"Up" - It Ain't "Up"-lifting

Rating: 3/10 (1 June 2009)

"Up" is technically perfect. The animation is tremendous; the soundtrack is moving (and compliments the content). For these reasons alone, I reluctantly give 3 out of 10 stars.
That said, the story is SAD, depressing, and too frequently vicious. The story is also SLOW to evolve. Another review I read here hit on the most frustrating aspect – this movie was misrepresented in its advertisements.
This movie is about a man who feels like he has done nothing with his life and as consequence becomes a shut in when his wife dies. We see a montage of their life with lots of sad moments about not having children and the wife's final days in the hospital. Then we meet the boy and find out he is motherless and that his father left him. He hopes getting a scout badge will bring back his father. Uplifting so far huh?! Finally we arrive in South America, where the curmudgeonly old man and whining boy drag a house through the jungle until they meet the old man's boyhood hero. Turns out the boyhood hero is now a murderous evil psychopath who wants to kill the old man and the boy. Mixed in is a playful bird and happy go lucky dog. Oh yeah, the boyhood hero is trying to capture the bird. The boyhood hero's dogs are trying to destroy the happy go lucky dog.
In the end all is well. The boyhood hero plummets to his death and the whining boy's father doesn't come back. However, the old man becomes a new father figure.
I am sure the folks who made this thought they were making a serious film about life meanings, opportunity lost, the dangers of obsessions, etc - they probably succeeded. I took my children to see a movie about a floating house, funny kid, and a goofy bird. They got what they were after, I did not.