5 out of 5

Directors: Pete Docter, Bob Peterson

There’s unanimous praise for this flick, so nothing new to add, but Up was HORRIBLE AND I DONT UNDERSTAND STAR SYSTEM 5 STARS IS BAD RIGHT Yar, best friends. Okay. Up is unique not only amongst the animated genre but in the Pixar stable as well. Pixar has made a business of intelligent and non-pandering kid-friendly animated fare, which has helped to spawn a little nest of acceptable CGI films that adults and kids enjoy. But even amongst the upper tier there’s some eye-rolling, and some celebrity pop-song inclusion that we shrug off because it has to be fun for the chitlins… and then Up comes along to remind us of an older era of animation, when things were allowed to be both goofy and sad, and to be written, essentially, for adults, but with maturity in the script to balance it for kids. We join Carl as a youngster, obsessed with a defamed explorer. When Carl meets a young lass who shares the same obsession, it cues a montage of their bonding, falling in love, marriage, and eventual death of his wife and Carl’s retreat into isolation. This opening is played amazingly, with gorgeous pacing and skill from directors and animators, displaying a wide range of events and emotion in an understandable and realistic fashion. What’s also nice is that Carl is not played as your stereotypical grumpy old man. He relates to his house like it is a part of his life, and though isolated, still remains active in his own way. Various machinations interject to send Carl – and his house, supported by a whole bunch of balloons – in search of where he and his wife always wanted to go… where the defamed explorer disappeared. The reconnection with life and letting go of the past are not new themes, but Pixar does it incredibly well. And there’s not much more to add. It connects on so many levels and makes you laugh, and reaches a new peak in terms of honesty in presentation (not over-cuteifying things, but just enough).