Up

“Up” is a wonderful 2009 film, with characters who are as believable as any characters can be who throughout a majority of the film are using balloons attached to a house that is flying above the rain forests of Venezuela. They have short-fuses, problems and obsessions. They are cute and silly, but they aren’t cute in the sticky way of little cartoon animals. They’re cute in the human way of the way world-renowned animator Hayao Miyazaki makes them. Roger Ebert noted, “Two of the three central characters are cranky old men, which is a wonder in this youth-obsessed era. “Up" doesn't think all heroes must be young or sweet, although the third important character is a nervy kid.”

This is another touchdown of skill from Pixar, which is the champion in today’s modern animation. The movie was directed Pete Docter, who also directed “Monsters, Inc.,” wrote “Toy Story” and was a co-writer on “WALL-E” before leaving to put in everything in this movie. You can say that Docter’s one of the leading men of this latest addition of animation.

Ebert noted, “The movie will be shown in 3-D in some theaters, about which I will say nothing, except to advise you to save the extra money and see it in 2-D. One of the film's qualities that is likely to be diminished by 3-D is its subtle and beautiful color palette.” “Up,” like “Finding Nemo,” “Toy Story,” “Shrek” and “The Lion King,” uses colors in a way that looks like it fits in this film.

Ebert said, “"Up" tells a story as tickling to the imagination as the magical animated films of my childhood, when I naively thought that because their colors were brighter, their character outlines more defined and their plots simpler, they were actually more realistic than regular films.”

Ebert goes on to say, “It begins with a romance as sweet and lovely as any I can recall in feature animation.” Two children named Carl (Jeremy Leary) and Ellie (Elizabeth Docter, the daughter of the director) meet and find out that they share the same dream of one day being explorers. In the news, they see the adventures of a brave adventurer named Charles Munts, voiced by Christopher Plummber, who uses his blip to explore a lost society on a highland in Venezuela and then return with the bones of an extinct animal that before was unknown to archeologists. When his findings are said to be fake, he flies off livid to South America again, saying he will bring back living animals to prove his findings.

They don’t hear back from him in years. Ellie and Carl, now voiced by Edward Asner, grow up, have an engagement, marry, but a rundown house and turn it into their dream home, are happy together and grow old. All of this is seen in a quiet montage, with music playing (the elder Ellie doesn’t have a voice actress). Docter shows this in a touching sequence, without dialogue, that shows the life experience in a way that is almost never seen in family animation. The couple save their life savings in a gallon jug that is meant to buy for their trip to their dream trip Paradise Falls, but real life interferes: flat tires, home repairs, medical bills. Then they find out a devastating fact. This interval is romantic and moving.

The focus of the film is on Carl’s life after Ellie passes. He becomes solitary, holds out against the world, and keeps his home for memory, talks to Ellie’s spirit. One day he decides to pack his stuff and fly away – literally. Having worked his entire career as a balloon man, he has the stuff with him to float his house with so many helium-filled balloons and fulfill his dream of going to Paradise Falls. What he wasn’t expecting was a boy who shows up at his doorstep, Russell, voiced by Jordan Nagai, an obedient Wilderness Explorer Scout, who looks Asian.

Ebert noted, “What they find at Paradise Falls and what happens there I will not say. But I will describe Charles Muntz's gigantic airship that is hovering there. It's a triumph of design, and perhaps owes its inspiration, though not its appearance, to Miyazaki's "Castle in the Sky." The exterior is nothing special: a really big zeppelin. But the interior is one of those movie spaces you have the feeling you'll remember.”

With a huge space inside, the airship is made like a giant ocean facing from the golden age, with a grand dining room, long corridors, a display area resembling the Natural History Museum and an attic open enough to fit fighter planes. Ebert noted, “Muntz, who must be a centenarian by now, is hale, hearty and mean, his solitary life shared only by robotic dogs.”

The travels on the jungle highland are interesting in a Mummy/Tomb Raider/Indiana Jones type of feeling. However, that’s not the entirety of the film. Ebert mentioned, “This isn't a movie like "Monsters vs. Aliens," which is mostly just frenetic action.” There are stakes here, and personalities involved, and two old men fighting for meaning in their career. Also, there is a kid who, or once, isn’t smarter than every adult. We also have a loyal dog (Bob Peterson), an animal sidekick (Pete Docter), always the house and those balloons.

Much like how I stated yesterday, “Up” was the movie that came closer to “Finding Nemo” than “WALL-E” did. This is another one of my favorite Pixar films and I highly recommend it if you haven’t seen it. I saw this film in the theaters and it was worth seeing. If you want something to sit down with the children with, put this on. I won’t lie when I say this is an emotional ride, because it is. I don’t think it’s as good as “Finding Nemo,” but at the time when I saw it, it came really close. When you go through the Pixar list of movies you want to watch, definitely don’t skip this one because it’s a must.

Look out next Monday when I talk about another sequel to one of my favorite Pixar movies that, at the time when it was released, was the movie that came closer to “Finding Nemo” than “Up” did. Not to say that every movie after “Finding Nemo” came close to it, but this one was the closest at the time. It’s right to talk about it in “Disney’s Pixar Month.”