June 30th, 2009
By Divina
I have to say one thing about Disney Pixar, hit after hit they always manage to keep surprising me, especially with the level of talent they have within the Disney Pixar organization. The writing, the computer graphics, the directing and every other element of the movie is so well done it leaves no room for competition. Yet with all the talent and excellent story telling prowess I was really disappointed by UP.
Quick synopsis: Ballon salesman Carl Fredricksen (voiced by Ed Asner (the Boss from The Mary Tyler Moore show) has lost the love of his life and is being pushed out of his lifelong dream home because of corporate suit-wearing developers. He reaches his limit and decides to fulfill his lifelong dream he shared with his wife of visiting South America by blowing up thousands of balloons which he ties to his house and flies away. Everything is good until Carl discovers thousands of miles up in the air he has an eight year old stowaway along for the trip. Throw in some talking dogs, the jungles of South America and disgraced adventurer voiced by Christopher Plummer (he has done so much but I know him only as the dad from Must love Dogs) and you have an adventure story from Disney Pixar.
Why was I disappointed?
This was a supposed comedy adventure family movie so why was I crying all the time?
There was some very adult topics discussed in the movie like death, divorce and life after you lose a loved one and your world falls apart.
The graphics were exceptional along with the writing and directing. Disney Pixar’s favorite actor John Ratzenberger also makes another appearance.
There was some funny moments in the film but the main message of the movie is life is too short!
Don’t wait to have your adventure.
Timing will never be perfect.
You will never have enough money but we only get one life so make the most of it.
All in all a good movie but I would not bring small children to this movie unless you want another Marley moment.
Eddy’s Note: As far as I am concerned this was Pixar’s attempt to make not a cartoon, or children’s film but a true film with absolutely no age restrictions, which I believe they succeeded in doing. I feel that Pixar has reached a point in movie making that they were no longer driven by providing movie goers with exactly want they want all the time (something that DreamWorks does with their movies ie. The Shrek series) ultimately they would have ended falling in a rut. Therefore, they decided to challenge the audience, both adults and children, into watching a movie with a deeper meaning and much more emotion that was present in their past movies. To me this was a logical transition from Wall-E, and signifies substantial growth on the part of Pixar and it’s creative teams.
The true challenge for Pixar will be to continue this growth while staying within the confines of their older stories, which we will see with the sequels to Toy Story and Monsters Inc. They will no longer have the benefit of an original story of which they can manipulate and move to their purposes.
While I agree with Divina that I was not overwhelmed with love for the movie like I have been in the past, I do find myself even more intrigued in what they will think of next.
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