one very strange rare bird that said bad guy wants from Carl and Russell all total up to a fantastic way to spend an afternoon. Even with lots of kids around you.
This is a film about how walls, no matter how old and bitter, can be broken down if you are prepared to accept the past. It is a film about putting memories in a safe and warm place that you can visit when you want; knowing you don't have to live in them. It is a touching fantasy that, quite frankly, I think at some point we've all had: fly away and live somewhere beautiful with someone you love. Marvellous.