"Up" Review

4 out of 5 stars ------ B

Pixar’s “Up” is – in many ways – the studio’s most adult picture to date. The film opens with a montage detailing the life of Carl Fredricksen, a young man with an intense passion for exploration and adventure, and his marriage to the even more ambitious Ellie. The montage elicits almost every emotion from the audience, whether it is joy at the sight of Carl and Ellie married, or grief and sadness when Ellie finally passes away. The montage is brilliant in its simplicity. Director Pete Docter, having already established the couple’s chemistry in a quick introduction, lets the images speak for themselves.

After the montage, the story kicks in. Carl, stricken with grief from Ellie’s death, has become disgruntled and almost cynical about life. Annoyed by the hotshot businessmen trying to tear down his neighborhood, Carl decides to fly away from his now monotonous life and explore Paradise Falls, a landmark in South Africa that he and Ellie had always wanted to visit. He does so by tying a myriad amount of balloons to his house. Unbeknownst to Carl, a young Wilderness Scout named Russel is also along for the ride.

The first thirty minutes of the film – including the montage mentioned earlier – is almost completely serious in tone, but does contain some moments of wry humor that prevent the film from becoming a downer. The introduction of Russel brings some much needed comic relief, but it is Carl who is the emotional root of the story. The characterization of Carl (voiced by Edward Asner) is one of Pixar’s best. He is both realistic and relatable and certainly follows Pixar founder John Lasseter’s philosophy: “Part of what makes a great movie is character growth.”

With such an emotionally charged and well conveyed first act, one would expect the second act to struggle a bit. And it does. The film is still very much rooted in its characters, but suffers from a couple of missteps. When Carl and Russel arrive in South Africa, they not only meet a colorful ostrich, but also a colony of talking dogs controlled by a failed adventurer named Charles Muntz (voiced by Christopher Plummer). Talking dogs are tolerable when they are used in restraint, but the writers of “Up” insist on having an entire colony of talking dogs. One of the dogs, Dug, works, mainly due to his dopey humor. However, the others do not. The other talking dogs feel clichéd and unnecessary. But, at its core, “Up” is a heartfelt adventure story, so maybe the excessive use of talking dogs can be forgiven for the mere sake of adventure. Maybe.

However, with or without the talking dogs, the adventure aspects in “Up” work. The film has fun paying homage to adventure films (i.e. the Indiana Jones films), while carefully weaving in complex character arcs and emotional ideas. The character of Carl starts off one way, makes a realization at the film’s emotional climax, and is a completely different person by the film’s close. One of the few things that stay constant about Carl is his love for adventure. While Charles Muntz seems to only go on explorations to become famous, Carl and Ellie explore because of the thrill they get from it. These character traits create an interesting contrast between the two elderly characters.

Of course, much credit should go to the animation team for creating such detailed, interesting characters and landscapes. Carl’s grand balloon escape is especially exciting thanks to the awe-inducing visuals. Much credit should also go to the simply rhythms of Michael Giacchino’s score which creates a light, fluffy atmosphere that mirrors one of the film’s main settings, the sky. This score, along with the epic sounds of Giacchino’s other recent score (“Star Trek”), shows his versatility as a composer.

In the end, there is a lot to appreciate about “Up.” Sure, the pacing of the film may have felt a bit uneven, and the talking dogs may have been one of Pixar’s few painful slips into convention, but when one is comparing it to any other animated film, there really is no competition. Pixar has always strived to craft their films to the very highest quality, and “Up” is no exception.