Up

There was a time not that long ago when the combination of Disney and Pixar meant you were getting the best quality writing and animation of the time. They were innovators at a time when computer animation was still being figured out. Toy Story was a huge success, and not just because it was done in an animation style no one had really seen before on that scale. If that were the case, it wouldn’t hold up anymore after thirty years of animation improvements. It was a well-written film, and people responded to that. This would be further expanded upon with the sequel, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., and even Cars. But none of these films cracked the coveted Best Picture category at the Academy Awards. However, when the Academy announced a new Best Animated Picture Oscar, Pixar was consistently on the ballot, winning nearly every time. 

Then in 2009, Pixar leaped over the Best Animated Feature Oscar and got one of their films on the ballot for Best Picture. They would do it again the following year with Toy Story 3, but in 2009, the film that finally got them there was Up, a comedy adventure drama about growing old and fulfilling your dreams. The opening of the film would be heralded as one of the most emotional animated segments in film history and said a lot without relying on a stitch of dialogue. It set the stage for what we were going to experience, and I’m willing to say, probably was the reason it got that nomination in the first place. The film as a whole is amazing and heartwarming, but none of the rest of it quite lives up to those early scenes. 

The film opens with ten-year-old Carl Fredrickson (Ed Asner) sitting in a movie theater watching a film reel about his idol, famed explorer Charles Muntz (Christopher Plummer). In the reel, he learns that Muntz was disgraced when he presented the fossil of a giant bird, and it was declared a fake. Muntz vows to travel back to Paradise Falls in South America and bring back living proof of the bird. On his way home, Carl meets Ellie, a young girl who shares in his passion for exploring. Over the years, the two fall in love and eventually marry. 

When they try to have children, though, Ellie discovers that she cannot. So instead, they set aside their money to make that trip to Paradise Falls they always wanted to take. But, as it often does, life gets in the way, and their savings, represented by a glass jar filled with change, always ends up having to pay for repairs or medical procedures. Before they know it, they have gotten old and have never made that trip. Then Ellie gets sick and passes away. The world moves on, and city planning is trying to force Carl out of his home in the name of progress. When he loses his temper and strikes a city worker, it looks like he will be forced out of his home and into a retirement facility. 

Instead, he gets a brilliant idea. He attaches a large amount of helium balloons to his home and lifts it right off the ground. Afloat, he can now steer it south and take his home to Paradise Falls, a loving tribute to his lost wife. Unfortunately, he has picked up an unintended stowaway. Russell (Jordan Nagai), a Wilderness Explorer scout trying to earn his Assisting the Elderly merit badge, was on the porch at takeoff and is now his traveling companion. Unable to return the young man, Carl is resigned to taking him along for the trip.

Upon arrival at Paradise Falls, Carl is surprised to find that Charles Muntz is still there and still obsessed with capturing the bird. Russell has befriended one of the birds, naming it Kevin, but when Carl discovers that Charles has grown obsessive and has ill intent for the bird’s species, he and Russell flee, along with Kevin and one of Charles’ dogs, Dug, who is lovable and excitable and always being underestimated by the other dogs. 

This is really two different stories sandwiched together into one. The first story is Carl and Ellie and their ideal adventure to Paradise Falls. This is the part of the story that has all of the heart and emotions. Once Carl and Russell make it to Paradise Falls, it turns into an action/adventure picture and it loses some of the emotion. To compensate, a generous dose of visual humor has been incorporated. We get the dogs, given voice collars so that they can speak out loud, who are predictably over the top, including the alpha whose voice box is constantly malfunctioning and giving him a high-pitched voice in contrast to his imposing figure. While this stuff works well for the young ones in the audience, it doesn’t play as well for the adults who were jiving on the emotional impact of the earlier scenes. 

Grounding this whole affair is Ed Asner, who is voicing Carl as if he were your average grandfather. You get the feeling that he only ever loved Ellie, and now that she is gone from his life, he is lost and lonely. We got only the early montage sequence to get to know what he was like as an adult in his early years, and so all we really see of him is late in his life when he has gotten bitter and angry. It’s a very believable performance that is so reminiscent of my father-in-law, both physically and emotionally, that it’s uncanny. We can also see a little of ourselves in him because we know that if we were to lose our one and only love, it might lead to us being the exact same way. There aren’t even children to help him get through that loss. The film never addresses whether adoption was even an option, but I guess that might muddy up the themes a little. 

Having Russell dealing with an often absent father plays into these themes, too. Russell really doesn’t have a father to go back to in this story. He lives with Phyllis, who isn’t his mother, but we aren’t told exactly what she is, either. Is she his stepmother, an aunt, or his father’s girlfriend? We don’t get told, nor does it really matter. With the father out of the picture in some capacity, Carl becomes a surrogate father whether he wants to or not. 

By the time we get to the end of the film, Carl has a kid he can look after and a dog. He has learned to open himself up again after being closed down for so long, too. The old saying “You can’t pick family” doesn’t really apply here. While Carl starts out wanting nothing more than to chase this annoying kid away from his doorstep, by the end, he is willing to risk his life to save him. 

Pete Docter, who also directed Monsters, Inc., wrote Toy Story and was a co-writer on WALL-E before moving on to helm Up full-time, proves once again that he understands emotions and what drives people to do the things they do. Carl is a cranky old man, but we understand his character because we saw him before he grew into that old man. We understand his love for Ellie because we saw them long before that point. We don’t have to be told that they love each other because it is so perfectly shown, even if it is mostly in that montage. One could believe that Ellie is guiding things from the afterlife, putting people in place to help Carl find his purpose in life again. 

Their house has become a memorial for his dead wife. It’s the last thing he is clutching onto in life that he has of her. The concept of tying on thousands of balloons to the house and flying it to Paradise Falls may seem ludicrous, but it is his way to fulfill their dreams while taking this shrine of her with him. Those who are keen-eyed and paying attention will realize early on that he will have to let it go at some point in order to move on with his life. How that happens, however, will have to be discovered as this film takes you through that journey. 

While the adventure part of the film isn’t nearly as compelling as the emotional journey, it is satisfying in the same way a film like The Mummy or Indiana Jones is. It’s exciting, funny, and makes good use of Charles Muntz’s airship, which looks like a basic Zeppelin on the outside but is unforgettable once you see the interior. This final third is action-forward, but it isn’t mindless frenetic action; Pete Docter is far too good of a filmmaker to let it descend into that. It boils down to two old men battling for meaning in their lives and one of them finding it in the form of a new family. And to seal that theme, it ends with just that, a young boy earning his badge and an old man there to proudly present it to him. 

Academy Award Nominations:

Best Picture: Jonas Rivera

Best Original Screenplay: Peter Docter, Bob Peterson, and Tom McCarthy

Best Animated Feature: Pete Docter (won)

Best Original Score: Michael Giacchino (won)

Best Sound Editing: Tom Myers and Michael Silvers

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Release Date: May 29, 2009

Running Time: 96 minutes

Rated PG

Starring: Ed Asner, Christopher Plummer, Jordan Nagai, and Bob Peterson

Directed by: Pete Docter