And I thought Ratatouille was lame and overrated...

Rating: 2/10 (1 March 2010)

I rented this movie a week ago after hearing and reading all the hype around it.I really like animated movies be it by Pixar or Dreamworks or Disney or otherwise.
Boy was I beat.And no it was not the "sad" opening scene that disappointed me (the only thing sad about this movie is how bad it was), but the entire silly story and characters.
The movie starts about some explorer/adventurer named Charles Muntz who went to south America in search of some mythical creature but is accused of forgery. Carl Fredericksen, the main character, idolizes him and dreams of a journey to south America on his own.He meets Elli, a young girl with similar taste. They marry, but Elli later dies and Carl lives on his own and discovers that the area surrounding his house is becoming urbanized with skyscrapers.He refuses to move but when they come to bring him away to an retirement home he moves away by thousand of balloons attached to his house.Underway he discovers some fat annoying boy-scout named Russel who bothered him earlier is traveling along.
*warning spoilers*
They land in South-America where they come across some big endangered bird who is chased by vicious dogs who are able to talk thanks to some collar around their necks. The dogs turn out to belong to Charles Muntz the explorer who somehow has managed to become over 110 years old and has settled in that place and his chasing that strange bird.Russel and Carl refuse to hand over the bird so the 110 y/o man starts a wild chase after the other old fart while both are still capable of doing things nobody of that age is able to.Of course Carl wins and they all lived happily ever after.
Did you read it all ? Now I know you should take animated movies not too serious,but this ???? The story was so ridiculous, even for an animated movie.
Not to mention the horrible characters; I hated that grumpy old man,I hated that fat little kid ,I hated how they turned a once respected adventurer into a bad guy and I especially hated that stupid idea of talking dogs. You can almost see the producers thinking "wait a second, an animated movie with no talking animals in it ? Let's put in some silly concept like dogs talking through collars or else the audience might not like it". Well, it turned out awful.
Go watch Finding Nemo or Monsters,Inc. and avoid this over-hyped crap.