The amazing thing about Pixar films, and the main reason why their films are so consistently excellent, is that those responsible for the stories–and it’s all about story–know how to be poignant without being mawkishly sentimental. And so it is with Up, directed by Pete Docter, a film that is so heart-wrenchingly poignant that even as the wee ones will have their funny bones tickled, the grandparents taking them to the theater will have tears streaming down their faces.
I was sold after the stunningly brilliant prologue, about five to ten minutes that could have been a short film of its own. We meet Carl, a young boy who dreams of adventure, and worships an explorer who disappears in South America. He meets a kindred soul, a spunky girl named Ellie, and they share their love of adventure. We see as they get married, move into a house, have the heartbreak of learning they can’t have children, and grow old together. They both work at the zoo–he as a balloon salesman, she as a zookeeper in the South America exhibit, and they dream of visiting a mysterious place there called Paradise Falls, where the legendary explorer of their youths collected exotic specimens. But unexpected things happen, and they never get there, as Ellie dies and leaves Carl in their beloved house.
As the action of the film proper begins, Carl’s house is surrounded by new construction. He’s held out and won’t sell and move into a rest home, but after an altercation with a construction worker he’s court-ordered out. Not going quietly into that good night, he attaches his house to thousands of balloons, and drifts off into the heavens. Being a Disney film, there’s a catch–he has a stowaway, an over-eager and lonely Wilderness Explorer named Russell (not a Boy Scout, interestingly) who needs one more badge to be promoted: the assisting the elderly badge.
Eventually Carl takes the boy in and they drift to South America, where they find some grand adventures, including a giant bird that Russell names Kevin, a maniacal villain, a blimp, and most amusingly, a pack of dogs that have been outfitted with collars that translate their thoughts into English. The collar for the Alpha dog, a Doberman, doesn’t work right and he sounds like Alvin the Chipmunk.
Deciding what Pixar film is the best is a little like deciding what your favorite flavor of ice cream is, i.e., virtually impossible. Suffice it to say that Up is right there with both Toy Story films, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and Wall-E. Up is both a fantastic adventure yarn (a better title might have been The Spirit of Adventure, rather than the prepositionally prosaic Up) and is a beautifully wrought poem of a life-long love affair. There’s a scene at the end in which Carl looks through a picture album that is as touching as anything I’ve seen in a film in a long time, and reminds me of the scene in The Grapes of Wrath when Ma Joad looks over the valuables she’s forced to dispose of.
All that remains for Pixar, a complaint that Manohla Dargis made a few weeks ago in the Times, is to have a female protagonist (after Ellie dies, there is no female presence in this film). The only one I can think of is Elastigirl in The Incredibles, and she’s really second-fiddle to Mr. Incredible. I’m confident that when they get around to this it will be well worth the wait.
Gone Elsewhere 
I see from Wikipedia that after Toy Story 3 and Cars 2, 2011 will see The Bear and the Bow, which has a female protagonist (and a female director). Progress marches on.
Fantastic review. Very much look, even more, forward to seeing the film now.
Saw it, Loved it….POINT!
It seems an odd request for a reviewer to make – almost like requiring some sort of quota. There have been many of females that are very close to true co-stars in Pixar films, just not one exclusively in the leading role. A Bug’s Life was about Flik but featured strong females in the Queen, Princess Atta, the butterfly lady as mentor (not to mention Dot). TS2 had Jessie while Nemo had Dory sharing almost as much screen time as Marlin (and she got the best laughs and best line delivery – “I’m home” gets me every time, great reading by Ellen).
There’s really no need to ask Pixar to do anything differently. They are maturing on their own and coming up with better things than most of us can imagine.
Saw it and liked it, but I can’t help but feel a nagging twinge of disappointment.
I’ve thought for awhile now that Pixar’s greatest success is not with story, as so many people say, but rather with character. They create wonderful characters, and then send them on adventures that often feel slightly arbitrary (note: not true of The Incredibles or either Toy Story film), not in any kind of tragic way, but still.
Here, though, the story is flat weak. The Carl/Ellie prologue was as beautiful a sequence as I’m likely to see in the movies this year, and there were other terrific moments here and there. But then there’s a lot of a guy walking around with a house tied to his back. I couldn’t help but feel that they got the characters to South America, and then had a big collective “what now?” moment. Things zig and zag so often, but not usually in any way that makes much difference in the greater scheme of things. It’s probably their least cohesive movie, in terms of tone, save for the opening third of Cars.
And adding to that was that the characters were not quite as compelling as some of their best characters. I didn’t feel that Carl went much beyond a stock “grumpy old man” character, and I honestly didn’t have much use for Russell at all.
Plus, I didn’t understand their character designs. They both seemed so crudely and primitively drawn, and I don’t know why they went in that direction, stylistically. Russell especially has to be the most generic and least expressive character they’ve ever animated.
Interestingly, I thought the best, most original character in the film was Dug. He was just so … dog-like, I guess, in a way that I found both hysterically funny and strangely poignant. I liked the other dogs, too – and seriously, how bizarre (in a good, funny way) is the whole dog element in this movie? – but I could watch an entire movie about Dug.
I also liked “Partly Cloudy.” My snap reaction is that it’s probably my second-favorite Pixar short, behind Boundin’. Very sweet, in a way that made me think about being a parent. That probably seems like a strange reaction but there it is.
So again, I liked the movie, but it feels like lower-tier Pixar for me as of now, probably only above Cars.
I don’t think it’s unusual for a woman like Dargis to wonder why a film studio has not told a story about a gender who makes up half of nature. Disney is finally getting around to doing a film about black characters (The Princess and the Frog). Yes, they’ve had supporting characters that are female, but that’s not the same as a female heroine.
I just think it shows proper restraint on Pixar’s part. I would guess John, Pete, Andrew, Brad etc… aren’t comfortable trying to explain things properly from a female perspective. Fish, toys, robots, bugs & rats are all things that can be studied and we can usually come to a general consensus on the matter. But who has understood the complex infrastructure known as the female mind? Pixar strikes me as an entity that wants to get the story (and character) right or not do it at all…
And speaking of ice cream, I’ve been to Fenton’s Creamery in Oakland (adjacent to Emerville where Pixar is). It’s good stuff and I’m sure the animators scored themselves some freebies after its inclusion.
EDIT: I guess they did.
Mebbe so, but lots of male writers and filmmakers have created great female characters, starting with Shakespeare (Juliet, Cleopatra, Viola, Rosalind, Kate, etc). Almost all films were directed and written by men for decades but there were great films from the female point of view, from Scarlett O’Hara to Hannah and Her Sisters. Hell, even Disney had heroines, like Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. Why couldn’t Nemo have been searched for by his mother? Why couldn’t Remy have been a female rat? Why couldn’t Russell in Up been a girl? It seems odd that one particular studio, which makes great films, would consistently stick with the boys club mentality. That they haven’t attempted to see things from the female point of view signifies, to me, a failure of nerve (or a cynical eye on the bottom line, surrending to the marketing department telling them that boys won’t buy merchandise based on female characters).
I’m going to try the impossible and rank the Pixar films (my opinion only, of course):
1. Toy Story 2
2. The Incredibles
3. Wall-E
4. Up
5. Finding Nemo
6. Toy Story
7. Ratatouille
8. Monsters, Inc.
9. A Bug’s Life
10. Cars
Am I missing any?
1. The Incredibles
2. Finding Nemo
3. Toy Story 2
4. Ratatouille
5. Toy Story
6. Wall-E
(big gap)
7. Monsters, Inc
8. A Bug’s Life
9. Up
(big gap)
10. Cars
1. Finding Nemo
2. The Incredibles
3. Ratatouille
4. Wall-E
5. Toy Story 2
6. Up
7. Toy Story
8. A Bug’s Life
9. Monsters, Inc
10. Cars
One of the reasons I think Finding Nemo is so high for me is because the imagry of the ocean was phenominal where the Incredibles doesn’t really have that element. But I think the same thing about Wall-E and the universe, except that half of the film took place on the ship/Earth.
As for Up, I also think the first part of the film was great. It nearly brought a tear to my eye. The rest of the film had it’s moments, but I thought the villain was a little forced and extreme for a kids film. Poor girl behind us cried a lot because she was scared.
I liked Partly Cloudy. Somehow the whole thing seemed very familiar to me, but I can’t put my finger on it.
Regarding Partly Cloudy, I liked it fine, but was interested in how retro it looked. Except that it was done with computers instead of hand-painted, it had the look and feel of a forties cartoon. This is due mostly to the quaint use of storks as baby-deliverers. How many parents tell their kids that babies are brought by the stork these days? With sex education in schools, not many I’m guessing. Some kids were probably pretty confused by the whole set-up.
If they’ve been properly raised on the Disney canon they would have been introduced to the stork as early as Dumbo (which, incidentally, was released in the 40’s) being delivered to Mrs. Jumbo with a song and everything.
I don’t know any parent, even when I was growing up, who told their kids that babies are delivered by stork. It’s always been a fantastical animation metaphor for me…
Joe (Respectfully): What?
Huh? I was following up Slim’s wondering about kids being confused by the “Stork delivers baby” storyline…
The rally cry grows slightly louder: http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2009/06/dear_pixar_from_all_the_girls.html
Now that I’ve finally seen this, allow me to join in the Pixar ranking a full year late:
1. Toy Story 2
2. The Incredibles
3. Wall E
4. Up
5. Toy Story
6. Finding Nemo
7. Ratatouille
8. Monsters, Inc
9. Cars
10. A Bug’s Life