Review: Up
Nothing short of amazing; if you think Pixar’s luck is up with this, you are wrong (it’s luck is up with Cars 2). It’s hard to rank this among other Pixar films because it’s perfect on it’s own merits, but if I had to, it would rank at #4, below WALL-E, Toy Story 2, and Toy Story. Then again, it’s best film yet of 2009 and leaps and bounds ahead of anything Dreamworks or Fox Animation churns bi-annually. The amount of effort and thought that was put into this shows through brilliantly and it deserves (at least) Best Animated Feature, and a Best Score nomination (done by Michael Giacchino (it’s amazing and catchy)). The cut I saw didn’t have credits yet, but you best believe there’s going to an original song playing over them. So, we have Carl Fredrickson, who appears to be a carmugeon of an old man; we find out soon why that is. Then there’s Carl’s childhood hero Muntz, the stowaway Russell, the ‘talking’ dog Dug, and the rare female pheasent Kevin, among others. I cannot stress enough how amazing and hilarious this ensemble is. At the most random of times, the thought ‘Kevin the Pheasant’ just pops into my head and I start laughing. I’ll be surprised if this doesn’t get PG; it’s pretty violent, and it’s very mature; the most mature Pixar’s ever done. The adult themes clash well with the comic adventure at hand, and the story is easy to follow and succinct. I don’t forsee any other movie this summer that has a chance of being better than this. I’ll definitely be seeing it again, at least twice; once in IMAX and in 3D (or both).
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Film
