Up

Just a quick mid-week film review as I caught Disney Pixar‘s Up tonight with Tracey in Bradford.

Plot-in-a-nutshell: grumpy old man decides to get away from it all by inflating a bazillion balloons and floating his house to South America. A young “wilderness scout” accidentally tags along. Adventure ensues.

I won’t wax lyrical about the visuals. Typically of Pixar they’re simply superb with every tiny detail adding to the depth of the film – moreso if you watch it in 3D, I assume. To give you a level of the attention to detail, watch the bad guy’s eye twitch when Russel slides past his airship.

What makes Up stand out from other Pixar movies is the depth of information about the characters, and how emotionally involved the storyline is. If you thought that Nemo being torn away from his father was tear-jerking, just you wait till Russell tries to explain about his father. Or when “grumpy” Carl rewards hi mat the end.

Topping the bill, though, is a 5-minute introduction to Carl Fredricksen. The movie opens with a sequence lasting a couple of minutes with Carl as a young boy and then moves onto what could be a short film in itself. This absolutely enchanting five-or-so minutes is played purely to music and takes us through Carl’s life up until the point where the film proper starts. And if your eyes don’t moisten by the end of it, you’re a cruel monster.

I’d not rank Up as being quite as entertaining as the likes of Cars or Monsters Inc. However, as an actual film is beats anything else they’ve done hands down, purely due to the emotional involvement.

Great as that is, however, the kids will still be asking for Finding Nemo to be shoved on repeat on the DVD player rather than this one come the middle of next year.