There’s something significant about going to see a new Pixar movie. In the 14 years since they released their first feature, Toy Story, the Disney-based production house has not put out a single dud. Sure, Cars wasn’t a homerun, but it looked great and the kids just LOVED it. But I defy any adult with two eyes and a heart to not look at the likes of Finding Nemo or Ratatouille and not be slain by the sincerity, lack of pretence or never ending beauty found in those films. The phrase ‘child-like wonder’ is spoken by many a full-grown adult who sees a Pixar film.
Their latest, an old-fashioned windswept yarn, covers all the usual bases of a family-friendly school holiday flick (action, colour, adventure), but also touches on real, dare it be said, adult concepts. Love, death and everything in between are addressed, so parents can have their annual trip to the movies with the kids that doesn’t leave them bored, bombarded and counting the minutes until they leave the theatre and have to purchase the fast food tie-in.
The film begins as a romance between Carl (voiced as an adult by Ed Asner), and Ellie, who as kids were bound by their shared love of the very idea of adventure and exploring the world. We see in a startlingly touching montage, their life together, through marriage, building a house, ageing, retirement and Ellie’s eventual quiet death that leaves Carl old, grumpy and very sad.
When building construction threatens his house and bureaucracy forces him out, it compels him to take action, and utilises his storage of thousands of colourful balloons to lift his old place off the ground and sail through the sky to Paradise Falls, an idyllic location in South America that he and Ellie always dreamed of visiting. When airborne, Carl discovers an unexpected stowaway – a podgy little boy scout named Russell, who just wants to help out the old man and get his final wilderness badge.
From there on begins the adventure, and Up has that in spades. There are beautiful locations, talking animals, a villain, thrilling chases and everything you would expect from a film of this genre. But because it’s being made by the people who made Monsters Inc and Toy Story, it’s being done in a way that doesn’t insult your intelligence, alienate younger audiences or feel even the slightest bit formulaic. It’s a credit to think that a film like this, in this day and age of youth-obsessed culture, could feature two of its three leads being geriatric men, and has at its core a message of respect for nature, finding happiness wherever you can, letting go of material possessions and embracing life’s simple pleasures.
So it goes without saying that Up is a great, great film.
It has wonderfully rendered characters, beautifully voiced and performed, a great script, moments of hilarious comedy and is visually stunning. In no uncertain terms, it’s also something of a miracle. It’s the kind of movie that in years to come, people will reflect, compare what’s being shown to them and think ‘They don’t make ‘em like they used to.’