"Up" Movie Review -- "Up," the latest lovely fantasy from the artists at Disney's Pixar animation, it's a truly fantastic adventure -- a lighter-than-air daydream about a cranky widower (the voice of Ed Asner), a chubby boy and their amazing journey. No matter what else is released this year, at least one Best Animated Feature nomination -- if not the winner -- is already picked out. "Up" has a delightful prologue, set in the '30s, and the sort of slam-bang chase scene at the end that used to mark the "Wallace and Gromit" stories. It's a delight pretty much throughout. What's true genius, though, is a sequence about five minutes in, where Carl and Ellie -- the kids at the very beginning of the film -- grow up, get married and grow old. It's pure, visual filmmaking, without a word spoken -- just the haunting music of Michael Giacchino -- and it'll be talked about the way the first half-hour of "WALL-E" was discussed. The rest of this movie isn't quite at that perfect peak, but it's still great fun and inventive animation. Unlike most cartoons, which go for cutesy caricature, this one is practically a geometry lesson; ornery old man Carl is all squares and rectangles, pesky pudgy Russell a rolling mass of circles and ovals. The story -- from co-director Bob Peterson, who also wrote "Finding Nemo" -- has the elegant simplicity of a children's picture book, too. Forced to leave his house, a lonely retiree decides simply to take it with him. So, after tying thousands of balloons to it, he flies off to Peru -- not realizing, unfortunately, that he has an 8-year-old stowaway on board, intent on earning his Wilderness Explorer badge. Ed Asner provides Carl's voice and young Jordan Nagai does Russell's, and they're both effortlessly believable. Delightfully different, too. I mean, just look at them. A grumpy old man and a chunky Asian-American kid -- these are not a big studio's typical heroes. And heroes they become once they land in South America and find themselves facing an unexpected challenge from the past. It's here, perhaps, that the movie goes a little too far. A film that features a Victorian house sailing through the sky is magical enough -- adding an army of talking dogs is pushing things (never mind having those dogs then fly around in ancient biplanes). But there are plenty of bright silly things here, like a giant squawking bird that Russell soon takes, well, under his wing. And at least when the dogs do speak (courtesy of some sci-fi collars that translate their barks) they say all the stupid things you know your pet would (mostly excited chatter about squirrels, treats and tennis balls). None of these later scenes quite matches the grown-up artistry of that early, wordless sequence. But by the time the film reaches its final, breakneck chases, there's nothing to do but surrender happily to the excitement -- and cheer our unlikely heroes on. And I don't just mean that cranky senior citizen and his misfit friend. I mean the heroic band of animators who have spent the last 15 years or so -- with "Toy Story," with "The Incredibles," with "WALL-E" -- giving us back the giddy, guiltless joy of cartoons. There’s no doubt about it: Pixar has lost some of its luster. The animation studio used to be the company that could do no wrong, but following its first truly disappointing film—Cars 2—Pixar’s subsequent output has yet to receive the same universal acclaim that was previously almost guaranteed. This year’s Pixar release, Monsters University, has fared a bit better than Cars 2 and Brave as far as critical acclaim goes (I loved it), but there are still plenty who claim that the pic is not “up to snuff” with regards to the very high bar that the studio set in its initial run. One of the main complaints against Pixar in recent years is the studio’s new propensity for sequels. Now Pixar Studios President Ed Catmull says that the plan is to scale back on follow-ups in the near future, with the aim of making one original film a year and alternating sequels only every other year. Hit the jump for more. Prior to the brilliant Toy Story 3, Pixar had only made one sequel (Toy Story 2) out of a total of 10 films. But of the studio’s past four films, only one has been an original outing. Personally I think most of the flack that Pixar is getting has to do with just how bad Cars 2 was, but while the production-troubled Brave was in no way a terrible film, it didn’t necessarily feel like the Pixar we’ve come to expect. Pixar has been trying to release two films a year for some time now, and if you’ll recall the original plan was for both Brave and Monsters University to hit theaters last year. As of now, 2015 will see two Pixar films opening: Up director Pete Docter’s Inside Out on June 19th, and the aforementioned Finding Dory on November 25th. If that plan sticks, don’t expect to see another Pixar sequel or prequel until 2017. Fingers crossed for The Incredibles 2.

• published: 22 Nov 2014
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