Adventure is Out There!

After coming across this youtube treasure,

I had to write about Pixar's yet another fantastic and totally originally normal world that could only exist in our imaginations: Up!

Synopsis... First off, this movie has one of the saddest opening sequence ever. By now everyone's probably seen this movie, so I'm just gonna talk about the details; and if you haven't seen it, you have no soul!

Carl and Elle Fredricksen's life-long love story revolves around Charles Muntz and his wild world-wide adventures. All they ever wanted to do was to move to South America's Paradise Falls. The opening sequence shows us that Elle cannot bear children and the only real hope and desire of the couple was to get to the Paradise Falls. And just when Carl manages the tickets Elle falls ill and passes away. I remember seeing this in the theaters, and I remember hearing people cry at the opening credits. Here's why that's important:

This opening sequence alone has more emotion and personal connection than about 90% of the Hollywood movies out there today and for the last few decades for that matter. Note that Pixar does this again and again with animated movies, and I just don't get why real actors cannot get this right. Why can't we make a decent, heart-felt movie? Seems to me that it's either 3D movies or CGI heavy (if not ALL) movies that are getting all the attention these days. Don't forget, not too long ago, a movie about a simple high-school girl made America love movies again without using ANY computer graphics. That movie was Juno. I'm just saying, it can be done. With a little originality (I know it's hard, but those people get PAID for this shit) and bit of that Hollywood magic, I think me as a movie-goer will be much happier forking up $10+ for a 2-hour visual fun-ride. And I bet there are a lot of people that feel the same way as I do. Moving on...

Characters... I say characters, because saying "actors" is not sufficient in Pixar movies. As animated movies go, voices provided by the actors are indeed a crucial component, the genius is in the portrayal and the execution, not to mention the imagination of the characters that fill up the movie. The grumpy, old man Carl and how about that "Asian" main character Russell? I know he's chubby as all Hell and a huge nerd, but I'll take it. Remember Dug? (Yes that's how it's spelled... check imdb) He basically made the movie so much better for me. A talking dog? Talk about a childhood dream! Actually... talk about my dream now. That bird Kevin was awesome, too. So was Muntz... and... ok, everyone was awesome. This is an awesome cast. Awesome movie.

But let's talk about Carl and Russell. This is a sad, but optimistic way of looking at a lot of American families today. Russell is growing up without a father-figure, which we all know isn't the best situation for any kid. Carl filling that gap for Russell, within the movie, ends up being a win-win situation for both of them, because in a weird way, the movie shows that anyone from all different walks of life can come together and form a family. This is a rather new concept of family that has been seen more and more often in movies these days. Gay mothers, gay fathers, broken families that make it work, and happy foster family stories as well. If you ask me, I personally like this trend. Who didn't smile when Carl pinned that last badge on Russell at the end of the movie? If you didn't you really need yourself checked out.

Story... Well, I'm just gonna skip the director, because Pete Docter directed multiple Pixar movies and they are all pretty good. And I guess I already talked about the story and plot a lot during the characters portion of my blog. What else is there to say about the movie?

Let me say a bit about the art direction of the movie. The painting-like coloring of the landscape (You think that's obvious? People often forget the most obvious elements) along with textured character rendering and all the dream-like bright and imaginary combination of colors make Up just a pleasing movie to watch. Also I think Pixar always gets the illustration of characters so dead-on right. You can see the research done by the artists, and the imagination that comes through. I heard that Disney can be a tough place to work as an artist, because you are forced to imagine newer and better things all the time. If that is actually true, Pixar did a damn good job.

Way to go, Pixar, for making me feel good walking out of a movie once again. Your fun-filled adventures and imaginary fantasies rooted almost all the time in family values and true love has me hopeful for the future movies to come.

Verdict... TWO THUMBS WAY UP! (A+)

Next: I review "Clash of the Titans" and how bad that shit-pile of a movie was. Stay with us!