I saw Pixar's "Up" on Monday night. I saw it in 3d on the DLP screen at the AMC16 in Woodland Hills. I did not write about it immediately because I wanted to give it a bit of time to digest in my gut and gestate in my mind.
After several days of consideration, I am largely in agreement with the critics. It is another Pixar classic. However, it is not my favorite. It is certainly not as good or entertaining as Wall-e and The Incredibles. The Incredibles was the most fun I ever had watching a movie. Wall-e was an unexpected scifi masterpiece, and also a weepy sentimental romance between two robots. I loved both aspects of Wall-e. This could be the most unlikely combo of affects since the original Blade.
I should mention, in passing, that if you had told me before I saw Blade that I would love a move about a black vampire, biker, Samurai, martial artist, who killed bad vampires... I would have told you you were crazy. That is the most unlikely combo of affects ever to work in the history of film.
But I digress. Back to the subject of Up.
Up is a movie about a nice, shy, somewhat grumpy old man whose dearly beloved wife has died. He was a shy and nerdy kid. He had the good fortune to meet his soul mate early in life and live long number of years with her. But now she is dead, and he is grief struck.
Carl Fredricksen is driven by grief throughout the course of this movie. Everything he does in the first half of the movie is motivated by grief. He bitterly regrets not doing all the things he and his beloved wife Ellie always wanted to do during their lives. He regrets that she died with wishes unfulfilled. He regrets that they died without children. It's wrenching as he reads through her childhood diary titled "Stuff I am going to do" and he knows she never did it.
As a result of this... and a little something else. He launches his airborne house on an adventure to Paradise Falls, South America. This phase of movie follows a pretty crazy acid-trip, dream logic. This clashes with the first 10-15 minutes which are realistic montage. Like most, I believe this opening 10-15 minute sequence is the most powerful portion of this movie. It is pretty close to flawless, and pretty overwhelming.
The remainder of the movie is less perfect. Along the way we run into dogs who talk with the aid of computerized collar, dogs who fly biplanes, dogs who cook and serve human diners, etc. This is not unprecedented for a cartoon, but it feels weird in the context of this motion picture.
Ultimately, on this road-trip, Fredricksen is letting go of the past, and embracing the future. He dies to the past, and is reborn to the future. Like a snake who must shed his skin and harden a new one, Fredricksen has to cast off the trappings of his former life so he can construct a new life without Ellie. It is happy and good that he succeeds. It is painful to watch along the way.
On the way a childhood hero is unmasked as a bad guy, Carl usurps control of the hero's mantel, he lets go of the house he lived in with Ellie for all those years, planting it where he said he would at Paradise Fallse South America.
So, how do I rate it? It's an A- effort. Its good. Damn good. But ultimately, it is too sad to be much fun. They front load the pain too. You get the "Dumbo's mom in jail" scene pretty early in this film. I don't know about you, but this one hit me like a ton of bricks... Real unexpected like. From that moment forward, the shadow of death and grief overhangs every second of this film. It is not until the very end that you are sure Mr Fredricksen has made the transition to a new stage of life.
Mr. Fredricksen is one of the lucky ones. Most old men die within a month of their wives, if the wife goes first. That says a lot about men. If you know that much, you know what kind of pain this shy old man is going through.
Many critics commented that this is Pixar's funniest comedy. I have to take issue with that statement. I deny that. I didn't find it very funny at all. The audience cackled with laughter throughout. I found it surprising--if not untoward--that they would laugh so freely given the extremely somber theme and tone set by the first 10-15 minutes. Perhaps they did not comprehend the theme of this movie. That is common, and happens often enough.
I found the situations humorous at best. At best, I laughed out loud twice. Mostly when Doug achieved victory over Alpha.
Ultimately I would rate this movie no higher than 4th place on my list of favorite Pixar movies. The Incredible still beats out Wall-e by a quarter-point. Ratatouille takes 3rd place. Then we can talk about Up.
I saw the movie in 3d, meaning I wore the glasses throughout the film. I saw very little pop out of the screen at me. As is always the case, 3d is not well exploited here. Don't bother. See it in 2d.
