Since their inception with Toy Story, Pixar Animated features have been a constant critical and commercial success. Starting with Ratatouille a few years ago the Animation production powerhouse seemed to have been unsatisfied with mere animation domination. It seems they want to add layers of intelligence and depth to their creations for all out movie domination of the WORLD!!! Well, judging by the scale of story-telling ability on display with last year's Wall-E, and now Up...that's how it appears.
As usual with a Pixar production the CGI is a detailed yet beautifully stylised buddy movie; the performances staggeringly nuanced and the voice cast perfect fits for their computer created counterparts. It's a fantastical tale of an old widower Carl, who realises a life long dream of travelling to the wilds of South America, by tying lots of party balloons to his house. Along for the ride is boy scout Russell.
The entertainment level on show from Pixar should no longer be surprising. It has humour abound (the talking dogs being particularly amusing), tense action sequences (the airborne rescue of giant bird Kevin) and characters you can't help but emphasise with. What IS surprising is the depth of emotions the film delves to. The opening sequence, which sets up Carl's background story, is extremely moving. We see where his love of adventure came from, the introvert he once was as a child and Ellie, the girl he met, married and adored. What got me choked up is the death of Ellie (remarkably subtle in it's presentation in just two, wordless shots) and the subsequent references to her absence (Carl's lonely glances at Ellie's empty chair).
But this being Pixar, Carl and Russell (who longs for a parental figure that gives a shit) realise it's each others friendship, not the adventure itself, that's worth living for. Feel good film-making of the highest order...long may it continue. Dreamworks are content to produce solid populist fluff while Fox just shit out an Ice Age every few years. Someone has to show them the way. And that way is Up!
