Remembering its genre, it is a remarkable achievement.

Rating: 9/10 (27 September 2009)

When Pixar first introduced the concept of purely computer-generated feature films, little did they know that they had created a ravaging ravenous monster that only they – and DreamWorks – would be able to tame. Forgetting that Pixar's philosophy has always been that you should always take time and care when working with this technique and that storyline was absolutely paramount, other companies gave in to the temptation to exploit the revolution and whip up several second-rate CGI flicks that were so enticingly easy and inexpensive to make.
Computer animation has almost driven quality children's animation to extinction. It has been the death of cartoons, and the decline of claymation. Though the two aforementioned animation giants have thankfully managed to continue producing such wonderful specimens as 'Toy Story' (1995) and 'Shrek' (2001). The last fourteen years have taught us that only these two companies can manage to get it right, that only they can tame the monster.
Now Pixar's offerings did falter after 2004, but they regained their footing last year with Wall-E and have sustained that success with Up, an exhilarating yet also deeply moving film. It tells the story of Carl Fredricksen (voiced by Jeremy Leary at the beginning, but mostly by an amazing Edward Asner) a man who dreamed of adventure as a boy, a passion that saw him meeting and later marrying the sweet Ellie (voiced quite well by Ellie Docter, the director's daughter). The two share a long and beautiful marriage in a cosy little house that the couple decorated together, but after many years Ellie dies in hospital next to a very broken-hearted Carl. Though after her death Carl holds on relentlessly to their house and all of his photos and memories of her, he also goes on to attempt to fulfil her childhood dream which was to have a house in a lost land in South America.
The story of his marriage is told quickly and with little dialogue, though still with much grace and emotion. This is of course so the exciting adventure he embarks on – which involves him taking off in a house tied to a million balloons – can be given most of the screen time, as it is more of a crowd-pleaser. Though the winsome themes are not forgone at that point, and more depth and more fun arrive when we are introduced to young "wilderness explorer" Russell (voiced perfectly by Jordan Nagai) a naive and extremely animated boy who ends up tagging along to assist the elderly Carl.
There is also a villain thrown in – perhaps unnecessarily, though he does give us a fair bit of enjoyment and is a major supplier of the story's complications – with his own story that is first mentioned and begun to be told at the beginning, and waits in the wings until near the end where he reappears and starts being nasty to the two heroes. He is explorer Charles Muntz (voiced splendidly by Christopher Plummer) who surprisingly is Carl's childhood hero, a ruthless tyrant obsessed with hunting down, killing, and taking back the strange bird-like creature that stalks these lands in order to prove he has seen it and has made it to the lost land.
Remembering its genre, it is a remarkable achievement and one that reassures us that Pixar is still the best. It even manages to surpass Wall-E, which very visibly tried too hard to incorporate meaningful messages and to be a masterpiece. Although it succeeded, it didn't do so anywhere near as naturally and effortlessly as Up did.