Just your standard "Old man flies house to South America" film. Brilliant.

Rating: 9/10 (30 October 2010)

No one company has given me as much movie enjoyment over the last 14 years. No actor, director or studio has me anxiously awaiting even the announcement of the next project as Pixar.
Pixar value story over pop culture references and winking at the screen, genuine charm and consistency over simple cuteness and syrup, and establishing character over crass marketing ploys (probably "Cars" aside).
If you like any Pixar film read no further, there is no letdown here. Go watch Up.
It doesn't even matter if you have kids or not, Up is just a great movie. I for one have watched every Pixar release since Toy Story in 95, which was of course the first, and as my son is still too young to go to a cinema I went to Up kid-free. Don't be snobbish adults, you'll miss out on some great flicks.
If you are still uncertain here is what Up is about.
We open with a star struck little kid, maybe 7? at the "moving pictures" in what might be the 40s or 50s, watching a news piece on the rise to prominence, and subsequent fall from grace of explorer Charles Muntz.
On the way home, still on a giddy high from his 40s fanboy experience, the boy runs into a similarly aged young girl, also an exploring enthusiast named Ellie. Carl and Eddie are polar opposites, Carl seems quiet, shy and introverted, Ellie is loud, opinionated and outgoing. They grow up, get married and plan ambitious exploring missions.
Now comes the most moving dialogue-free few minutes that I have experienced in a film for perhaps ever. A simple slowly paced montage shows Carl and Ellie and how they grow together through life.
Realistically this is the kind of step that can only be pulled off by an animated movie, but this few minutes is amazingly effective. In it we learn more than we could have discovered in a totally separate 90 minute film about the same characters.
One key point from the montage is that despite their best efforts, Carl and Ellie are never able to save enough for their trips before the funds are needed elsewhere - ultimately Carl is left alone. No sappy last words, no clumsy togetherness, just a lifetime summarized in minutes.
10 minutes in, and I'm genuinely sad.
Carl is now 70 something, think Clint Eastwood in "Gran Torino" without the forced everyone is racist – but that's sometimes OK clumsiness. He lives in the same home that he and Ellie shared, and now it more than anything is the embodiment of his deceased wife and their happy life together. Therefore, while progress is altering all around him he stubbornly refuses to move with the times.
One day a knock at the door introduces us to Russell, a Wilderness Explorer (Boy Scout). Russell is looking at adding to his hefty collection of merit badges by helping the elderly.
Russell is a typical 10 year old kid – well meaning, book smart about topics a 10 year old should be (animals and such), especially Wilderness Explorers but unaware of how much of real life actually is. He says 10 year old dumb things because he doesn't yet know any better, Russell is just a boy growing up.
Carl is a crotchety old man, and when he does change it is only subtle and for legitimate reasons.
Back to the film, Carl shoos Russell off with a wild goose (snipe?) chase, and goes back to his lonely existence.
After a run in with developers, Carl is told that he has run out of time and must move to a retirement home, and two men show at his door to take him there.
Now anyone who has seen even the poster knows what happens next, so there should be no surprise at how he leaves, but when it dies happen it was a spectacular event, both visually and cinematically, and it carried a real sense of something actually happening, not just a plot device.
I had all over tingles for minutes. Good ones.
As luck would have it Russell has come back to visit and has inadvertently stowed away with Carl on his journey to fulfil Ellie's wish and Carl's promise.
Russell appears Asian-American (to be PC), and it is refreshing to see Asian-American animated actors getting more work, as up until now the animated landscape has been dominated by white, black, green and blue characters.
Carl and Russell (well really Russell) befriend an 8 foot tall South American bird while "walking the house" the final stretch to Paradise Falls and the bird, who Russell names Kevin becomes quite protective of him.
Yep I said Walking the House.
I'll go spoiler free from here, Up is a film that earns the right to unravel in front of the audience.
Once in Paradise Falls they meet more characters, not all human - but still capable of communicating. "SQUIRREL!" There is a very effective chase scene, house included, and a finale that makes Carl the most geriatric Indiana Jones type character since, well Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
Being an animated film involving a man floating his house to another continent and his subsequent adventures of course the plot includes ludicrous events and situations, none seem truly out of place. Up remains amazingly entertaining and deserves repeated viewings.
One final point, there are a few situations where Carl and Russell and various animals are put in danger, so younger children may be a bit distressed at times (OK parent hat off).
Final Rating – 9 / 10. There is nothing more certain than the fact that I will be watching this many times in years to come. Loved it.
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