Did you really expect anything less?

Rating: 10/10 (29 May 2009)

Pixar's done it again. Nothing new, right? But in their incredible success in the film industry, Pixar has always remained fresh, and Up is no exception.
Before the film is Partly Cloudy, the directorial debut of Peter Sohn, whose job I desperately want. While not my favorite (Lifted will always have a special place in my heart), Partly Cloudy tells a wonderful, adorable story with an impeccable balance of humor. The clouds were absolutely stunning, a true achievement in animation, and I found myself waiting on the edge of my seat for the film to start.
The film opens on a young Carl and Ellie and in five minutes carries the viewer through seventy years of life together. By the end, our entire theater was sobbing. Some of my friends had to make sure we were all crying for if some stone wasn't, they were likely to get hit for being a heartless wretch.
Once the backstory has been dealt in that five minute blow, the film gets in full swing, following the adventures of Carl, Russel, Kevin, Dug, and the rest of the incredibly well-rounded cast with the classic Pixarian flair.
The humor is absolutely spot on and true to form, the storytelling impeccable, the visuals... Oh gosh, the visuals were stunning. I found myself fascinated with how realistic the hair on the dogs looked, the mists, the clouds, the balloons. Every moment of the film contained at least one example of animated beauty.
Being the soundtrack nerd that I am, this review wouldn't be complete without a mention of the Michael Giachinno score. The music itself is extremely conservative in its deviations from the melody Giachinno establishes. Instead of using different themes to convey different settings and emotions, Giachinno manipulates tempo and instrumentation to a satisfactory effect. By the end of the film, the score was verging on repetitiveness, an effect I also felt in Giachinno's other running film, Star Trek. I feel that he put much more effort into Star Trek than into Up, but the results of that divided attention were not at all disappointing.
No film ever made will be able to top the level of perfection I found in the preceding Pixar feature, WALL-E. But Up presented a fair and strong fight and is, without doubt, the best film of the year so far. I'd say the Oscar is almost guaranteed for this one, Pixar - hats off to you.
10/10