Showing Up: Pixar's 'UP' - A Review Round Up

Friday 23 October 2009

Pixar's 'UP' - A Review Round Up

Pixar’s Up is undoubtedly the best film (of any type) you are likely to see this year. It’s so good I’m at a bit of a loss to know where to begin, so here’s a few quotes

Not The Usual ‘Disney’ Morality

I always love how Pixar subverts the common kid’s movie morality or storytelling, and this was no exception…How often do we hear, “hang on to your dreams and believe in yourself”? Yet this little Disneyism would define the bad guy in UP, not the good guy.

Greg@RabbitRoom.Com

Two of the three central characters are cranky old men, which is a wonder in this era…"Up" doesn't think all heroes must be young or sweet, although the third important character is a nervy kid...who, for once, isn't smarter than all the adults.

RogerEbert

‘That’ Opening Sequence

The opening montage of the man and his wife was one of the most well created bits of film-making I have ever seen, I think– at least as far as animation is concerned. I honestly can’t think of anything that comes close to touching that. In the span of what couldn’t be more than five minutes, you walk through an entire marriage, it’s up’s and downs– real stuff too, not corny. And they do it all without saying a single word.

Russ Ramsey@RabbitRoom.Com

The wordless ten-minute (ten!?) montage of Carl Fredricksen’s life at the beginning of the movie is a far more touching, beautiful, and real love story than any romance movie you’ll see this year.

Dave@BannaneryPublic.Com

I hadn’t heard or seen anything about the opening 15 minutes (keeps getting longer folks!) which included the “silent movie” life flashing past your eyes. It was like getting knocked over by a ton of bricks…even though you only saw Carl’s wife for a few minutes…she was someone you came to love. And that made her passing that much more sad...Boy did I bawl.

Jim A.@RabbitRoom.Com

The Trust Of An Audience

I watched the crowd filter in and find their seats and I wondered at what an eclectic pilgrimage they were. Young boys and girls came hand in hand all covered in blushes, laughter and delight. They came in families, by the dozens, herding children with candy and eyes peeled wide. Groups of young men sauntered in adorned with attitudes like costume jewelry, their pants slung low and clattering with chains. Elderly couples stepped down the aisles deliberate and slow to settle themselves patiently into their seats. The middle-aged, the old-aged, and the barely aged at all filled the theater and hushed to hear the whisper when the lights went low. What a privilege it is to have the trust of your audience. Such is Pixar’s legacy that people who would otherwise turn up their nose at a mere ‘cartoon’ came in droves to fill the house based on the trust of a studio’s name alone. It’s a precious and delicate thing.

Pete Peterson@RabbitRoom.Com

“What thrilled me about the movie…was the obvious care taken in producing it. The people at Pixar are like potters…They obviously love what they do…I thought it was a beautiful piece, indeed”.

Marcus Hong@RabbitRoom.Com

I'll leave the (almost) last word to Dave@BannaneryPublic.Com

Here’s my frustration with Pixar: they’ve ruined so many movies for me. Not their own movies—other studios’ movies. They keep pumping out one great animated movie after another, so by now I’ve foolishly begun to associated computer animation with high-quality movies. Naturally, then, when I watch a movie like Monsters vs. Aliens, it ends up being pretty disappointing, because there’s no depth or maturity or plot behind the formulaic humor and self-empowerment follow-your-dreams schmaltz.

Up is a computer-generated movie about an old man flying to an imaginary land in a totally impractical vessel—a house suspended under thousands of helium-filled balloons. Yet it feels much more real than nearly any adventure movie you’ve ever seen...

...What all this means is that I am now a slave to Pixar for life. From now on, I will have to go see every movie of theirs in theaters as soon as it is released…

here’s my recommendation for Disney: hand Pixar two bags full of money with dollar signs on the side, and tell them to make whatever movies they want to make.