UP

“UP” (voice of Ed Asner)

Every time a Disney Pixar animated film is released, critics heap praises upon them, calling them fun for children ‘of all ages’ (I guess that includes morons of all ages too)
& the public gobbles them up as well, since they are almost always among the highest grossers of the year... Me ? I don’t get it. I liked ‘Toy Story’, but it wasn’t ‘spectacular’. I liked ‘Wall-E’, but it wasn’t ‘brilliant’. “The Incredibles’ was barely passable as entertainment & I hated ‘Ratatouille’ & ‘Cars’.
So here comes Pixar’s ‘Up’ – the story of a crotchety old man that wants to get away from city life (namely ‘people’) so he attaches a million balloons to his house & flies off to some remote location to live out the rest of his life in peace & tranquility... Wouldn’t a plane ticket to Florida accomplish the same result?
Still, I’m a 50-something kid at heart & am a sucker for a good cartoon every once in a while (I loved last years ‘Bolt’) & since my wife enjoys the simplicity of animated tales, we went to see ‘Up’... In regular ‘D’, by the way.
For the first time, I almost agree with the critical praise – with one catch – I don’t think this is a very good kid’s movie – it REALLY is for an older audience. I mean, do kids want to watch, or would care about an elongated silent montage on how Carl & Ellie went from childhood ‘chums’ to young, excited newlyweds, building their nest egg for when they can make their live-long dream move to Paradise Falls in South America?
Along the way enduring some heartbreaking moments, ending with elderly Ellie passing on leaving Carl so desperately alone that his daily routine consists of walking out to the front porch and sitting down to be harassed by all the construction going on around his home. An existence that includes just a handful of meaningful items for him to remember his dear departed mate, Carl is deemed ‘dangerous’ by the city when a careless construction worker damages one of these precious items. Thus, I reprimand myself for making light of why Carl decides to ‘float’ his home to Paradise – so along with having some light-hearted comedic moments, ‘Up’ is mainly a touching story of one man’s attempt to take the ‘memory’ of his beloved Ellie to the location she always dreamed of seeing. It isn’t often that a cartoon will put a lump in my throat, but ‘Up’ did.
It's far-fetched, but that’s what cartoons are supposed to be. Being a dog lover, I enjoyed the ‘invention’ of a device that allows dogs to speak in English through their translator collars & that every canine in the film is engrossed at the thought of the possibility of a squirrel being nearby.
I’m guessing that pre-schoolers will like it because of the big colorful bird that befriends Carl, but any kid with a ‘working’ brain isn’t going to relate to this film unless they’re a boy scout, maybe. Yes, it’s message of you can find wonderful friends in the least likely of places - & ages & forms – is one that should be appreciated by all – but I just feel that when I was in elementary school – thru my early teens, I wouldn’t have been entertained by this old man since I had no way to relate to his predicament.
Bottom line, ‘Up’ almost lives up to the accolades that are automatically heaped upon Pixar films by actually having an animated ‘heart’ that touched mine.