June 16, 2009: Up
This year’s Disney/Pixar entry and presumably soon to be Best Animated Feature Oscar winner for 2009 is Up, a tale of an old man finally pushed to live out his long-suppressed dream adventure when he has nothing left to lose. An emotionally breathtaking 15-minute sequence comes early in the film to give us the background we need to understand how Carl, a crotchety old man resisting selling his house to developers, got to be the way he is. I won’t go too far into the plot to avoid spoiling the film, but I figure everyone has seen the posters with a house flying along suspended from balloons. Carl is an adventurer at heart and when he’s about to lose his house and his freedom, he takes the initiative and flies his house (with helium-filled balloons) to South America.
This really is an utterly charming, if not quite note-perfect film, as evidenced by near-unanimous critical approval and big box office returns. Ed Asner as the voice of Carl is just gruff enough and doesn’t obscure the heart of gold underneath. Doug the dog and Kevin the bird are characteristically anthropomorphized Pixar characters who use their physical shape and abilities to their full extent. On the other hand, Christopher Plummer as an aging explorer and Carl’s childhood hero seems a bit overwrought, and I found the young boy scout who inadvertently accompanies Carl on his journey to be little more than an annoyance despite his necessity to the plot.
The film’s stories are well integrated, with clear references back to earlier times, and points made in a sensible and tightly structured way. The whole idea and how it plays out is of course entirely ridiculous and impossible, but it makes sense in the Pixar universe of sentient toys, globetrotting fish and neurotic insects. A couple of weak spots include an awkward and violent altercation spurring Carl towards desperation, and an overabundance of near-death action set pieces related to people almost falling off flying vessels. However, these don’t detract nearly enough from Up to make me give anything less than an enthusiastic recommendation.
Pixar does it again. Oscar gold.
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