Up - A wonderful film for all ages

Rating: 9/10 (26 April 2012)

Adventure is out there! Or so Carl Fredricksen (Edward Asner) once believed. After his beloved wife of many years, Ellie, passes, Carl begins to regret not travelling with her on their great adventure: to Paradise Falls, South America. Feeling lonely and increasingly closed in by the rest of the growing world, Carl ties thousands of balloons to his small house and takes off into the skies toward South America! So begins Carl's final adventure, which is the subject of the wonderful film by Pete Docter and Bob Peterson: Up.
Not long after "take off" Carl finds a stow-away aboard his house, the young "Wilderness Explorer" Russell (Jordan Nagai). Carl has no choice but to continue on with his new companion, and together they embark on a thrilling adventure. There are chases, near escapes, dastardly villains, talking dogs, and giant birds, but the real discovery for Carl is that life is the greatest adventure of all. This is the primary theme of Up.
The high point of the film actually comes toward the beginning during a prologue (of sorts) that details the lives of Carl and his wife Ellie. The technique used is a wonderful montage depicting how they meet, their marriage, and all of the joy (and heartbreak) that follows. This short opening truly captures Carl and Ellie's love of adventure and the realization that their greatest adventure would never come. Only later, after travelling to South America and all appears to be lost, does Carl realize the true adventure was all of the time spent with Ellie.
Another technique used by the film to heighten the sense of adventure is the angles used in certain shots. The angles used when on the porch of Carl's house, or on top of an airship, add a great feeling of verticality that makes you believe the characters are in real peril. Even though it's an animated film, the danger is palpable, even though you never truly believe one of our "heroes" would fall.
Like Wall-E before it, Pixar's Up is a much more personal story. We do not follow a huge cast of wise-cracking talking zoo animals. Instead we follow an old man and a young boy on their journey. Their journey is Carl's journey, and Carl's journey leads him to discover that adventure is not "out there"; his adventure has been his entire life.