FILM CHALLENGE: 177) Up

177) Up

Director: Pete Doctor
Year: 2009

Plot Summary: By tying thousands of balloons to his home, 78 year old Carl Frederikson sets out to fulfil his lifelong dream of seeing Paradise Falls in Venezuela. Right after lifting off, he realises he's not alone since Russell, a wilderness explorer 70 years his junior, has inadvertently become a stowaway on the trip.

There are moments in Pixar's latest release that are among the film-makers' best work. Moments in which it hits an emotional chord as powerful as anything in cinema, moments when it reaches a level or artistry that few people could reach in their entire careers and moments when it is so fun that it elevates you to a state of bliss you'd never have before believed could exist. However, the trouble with Up is that they only remain moments.

Up focuses on Carl who, after the death of his long-time wife Ellie, decides that it's finally time to leave his American home. He ties balloons to his house and jets off to the skies in order to reach Paradise Falls; a place he and Ellie dreamed of visiting as children.

The story is wonderful in making the most of animation's ability to explore the unrealistic yet it brilliantly maintains its human interest by telling it through the eyes of someone who is weighed down by the memories of a lost love, something that everyone can relate to.

The opening scene - a montage of the marriage of Carl and Ellie- establishes this human interest and is one of the most heartbreaking sequences in cinematic history. It spectacularly takes us through the highs and lows, the ups and downs and the romance and regret of their entire marriage in just over 4 minutes and immediately allows us to care deeply for Carl and his forthcoming adventure.

The house carried by balloons, in fact, is a wonderful metaphor for the aforementioned regret; allowing us an insight into the fact that Carl doesn't forgive himself for not taking Ellie to Paradise Falls before she tragically died, instead using their savings to pay for busted tires and broken windows.

The relationship with a boy who accidentally ends up being taken on the journey is equally moving as he symbolises both the child that he and Ellie could never have and also the hope that he can detach himself from the loss of his wife. It also provides much of the humour in Up as the unlikely couple at first struggle to cope with each other.

But these moments are somewhat let down by the ridiculous plot developments that come in the second half of Up. Pixar obviously felt the need to give it a villain and, therefore, play out this awful subplot involving Carl and Ellie's childhood hero who still happens to be alive. Moreover, for some reason that I can't even begin to understand, they include talking dogs who, at one point, fly around in small fighter planes.

It's still an great release from Pixar and one that very often shines, yet the usually daring film-makers pull their punches too often in Up and conform to the usual conventions of children's cinema, making what could have been ann amazing study loss and redemption into just another fun action-adventure.

4/5

By Daniel Sarath with 3 comments