Up (2009)

Dir: Brad Docter, Bob Peterson (co-director).

Voice Actors: Edward Asner, Jordan Nagai, Christopher Plummer, Bob Peterson.

96 mins, U cert.

Disney Pixar’s latest offering, Up, is a perfect example of a family friendly movie revolving around cute characters with a thinly veiled moral message laced with sentimentality. The film’s protagonist, Carl Fredrickson (voiced by Edward Asner), a 78 year old, decides to fulfil his promise to his late wife (Ellie), which sees him tie thousands of balloons to his house in order to fly it to Paradise Falls. However, his grand plans are compromised by a young stowaway, Russell (voiced by newcomer, Jordan Nagai), a boy scout who was on Carl’s porch at the time of take-off.

The film begins with a montage detailing Carl’s life with Ellie, revealing the couple’s ups and downs throughout their life together. This montage so early in the film takes Pixar’s token tear-jerker scene out of the way straight away; the typical weepy scene of Pixar films are usually the pivotal part of the film, such as Buzz Lightyear’s crushing realisation that he’ll never be able to fly in Toy Story (1995), or that Sully will never see his beloved Boo again in Monsters Inc. (2001). That being said, don’t let this tear-jerker montage lull you into a false sense of security, there are plenty more tears that could be shed later in the film, but none so powerful than the first five minutes.

With Pixar being the animated family film powerhouse it is, the strain to live up to expectations raised by the successes of earlier films means that the threat of a film not living up to the hype is always there. While the adventure and the charming characters in Up are enough to keep interest until the end of the film, something seems to be lacking; the end ‘boss fight’ between Russell and the villainous Charles Muntz (voiced by Christopher Plummer) seems too rushed to really get audiences engaged in the action. Up is a great film, showcasing the talents of the animators in the exotic scenery and characters, as well as humour that lends itself to the adults alongside the child audiences, However, the narrative just doesn’t live up to the former brilliance of Toy Story, Finding Nemo (2003) or WALL.E (2008).