Wednesday Review: Up

This week’s review is of a movie I have never seen before so I can’t give one of my proper opening account assessment of the film this time. This week’s review is of the Disney-Pixar film, Up. I hear this film is really sad ... something about a dead wife wanting to fly balloons or something ... I dunno. Well anyway, let’s get started then shall we?

Up title card.

Review after the break.

So in the opening scene we’re shown, who I assume is the old geezer when he was a child, watching a film about some flying dude. It’s clear that this kid’s life ambition is to become a pilot. On his way home he comes across an abandoned house and a girl inside who also clearly dreams of becoming a pilot. I’m going to make a guess here and say that, assuming I’m right about the kid being the old man, then this girl is his wife.

I like this movie already. I’m already having a few good laughs. Mostly cause the kid keeps getting hurt ... it’s always funnier when someone else gets hurt.

Okay, let me make another guess. The balloon the kid is holding is an allusion to the fact that he makes his house fly with balloons later in the film.

Well I called the marriage thing, and the kid being the old man.

AHA! His man is Carl! Finally.

Okay, so based on this montage of Carl and Ellie sharing a life together, I have gathered this.  Her family approved, his did not, they fixed up a house together, they wanted a baby and i assume she can’t have babies? They share everything together, essentially they are perfect for each other, they keep trying to save up money to go to Paradise Falls but have to keep spending it on more important things, eventually they grow old and never go there, he feels bad because he promised her they would, then she dies ... aw man ... that’s really sad.

Carl riding some kind of machine to get down the stairs.

HA! Nice method to get down the stairs! That’s pretty awesome!

Hey! The construction worker is voiced by the same guy who voices Hamm in the Toy Story movies!

Oh ho man! The old guy has gone senile, a Disney Pixar movie has bloody woulds, this movie is kicking all kinds of ass!

At least the Russell kid will get his badge for helping the elderly ... helping him get to Paradise Falls ...

Man, the balloons unfolding looked so epic!

That’s so awesome how he turned his house into a flying machine. I wish I had a flying house.

“Please let me in.”

“No.”

BAHAHA

MAN! I totally thought Carl was actually dangling Russell from the house! But he was just fantasising about doing it! That’s hilarious!

Up, up, and away! See what I did there?

Wait ... why’d he start cutting the cords to the balloons? That’ll just making the house lower ... that’s not what he wants ...

The old man can really move when he needs to.

This kid fails at life. I love it.

You’ve gotta be kidding me. They got to Paradise Falls a third of the way into the film? Okay, something’s not adding up here.

Oh please don’t tell me they’re going to walk to the house for the remaining hour of the film.

Dat one big bird.

Russell’s knee hurts ... I wonder if he has a bad knee like me?

This bird’s pretty awesome. I hope the dog’s that were chasing it don’t belong to that pilot dude from the film that the Carl watched as a kid. The pilot dude would be insanely old!

SQUIRREL!

Okay, Russell tries to put up a tent and gets smacked in the face with a rod. There is a big red mark across his face. Two seconds later it’s gone. What’s up with that?

There are so many dogs there! That’s crazy!

Wow ... it was the pilot dude ... he must be freaking old.

Man, the leader dog has the most ridiculous voice for what it looks like. I would have thought it would have been fixed by now. Of course, it gets fixed right after I type that.

Cliff jumping made easy with your very own balloon house!

Well at least the house helps them when jumping down cliffs.

Wilhelm scream as dogs fall into the water!

Oh man, the crazy pilot dude is burning Carl’s house! That’s all he has left of Ellie!

I like the shot of Carl pulling his house along at dawn. It’s got a really nice effect on mood.

Well, he made it ... with about twenty minutes of the movie to spare. Let’s see what happens next.

You mean to tell me after all these years, he’s never looked beyond the “Stuff I’m Going To Do” page in Ellie’s scrapbook? You have got to be kidding me.

Cool looking scene at dawn.

I like the fact that he throws out all the furniture and stuff to make the house lighter except the two chairs he and Ellie sat in. He places them standing up side by side, almost as if the two of them are sitting there in spirit.

House on top of Paradise Falls.

Point!

Dog flying planes?! Amazing!

Aha! That was great! “Hey! Squirrel!” “Squirrel? Where?” All dogs crash planes.

What a nice ending. Carl, Russell, and Dug all bonded and became a family, Kevin got back to her babies, the bad guys lost, and Ellie’s house ended up exactly where she wanted it.

I like the music in this film.

So all in all, Up was a really great film. It had a good plot, it was well driven, the characters were fleshed out, the animation was good, and it was funny and touching at the same time. There were some plot points that I questioned though, the villain seemed a little to campy Disney villain-ish, but had a flare of evil to him. The score for the film was motivational; it kept the viewer in the mood. The voiceovers were well done.

I’ll rank this film an 8/10 SQUIRREL!

Russell and Carl with Kevin's baby birds.