2009 movieRating: 16/20 (Jen: 17/20; Dylan: 11/20;Emma: 18/20; Abbey: 20/20)
Plot: Lonely widowered Carl Fredrickson is about to be shipped to an old person's home because he's a menace to society. Instead of losing the home his wife and he constructed out of memories and love, he decides to transport it to a waterfall in South America, both as a way to escape the retirement home and to fulfill a promise he had made to his Ellie a long, long time ago. Unbeknownst to Carl, a boy scout has accompanied him. They make it to South America where they run into exotic birds, talking dogs, and a childhood hero with a zeppelin.
I fully expected this movie to end in what I thought was a predictably unpredictable way. Instead, it threw me off by unpredictably ending in a predictable way. The movie is better with my ending, I think, and I'm sticking with my slightly different "reading" of this one. I can't really say anymore about that without spoiling things. Lovable characters, solid animation (not as stunningly sharp as Ratatouille though), and a quirky little story add up to another Pixar win. Like Wall-E, I think the action bits go a bit too far (that's part of my "reading" though), but the humor works throughout with lots of visual and verbal gags and the colors and details make this a feast for the eyes. It's also a very touching film, managing to make me weep within the first ten minutes which is probably a new record. Lots of little details are going to make this a movie that you can return to again and again although, like Ratatouille, a large chunk of this one is more for adults than children.
Note: I did not see the 3-D version of this movie. 3-D is for suckers.
5 comments:
you forgot to put "up" in the blog title and it's messing everything "up"...
Thanks for the heads "up" man...
I LOVED the first 15 minutes of this film. It is some of the best stuff that Pixar has ever done. I like when I can use a cartoon to teach my children stuff that I'm too much of a wuss to talk about. Unfortunately, it was downhill from there.
The comparison to "Wall-E" is apt. They are both films that touchingly deal with adult matters, but then go over the top and become unbelievable. I know you are supposed to ease off the logic button when watching an animated movie, but come on.
I did like the abundant cute bits (I especially liked the dogs playing poker), and the relationship between the boy and the old man is very touching. I think they are trying to make a point by comparing the old man who is willing to give up the past and move on versus then man who clings to the past and is destroyed, but I think they could have done a lot more with it. They could have made the famous guy a little more sympathetic and complicated instead of making him a monster.
This is a good movie, but it could have been so much better. Sadly, when the balloons go up, "Up" goes down (sorry, I couldn't help myself. A 16.
Good. I'm glad you saw this so I can discuss it with spoilers.
Think about this movie from...well, actually from the moment when you start liking it a lot less, but with a completely different reading...
I honestly thought that everything from the moment those balloons pop out of the chimney until the credits was fantasy or, more accurately, imaginative playtime. I fully expected the scene with the house sitting there by the waterfall to dissolve into a scene with the old man and the cub scout playing together, revealing that that whole adventure had just been an imaginative dream, not unlike the playing that the old man did with his wife when he first met her. It was all so bizarrely unrealistic and unscientific that it seemed like only a child could come up with it, maybe with a "grandparent" to go along with it all. So I thought the movie would end with the boy helping the old man get over the death of his wife and become more human again and the old man helping the boy by being a father figure.
With that "twist" ending, I would have liked this movie a whole lot more. It would have turned into an "Awww, that's sweet" (even though it's what I predicted anyway) instead of a "What? Come on!" sort of thing.
I did love the beginning. Second Pixar movie in a row that starts out as a silent movie and manages to do so much without dialogue.
I like your movie better
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