Once a year, Pixar presents to us its latest animated marvel, and does it in spectacular new ways focusing each movie on a different aspect of design. Toy Story was based around the design of the toys: the character models and recreating real life objects. Finding Nemo was made so that they could practise water effects. Cars was obviously for the cars, the parts of them and the way light reflects off of them. Monsters Inc. was for the fur so they could fine-tune their creation of the individual hairs to make the monsters look real. The Incredibles was for the special effects involved in utilising their super powers. The list goes on. This time around: the focus was on the colour palettes: ranging from the film noir pre-movie movie sequence; to the vibrant colour schemes used for the balloons and the lush environments. Yes ladies and gentlemen, this is Up.
The story begins when our protagonist Carl Frederickson is a child, watching a black and white movie of his hero Charles Muntz: a brave explorer who travelled all the way to South America in his blimp/dirigible/zeppelin named 'The Spirit of Adventure'. Inspired by what he has witnessed, the young Carl runs out of the movie theatre imagining that he too is a world-class explorer. He is running/flying his imaginary plane; his 'The Spirit of Adventure' balloon billowing in the wind; quoting his idol, when suddenly he hears someone else doing the same. He goes to examine, and finds a girl: flying an imaginary blimp. What follows is both sentimental and heart-warming, as Carl and Ellie make a pact that one day, they will go to Paradise Falls like Charles Muntz, and live there, leading to a flashback sequence showing their long and happy lives together, building up to a melancholy and tragic conclusion. We then come to the present, where construction workers are trying to knock down Carl's house in order to make way for something new, like a mall. A series of unfortunate events (hooray for references to other movies/books) lead to him being exiled from his house and forced into a home for the elderly. Refusing to give up on his and his wife's dreams, Carl lets loose thousands of amazingly vibrant coloured balloons: enough to lift his house from the ground and carry it away! What ensues is a fantastic adventure that spans the glorious jungles, rocky monuments and towering mountains of South America - involving our aged protagonist, a boy named Russell, a dog named Doug, a mother bird named Kevin, and a whole host of other weird and wonderful characters.
The skillful design work and animation is here, as ever, with traditional Pixar character models roaming the lush environments, with every hair acting independantly of one another; every weave in the fabric and the furniture easily visible. Everything is perfect, and everything has its own place and purpose. The time and effort that must have gone into making this movie is phenomenal, and it all came together really well to create the fantastic end piece. The lighting is spectacular: the way shadows fall in certain places at certain times; how the vibrant colours of the balloons affect the way the lights work. It is truly incredible how realistic the unorthodox can be. How amazingly lifelike the blatantly fake can appear. The animation is practically flawless: the way objects and the environment react to goings on. Just the way that the characters generally live, breathe and act almost as if they were real. As if they were true people, and this is a true portrayal of the characters by real, professional actors. It's truly quite astonishing. The way they've managed to get the characters to lip-sync imitate what the brilliant voice actors are saying is stunning.
The music is a part of the creation of this film that I could drone on and on about for ages, as it always sets the scene perfectly, and portrays exactly the right emotion; you know exactly what the creators want you to feel, and when they want you to feel it, as everything is there to make it what it wants to be. It tugs at your heart-strings, makes you laugh, makes you cry - and it does it at exactly the right moment. It knows exactly where people will get upset, it knows when they will be joyous, sentimental and even thrilled, and it shows it through the music. It's catchy tunes and melancholy melodies the like of which you're unlikely to have heard before are amazingly powerful and are just the type you would expect to hear in a Pixar movie.
One thing which amazed me the first time I saw this movie was the death. For the first time - I believe - ever, Pixar has decided to tackle genuine tragedy, and how the loss of the most important thing in a man's life can completely ruin him. You truly feel the sadness, and the sentiment is expertly masterminded to the poinr where empathising with these characters just isn't an option. You have no choice but to sit, entranced by the movie's goings on, and you can feel your heart twisting and turning as the film gallops its many ups and downs, as the lump in your throat gets bigger and bigger.
Tragedy isn't the only thing that is dealt with however; as ever the movie is filled to the brim with Pixar's trademark humour and originality, and it's easy to see the points where laughter was intended, as there are no points where you sit there and think "Am I supposed to be laughing? Is this really supposed to be amusing me?" In fact, you have very little time to think anything at all, as you will be captivated, even engrossed by this wonderful piece of cinema.
To conclude, I would just like to say how strongly I recomment this movie. There are not enough words to describe how much I urge you to watch this film as soon as humanly possible. The sheer amount of subjects it tackles in one approximately two hour slot is phenomenal, as you will at times feel sad, happy, sorrowful, joyful, sentimental and understanding.There's tragedy, humour, shocks, thrills and so much more to experience. There's death, old-age, whining children, ever-changing society, the unorthodox, talking dogs, nonsencical creatures and a giant she-bird named Kevin! I believe what ever your tastes, there's something for everybody in Up: especially for those that are fans of Pixar's previous works. I have enjoyed all of Pixar's movies, and will continue to enjoy them as and when they're released. I completely believe that children and adults, young and old will enjoy this stunning film, and you should really take the opportunity to watch it as soon as possible.
So there you have it. I'm not sure what I think of it. It's a decent piece, but it's rather ridiculously over-exaggerated. I guess I was just gushing because I love Pixar, and because it was an assessment so I wanted to pack it with as much as I could. Either way, it's not bad, and it's over a year old, so you can't really complain I guess.
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