‘Up’ is a Let-Down
-----I remember the golden age of Pixar. Film’s like ‘Toy Story,’ ‘Monsters Inc.,’ ‘Finding Nemo,’ and even ‘Cars,’ among others. However, after the mediocre ‘Ratatouille,’ and the overrated ‘Wall-E,’ it seemed the golden age had ended. Could the promising ‘Up’ return Pixar’s past glory, or would it be just another watchable, but ultimately disappointing entry from the Oscar-Winning studio? Unfortunately, the answer is the latter.
-----‘Up’ is the story of a frustrated old man named Carl Fredricksen. After the death of his wife, Carl has little to live for. When the city starts to grow around him, he finds himself being forced into a retirement home. Carl decides it’s time for desperate measures. Tying thousands of balloons to the top of his house, Carl floats away to an exotic location in South America that he and his wife dreamed of visiting for years. That’s when he realizes he has a stowaway on his house; an eight-year-old “Wilderness Explorer” (Cub Scout) named Russell.
-----Ed Asner plays the semi-grumpy, very sentimental protagonist, Carl Fredricksen. While his voice acting is authentic, and his comedic timing adequate, his lines start to run dry at about the two-thirds mark. This is the case with most of the movie as it starts to weaken throughout the course of the film. The young Jordan Nagai lends his voice to Russell, in a consistently funny fashion. He somehow manages to capture the funny side of a chubby 8-year-old, while still providing depth when necessary. Bob Peterson is the funniest character in the film however, as the talking mutt, Dug. Not only are his lines hilarious, he perfectly captures a light and naïve mood that accurately reflects a real dog’s intelligence.
-----While ‘Up’ is adequate entertainment, it is a disappointment for me. My primary problem with it is that Pixar seems to care more about being original and allegorical than just providing a fun movie. With ‘Up,’ they have fallen in love with their premise. An old man and a young boy fly to South America in a house carried by balloons. Yes, that is and excellent start, but the film seems to lose steam in the third act. The film does live “up” to expectations in one department, however. The animation is brilliant and beautiful, and ultimately the movie’s saving grace for me. I didn’t even get to see it in 3-D and I was still thrilled by the cartoon atmosphere and attention to detail. The colorful balloon assortment that hauls Carl’s house around is particularly breathtaking. The story, on the other hand, quickly becomes overly sentimental and even formulaic as the humor starts to fall by the wayside.
-----Many critics have raved over an opening montage that sums up the life of Carl Fredricksen. While this is an effective and clever segment, it only lends to more sentimentality throughout the rest of the film. And while some sentimentality is good and necessary to connect with the characters, by the fifth time ‘Up’ tries to make us sympathize with its leads, I was tired of it. The metaphors kick in, and Pixar starts to gloat about how well it can set up subtexts. Meanwhile, as I’ve previously stated, the humor, and my enjoyment of the film, pays the price. It’s a very sweet story, as everyone around me was quick to point out, but I felt drowned in it all. The plot also starts to get more conventional as it moves along, and by the third act I hardly cared at all about what was going on in the grand scheme of things. I wondered how they would make a full movie out of such a simple premise, and unfortunately I was right to question Pixar. The film was unable to add anything worthy of the initial concept. It eventually loses all epic sensibilities, a casualty of spending far too much time on the character relationships. Indeed, ‘Wall-E,’ a film I felt was passable entertainment, looks a lot better now that I’ve seen ‘Up.’
-----On the brighter side of things, the movie does what it attempts to on an emotional scale, and with character development. I’ve already mentioned my immense enjoyment with the animation, and there is even some quality humor in the beginning. I love that Dug the talking dog is stupid, in what may be the most accurate portrayal ever of what goes on inside a K-9’s head. However, this leads to another fault I find in the filmmaking, because all of the other dogs are typical talking dogs as frequently seen in movies. They are slightly, though surely, more intelligent, and this all but ruins the fact that Dug is funny because he’s like a real dog. And while many will be able to relate to the somewhat tragic Carl and Russell, I personally, could not.
-----Other than the superb animation, there are a few other technical aspects that either help, or hinder the film in my opinion. The musical score for instance, I did not enjoy. This is a movie about an old man flying his house away, and yet 90% of the music is soft piano work that just aids in providing the already sentimental mood, and rarely adds anything to the fun side of ‘Up.’ The cinematography however, is rather entertaining. The effective use of bizarre animated landscapes that the film was built on is indeed one of the film’s finer touches.
-----Despite all of my opinions, I think I’m one of the very rare people that won’t love this film. On that basis, I encourage you to see it if it sounds like your kind of movie. I just miss the days when Pixar’s primary objective was to entertain you with an original story. Every film seemed to be connected to a greater universe in its own way back in the earlier days of Pixar, while now there’s just thoughtful entries more worried about allegory than entertainment. I still enjoyed ‘Up,’ however, thanks to some of the early humor and spectacular visuals. The final scenes too, are undeniably heartfelt, and that’s something you don’t come by much in modern cinema. When all is said and done, it is not Pixar’s epic return to glory that I had hoped for. In spite of this, ‘Up’ is still able to effectively maintain the Pixar tradition of providing a product worth seeing, but in this case only once or twice.
-----Oscar Watch: ‘Up’ WILL WIN the OSCAR for Best Animated Feature. Despite winning by default for its association with Pixar alone, it’s hardly the best yet to come from the acclaimed studio. What I’m really excited for is Pixar’s return to its roots with ‘Toy Story 3,’ and another promising sequel from the end of Pixar’s golden era, ‘Cars 2.’
-----Tidbit: Tough year for animated movies so far. While I liked ‘Monsters vs. Aliens,’ it lacked ample character development. ‘Up,’ on the other hand, lacked a continuous fun factor. That means that two of the most promising animated films of the year have more or less fallen short of any chance of making my Top Ten Films of 2009 list.
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