UP review

Pixar films are very close to my heart as they began my over the top of love with cinema, as the first film I ever watched at the cinema was Toy Story. So when a new Pixar film comes out, my inner five year old screams with excitement. So on a Saturday morning at the London Imax, wearing my 3D glasses and surrounded my hundreds of 8 year olds, I watched and fell in love with Up.

Up, Pixar’s 10^th feature film begins with octogenarian Carl Fredricksen being evicted from his home and deciding to live out his and his wife’s dream to travel to Paradise Falls in South America, inspired by their hero Charles F. Muntz. Thus using his balloon making past, he flies away using hundreds of balloons and sets of on his final great adventure. However, he has company in the form of badge hunting Boy Scout Russell, a talking Dog called Dug and a crazy bird called Kevin. This is no stereotypical animation film and that’s exactly what Pixar is all about.

Pixar always prides itself upon its story and here is no different. The opening five minutes are the single greatest five minutes of animated cinema I’ve ever seen. It’s beautiful, funny, touching, imaginative, creative, and absolutely heartbreaking. I cried. I’m not ashamed to say that because anyone who has any belief in love and life will cry. It is pure, beautiful cinema. The rest of the film never quite reaches this high standard, but it’s pretty impossible for it to do so. However, this is not to say Up is bad. Up is very good. It contains some of the most thrilling animated scenes of recent years involving plane fights and packs of chasing dogs. It’s a genuinely exciting film with a story which is involving, touching and spell- binding but the main draw is the characters.

The characters are well rounded, likeable, genuine human beings who everyone can relate to. Carl is a man unwilling to change and with the apparent lack of purpose in his life, it turns him into an angry and sad man. Russell is a young Wilderness Explorer looking to gain his “Assist the Elderly” badge and at first, appears an annoying over the top nuisance. However, we learn of the troubles in his family life and with the subtlest of dialogue all is revealed in its painful reality. It doesn’t need a montage to explain a situation; we know everything from a few simple words. Throughout the film the two characters learn and transform, leading to a brilliant conclusive finale. The relationship between these two characters is perfectly created and hits the heights of Pixar’s previous on-screen partnerships. Mike and Sulley, Woody and Buzz, Dory and Nemo, Wall –E and Eve and now Carl and Russell- another of Pixar’s great relationships is born.

Furthermore, Up will make you laugh. Whether through talking dog Dug (brilliantly voiced by Bob Peterson), the Chaplin inspired antics of Kevin copying Carl or even the simple jokes of dogs playing poker, it is a genuinely funny film. Dug steals the show and every time he is on the screen, you love it, and every time he is off it, you secretly want more. You’ll be repeatedly shouting “Squirrel” once you leave the cinema. Furthermore, what’s not to love about high pitched speaking dogs? The great thing is, you’ll laugh, gran’s and grandad’s will laugh, babies will laugh, it has something for everyone. That’s the magic of Pixar.

However, this film is not their best film. The villain lacks the menace to be amongst Pixar’s best villains such as Sid from Toy Story or Sindrome from the Incredibles, as his motives seem weak and slightly undeveloped. Furthermore, the second half does not have the tightness of the first, taking a much more free form approach which sometimes means the film loses focus.

However, these are all minor complaints for a film that blows the rest of the competition out the water. Again. The film lifted throughout by Michael Giacchino’s beautiful and touching score and the short Partly Cloudy at the beginning will put a big old smile on your face. This film is all about love, dreams, friendship, humanity, and adventure. “Adventure is out there” cries Muntz in the 1930’s sepia tone newsreel at the beginning. At the end of this film, you’ll believe him.

5/5