Fly Away House!

Rating: 10/10 (25 July 2009)

The Pixar animated comedy "Up" owes no small amount of its success to the specter of Charles Chaplin. No, Chaplin had nothing to do with this fanciful, first-rate, odd-couple comedy, except that "Up" shares something in common with Chaplin's 1921 movie "The Kid." The story throws together a grumpy 78 year old retiree and an eight-year old Wilderness Explorer scout and the elder learns how important he is to youngster after his wife has died. This exciting 3-D adventure (it's also available in 2-D) boasts top-flight production values. Indeed, this represents an instance where the characters are so realistically done and voiced that you readily accept them for the people that they play in the film. Mind you, this release may appear to be geared primarily toward adolescents, but adults don't have to worry about getting the short-shrift. There is more depth here beyond the superb 3-D visual effects than you might imagine. Although "Monsters, Inc." director Peter Doctor and scenarist Bob Peterson have made a film that epitomizes the spirit of adventure, "Up" is not without its poignant heartfelt moments that older viewers will appreciate but younger ones will dismiss.
The protagonist, former balloon salesman Carl Fredricksen (Ed Asner's voice), is a septuagenarian who's hasn't entirely gotten over the death of his beloved wife Ellie. Ellie and he met when they were adolescents themselves and shared the spirit of adventure embodied in their media icon, the dauntless explorer and aviator Charles Muntz (Christopher Plummer's voice) who flies around in his dirigible like an airborne Jacques Cousteau and makes headlines with each of his exploits. Carl likes to dress up like his idol when he attends the movies and watches the newsreels about Muntz. Unfortunately, Muntz's latest expedition falls under a cloud of suspicion because the fossils that he has brought back are disputed by the experts and he is officially discredited. Thwarted in his ambitions, the irate Muntz retreats from public view and he resolves to prove that he was right and his critics wrong. Indeed, there is a little of Captain Nemo in Muntz who flies around in his dirigible.
Meanwhile, Carl comes home from the movies with his balloon and runs into Ellie in a dilapidated two-story house that she has equipped as if it were a plane. She freaks out Carl so much that he cannot utter a word when they meet and he realizes that she is a tomboy girl. They become inseparable best friends. They grow up and marry. They refurbish the old house and Carl gets a job selling balloons. The happiness that they share is derailed when Ellie realizes that she cannot have a child, but they continue to live their lives through their hero, Charles Muntz, and plan to visit the site of his last expedition that ended in his discredit. Unfortunately, Ellie dies the day that Carl buys their tickets. Now, alone in his golden years, Carl finds himself surrounded by new construction projects rising around him and men-in-suits trying to buy him out. Alas, Carl cannot sell the house that was so much a part of his life with Ellie. Things take another turn for the worse for Carl. A construction worker rams the mail box that Ellie and Carl built and Carl assaults the man with his walking cane and draws blood. The courts rule against him and Carl appears bound for the last place he wants to go: a retirement village. Along about that time, Carl has to deal with a cheerfully obtuse Wilderness Scout, Russell, who needs to earn a badge helping old folks. Initially, Carl wants nothing to do with Russell.
The day that the attendants from the retirement village show up to take Carl away, they notice piles of helium containers piled up on his lawn. Carl inflates the balloons and he flies away in his house to South America where Ellie and he dreamed about visiting the site of Muntz's last expedition. No sooner has Carl gotten his house aloft than he hears a knock at his front door and Russell is standing anxiously on the porch dying to come inside. Eventually, the oldster and the younger grow to tolerate and then love each other. They reach the site of Muntz's expedition. Sherlock Holmes readers who read A. Conan Doyle's novel "The Lost World" will recognize the similarity between the terrain of the plateau. Once they arrive, our heroes discover an example of a the wild life, a prehistoric bird, that befriends them. Unfortunately, Muntz wants to capture this bird so that he can rehabilitate his career. Inevitably, Carl and Russell find themselves pitted against the evil Muntz and his legion of oddball canines that wear exotic dog collars which enable them to speak.
Talk about underdogs, our heroes have a rough time saving the extinct bird from Muntz who is quite a dastard in his own right. The logic behind this story is clearly at odds with reality, but the sympathetic heroes and dastardly villain help us take our mind of these flaws. Carl was obviously forged in the Chaplin mode, but he resembles a cross between of Cary Grant from "Walk, Don't Run" and Spencer Tracy from "Guess Whose Coming to Dinner." "Up" is a lot of fun and you won't want to come down after its happy ending.