Up is most certainly up there as one of Pixar's finest

Rating: 9/10 (8 January 2015)

Up is the charming tale of adventure and is one of the best films to come off the exceptionally strong Pixar production line. Elderly Carl Fredericksen (Ed Asner) does not wish to end his days in a retirement home or in a soulless district of high-rise buildings and in remembering a promise to his late wife, Ellie floats his multicoloured home away with an incredible number of multicoloured balloons. Naturally, a group of scientists somewhere decided to stop everything they were doing and applied a multitude of calculations to see if this was genuinely possible (a team from NatIonal Geographic managed to fly a custom built house 10,000 feet into the air with 300 eight-foot-high helium balloons).
Accompanying Fredericksen is Russell, an eager young boy with his own desire for adventure as they fly themselves to Paradise Falls, supposedly somewhere in South America. Both characters are brilliantly realized and manage to form a heartwarming bond over their course of their trip. Later, they are joined by Dug, an adorable talking dog and Kevin, a mythical bird like creature and seemingly an amalgam of an ostrich, peacock and pelican, as they set off on the adventure Fredericksen has been craving his whole life.
Few films are able to invoke such a broad range of emotions like Up. One would have to possess a heart of stone not to be moved by the montage of Carl and Ellie growing old together. And this was all in the first twenty minutes. Not since Jessie's touching back-story montage in Toy Story 2 has an animated scene been so heart wrenching. The tone does lighten inevitably and there are many laughs to be had before the adventurers find themselves in grave peril in a breathless action-packed conclusion. All is remarkably achieved within the 96 minute running time, which will fly by and there is never a dull moment to be had throughout.
All of this is expertly underwritten by Michael Giacchino's award-winning score, which contributes enormously to the charm and illustrates the difference a good soundtrack has to a finished movie. This is most certainly fun for all the family and adults will be able to spot the inspiration of classic titles centred around a character's rebirth (Casablanca and A Christmas Carol) in addition to a cautionary note on meeting your heroes.
Unmissable for the whole family.