More than fabulous animation - see it with someone you love!

Rating: 10/10 (30 May 2009)

I'll start by saying that I am usually taking my daughters to these animated films and have not been engaged in any of these until WALL-E. However, even with WALL-E- beyond the relationship of the two robots, the rest was done well but ... Anyway - UP was different. ******Lots of spoilers******** The film starts with Carl as a young boy, getting into mischief, meeting his wife - also very young. Still in the opening scenes, with essentially no dialog just images- we are taken through Carl's life and tender moments with his wife. It is truly moving, their love through difficult moments but mostly happy, together times. Then Carl is 78 years old - it is today - and he's alone. For me, half of the film was about Carl's fulfilling his promise to his wife, to make their home in a special, beautiful spot in South America: their special adventure. As Carl embarks upon this endeavor, he meets wonderful, endearing characters whose personalities shine with and without words. The way that Pixar weaves stories with so little words is incredible. The animation is wonderfully detailed and beautiful - you could see individual fur on the dogs, intricate feathers on the bird and stubble chin hair on Carl. The adventure has the usual villain but (for the adults), the second emphasis of the story is about Carl letting go of his loneliness and sadness after losing his wife and becoming engaged in life again. His wife had started a scrapbook when they met as children, about the greatest adventure she wanted to have in life - being the trip to South America. Carl always thought the pages after the "Great stuff I want to do" in his wife's scrapbook was empty because they had never gotten to go to South America. At the end of the movie, he moves past that page to find that her scrapbook is filled with pictures of all the times they had together - that those were her best adventures. Amid all of the characters, comedy and activities which had the audience laughing and cheering, was the kind of love we all search for: enduring, fun, tender - and how hard it is to lose that love. You could feel Carl's sadness. Very moving, poignant - absolutely worth the tears. It will help you value your loves more while you have them. And the movie is filled with smiles too. The kids won't understand why there are tears in your eyes...