Another Wonderful Film from Pixar! What Else is New?

Rating: 10/10 (27 June 2011)

Up Rating: A
WARNING: Review may contain minor spoilers but I promise not to include anything you can't already see in the trailers.
Up is Pixar Animation Studio's tenth feature film as well as Pete Doctor's second film (he also directed Monsters, Inc.) and it tells the story of Carl Fredricksen, a man who had always dreamt of an adventure to South America with his wife Ellie. Now Ellie has passed away and Carl has watched much of his life pass by. So when construction workers try to take his home he uses thousands of balloons to fly him and his house away to South America, however a young Wilderness explorer named Russel stows away on Carl's house and comes along for the journey.
So I'm sure that I don't need to tell you that Pixar is absolutely infallible, and once again they've proved it with another great movie to add to their 14 year winning streak. The animation is of course gorgeous and the gags are funny but I think the thing that sets this movie apart is just the depth of each character in the story. While I was watching this film I was so completely engrossed in it that I didn't have time to look for the Pixar in-jokes. The performances by both the animators and the voice talents was absolutely perfect, from the first time we see Carl to the last frame of the film I believed that these were real people. Each character had so much layered into them and this film touched on some pretty heavy stuff. As with Pixar's other films this is by no means a kid's movie; not because it's inappropriate, kids enjoy this movie it'll make them laugh and they'll like the talking dogs, but there is so much depth wrapped up in this story that it works on a completely different level than what a child would see.
Pixar can do no wrong, they never have and I'm sure that they never will. The way they operate and encourage crazy ideas and last minute changes to make the best movie that they can possibly make. Their method is flawless and we as the audience get to experience the wonderful fruits of their hard work. While it didn't have the same level of artistry as WALLE and it didn't match the perfection of Finding Nemo, this film is nothing short of a masterpiece and I recommend it to everyone. The best film of 2009 so far and, although it's early on, it's gonna be a tough one to beat.