Movie Review: Up (2009)

Pixar is the undisputed leader in current animation. Although Dreamworks isn't too far behind, Pixar is able to combine amazing graphical work with stories that pop with life and sometimes even manage to tug at the heartstrings. Up is not only a work of superb animation, but is possibly one of the saddest/best movies to come out in years.

I'm not one to cry at movies. I can find something sad, but rarely does it actually elicit a physical reaction from me. Up took all of my strength to not start bawling, and that was just in the first fifteen minutes. In fact, I'm going to say that the first fifteen minutes of Up tug at the heartstrings better than just about any two-hour melodrama could possibly hope to do.

That's not to say the entire thing is one big teary-eyed sadsack. Up also serves up a large dose of humor, the best of which comes from Dug, the talking dog who is actually able to personify the ADD spirit of a canine companion exactly the way I would have imagined. Russell also has some funny lines, but nothing as funny as Dug.

The story would fall apart without Ed Asner's performance as Carl, however. Carl is a crotchety old man, and Asner does a good job of not drifting into senile parody. He's the perfect combination of sad, angry, and confused, and never becomes unbelievable.

Pixar has crafted what is truly a definitively "family" film...the whimsical animation and humor can appeal to everyone, young or old, and the story itself is able to be engaging while still being emotionally strong enough that adults won't get bored by all the silliness. The only negative things I can really say about Up is that the 3-D treatment felt unneccesary and added nothing to the movie past the first half hour. I know 3-D is all the rage right now, but it really was unneccesary for this movie and felt tacked on.

Rating: 9/10

The animated short Partly Cloudy, which appears before the film, is funny and sweet, if somewhat innocuous. Definitely worth a watch, although nothing as strong as the actual feature film.