Paradise falls...

Rating: 7/10 (1 January 2010)

I think the main problem with this film, which I found just OK, was that it was made in these times of ours. Probably what made me think so was seeing it on the same day I saw the digitalized version of the 1941 movie "Mr. Bug Goes to Town." While I enjoyed Carl's character, it was diluted by the hyperactivity going on around him, and I ended up caring much more about the insect village in New York 1941 than what happened to Carl's house, which he talked to as if it were his wife. The insect village was beautifully colored and animated, had interesting characters and dialog, and a decent plot (not to mention great music). "Up" (which is called Old Carl's Flying House here in Japan) did not have the beautiful color of "Mr. Bug," the human characters were so much like ordinary people we all know (yawn), and it overall tested the suspension of belief I hold for all animated films... the superpowers of 78-yr old cane-wielding Carl and his nemesis 98-yr old Muntz, people and animals apparently being magnetically attached to a wildly careening blimp, to name a couple. Most of all, I missed the crispness of color and line I have come to expect from Pixar. A huge drop from WALL-E. Despite all this, I became misty-eyed at the right moments: which is why movies like this kind of scare me. The intended messages were missed, but at least I cried.