A triumph not to be missed and to be savored over and over

Rating: Null/10 (6 August 2011)

I'd hate to have small kids and try explaining the first 15 minutes of this to them – but for me it was wonderful, touching, sweet and almost wordless a plethora of emotion was conveyed with few words – Pixar's handling of the main and a very necessary component of the story – the loss of a loved one in your elder years – was just astonishingly beautiful, gentle, kind and respectful -
Pixar is simply miraculous in what they can do with animation in developing and following a story line –from touching, it goes to hilarious even to exciting – we have been where Russell is at some time in our life – seeking approval, verifying who we are as we grow – and if we are not there we will all one day be where Frederickson is when he makes his fateful decision to go UP and AWAY and we have all faced bullies like Muntz at some point in our life Every moment is real, touching, thought provoking, funny, sad, even frightening – when you fear for them in their adventures -- just a roller coaster of emotions you'd expect from a top studio drama.
The animation is superlative as one has come to expect from the marriage between Disney and Pixar but they have outdone themselves with the facial expressions and character articulation. nobody could have played this lovable old grump better than Asner did – the same for little Jordan Nagal –and the interaction between them is just delightful pure magic. Throw in Plummer as the explorer turned evil villain Muntz. Kevin, the dogs (especially Dug), are all just such wonderful believable characters – having a dozen dogs of my own I can tell you they are SPOT ON on canine behavior in this film – from the tennis balls to the jumping to express affection to the squirrel fixation to the magic transition to alpha dog in a pack – great great work.
A.J. Riebli's animators and Deirdre Warin and Tom Sonocki's character modeling and articulation teams did a Phenomenal job here – wonderful animation
I cannot imagine anyone not just LOVING this film --
A delightful triumph of filmmaking – a masterpiece of the heart –an ode to the human spirit and the loyalty of our companion animals
Up is not to be missed. One of my 50 favorite films of all time