Buoyed dreams

Rating: 9/10 (20 August 2009)

Typical of Pixar's adeptness in conveying stories, the first few minutes of "Up" pack more wallop than a whole two-hour tearjerker could, as it charts Carl Fredricksen (voiced by Ed Asner) and childhood friend Ellie through the decades, from their role-playing days as intrepid travelers to their marriage, and eventually, Ellie's death. Pete Docter's animated tale is an elegant combination of humor and pathos that perfectly captures the rush brought about by adventure, the uplifting quality of friendship, and -- at once a reminder of Disney's "Bambi" and Pixar's refusal to compromise its narratives -- the pain of losing someone. It's a profundity that's both delicate and penetrating.
78-year old Carl and his wife Ellie had kept a scrapbook of their planned adventures and always dreamed of going to the fictional Paradise Falls in Venezuela, where their childhood hero, the adventurer Muntz (Christopher Plummer), has famously traveled. For some reasons, the expedition doesn't materialize and Ellie soon dies, leaving Carl alone in the house, with the latter about to go to predatory land developers. Inadvertently bringing along the pudgy Wilderness Scout Russell (Jordan Nagai), Carl decides to fulfill Ellie's wish as he ties thousands of balloons to his house and floats to South America.
Advertised as Pixar's first foray into 3D, "Up"'s candy-colored palette and graceful portraits of Carl's house floating in the sky benefit from the additional visual depth, though the increasingly silly travails of Carl and his slapdash tour is filled with buoyant energy that keeps it from resting entirely on the technology's novelty. Centering on the theme of one's continual search for purpose, Carl learns of how holding to the past keeps him from reaching his destination and from setting off to new adventures, a moral that Docter fortunately doesn't overplay, but rather is represented in splendid visual metaphors. It may be too easy to call it an elevation to animation but there's no escaping the fact that, for all its jaunty adventures and affectionate regard to relationship, "Up" -- pardon the obvious description -- doesn't let down.