A bittersweet yet adventurous Disney Pixar film

Rating: 9/10 (6 August 2013)

I have seen this film three times so far; once when my mum rented it, the second time on a plane to Dubai and the third time upon renting it myself. It is one of Pixar's best and it is better than 'Cars,' 'The Incredibles' and 'Ratatouille,' on par with 'A Bug's Life,' 'Finding Nemo,' 'Monsters, Inc.' and 'Wall-E' and nearly as good as the 'Toy Story' franchise.
This film has a fine mix of laugh-out-loud funny moments that totally save the film from being too boring (especially the scenes involving the talking dogs) and heartbreaking moments (the passing of Ellie at the end of the montage between her and Carl, which made my mum cry as well as the later scene where Carl looks at pictures of himself and Ellie in her Adventure Book) as well as a great variety of characters, beautifully-rendered backgrounds, in particular the surroundings of South America, and vibrant colours (especially the balloons that lift Carl's house and Kevin). Not only were the surroundings of South America beautifully rendered, but they are also realistic due to some of the film makers visiting Venezuela themselves. While a number of characters were modelled around basic shapes (Carl's square-shaped head and Russell's more rounded physique), they still had their distinct personalities such as Carl's grumpy- old-man yet ambitious nature, Russell's excitable yet assistive traits and Charles Muntz's good-guy-turned-evil character. If I could point out any flaws, they would be the fact that Muntz is still alive when Carl meets him in person, Dug's rather unfunny squirrel joke and Carl throwing the furniture out of his house to make it float again when there are still some balloons tied inside it. This made no sense at first but today I realised he did it since there were fewer balloons. I also found the cut on a man's head a bit too much for a family film after Carl hits him with his walking stick. Other than the flaws, there are some more positive points such as the Easter Egg of Lotso Huggin' Bear from 'Toy Story 3' in the little girl's bedroom during the first house-flight scene, a picture of Dug finally chasing a squirrel during the end credits, the end credits themselves looking like a scrapbook (which I thought were as unique as the end credits of 'Kung-Fu Panda') and the music which was jolly, tense and poignant in different places. I especially liked the incidental music during the Carl and Ellie montage because it is nostalgic-sounding and memorable.
On the whole, this is an entertaining film that is adventurous, funny and moving all at the same time. 9/10.