Up Movie Review

Up (2009)

Rent Up on Amazon Video (paid link)
Written by: Pete Docter & Bob Peterson & Tom McCarthy (story by), Bob Peterson & Pete Docter (screenplay by)
Directed by: Pete Docter, Bob Peterson (co-director)
Starring: Edward Asner, Jordan Nagai, Christopher Plummer, John Ratzenberger, Bob Peterson, Delroy Lindo
Rated: PG
Watch the trailer

Plot
Retired balloon salesman Carl Fredrickson travels to South America in his house equipped with balloons, inadvertently taking young Wildnerness Explorer Russell on the journey.

Verdict
Pixar always crafts such engaging stories. While this is a grand adventure in a floating house with a talking dog and rare bird, it's also about love, loss, and memories. The script is sharp, building a story with characters that have ambitions and constraints, which creates the perfect circumstance to push them for a decision and overcome their trepidation. That's the foundation for such an emotional moment as we're connected to these characters. Pixar manages to create a movie that completely entertains children, but has an added depth that will fully grip adults as well.
Watch It.

Review
This is a classic I had to revisit. It's a great example of Pixar's capabilities. We're introduced to Carl and Ellie as children where they become friends as both desire a grand adventure into the great unknown. That's the introduction to a montage, one of the greatest put to screen including live action. We see Carl and Ellie wed and their life as a couple. They haven't forgotten their desire to see the world, but life moves quickly and plans change. We watch the years pass as they age into a couple in their twilight years.

Now Carl (Ed Asner) is an old man dealing with the aches and pains of being elderly. His cute house in a cute neighborhood is now surrounded by construction with agents that try to buy his lot. Carl is holding on to the past, it's all he has left of his life and wife. It's daring for a kid's movie to have a protagonist whose plight is to avoid a nursing home. Carl seeks one last adventure, having lived a long and full life. All he cares about is his home, leaving everything else behind as he no longer recognizes his town.

Ed Asner, Jordan Nagai voice Carl, Russell

What Carl doesn't know is that Russell (Jordan Nagai) is a stowaway, and that's only because Carl was being a curmudgeon and sent him on an impossible task just to get rid of him. They're an odd pair, a grumpy old man who wants nothing to do with anyone and a naive kid who just wants to help and get his scout badge. They make it to Carl's dream destination, Paradise Falls. That's where Russell befriends a rare bird he names Kevin and Dug the dog who can speak.

Carl has shown us how tied he is to his house. It houses all his memories and it's irreplaceable. Of course he's forced to choose between his house and Kevin and then his house and Russell. His house has all his memories of Ellie, but it's those same memories that push him to realize that Paradise Falls wasn't the end all adventure that he expected. His life with Ellie was his great adventure.

Jordan Nagai, Ed Asner, Bob Peterson voice Russell, Carl, Dug

This movie does a great job with the characters. It expertly captures emotion, giving these characters goals, stakes, and even regrets. Many movies could learn several lessons from this. Amidst that we get a cute and funny fight between two old men with their joints cracking and back pain slowing them down. In the end everyone earns a victory, getting what they wanted in the end even if they didn't realize it at the beginning. That's character growth and this movie provides an excellent example. Russell gets the father figure he didn't realize he needed. Carl goes on a grand adventure and finally has a friend after Ellie. Even Dug gets a human that cares about him. Pixar movies are so well scripted. They realize that a story needs an emotional impact to connect with the audience and characters for which to root on to victory.