Up

Since 1994, I have considered the opening sequence of The Lion King to be the best opening for an animated film. Today, that reign has ended, as the opening 10 or 15 minutes of Up easily trumps it. It's not a spectacle sequence, like the animals gathering to witness the birth of the royal cub, Simba. It is a quiet and reflective look at a relationship through the years. It is touching, funny, heartfelt, and ultimately tragic. It's a wonderful sequence, one you want to rewind and watch again as soon as it is over. The opening promises great things, and the movie that follows delivers.

The sequence centers on Carl Fredricksen and Ellie, two people who meet as children and are drawn together by their love of adventure and exploration, as well as a shared idolization of a famed explorer by the name of Charles Muntz (voice by Christopher Plummer). In a beautiful sequence told without dialogue (none is needed, as the haunting music score by Michael Giacchino tells us everything we need to know), we see Carl and Ellie's relationship blossom into love and eventually marriage. We witness their joy, their hardships, and most of all, the dreams that they lost together. And yet, their love stays strong through it all. By the end of the sequence, Carl is alone for the first time since he met Ellie. He is now an elderly man, who somewhat resembles a cartoon caricature of Walter Matthau, and is brought to gruff life by Ed Asner in a fantastic voice acting performance. Carl is a man deflated. His dreams are gone, and the only thing he has left (the house he built with Ellie) is in danger of being lost as well. Seeing no other option to save what little of his life he has left, he rigs his house up for flight with the aid of an impossible number of balloons, and a homemade system to steer its flight. The balloons lift Carl's house right off its foundation, and into the sky for a special destination - his last chance to fulfill the dreams he once shared with Ellie.

We've seen this in the trailers. We've also seen that Carl picks up an unexpected stowaway in the form of Russell (Jordan Nagai), a pudgy and eager little boy who is so devoted to his goal of becoming a true Wilderness Explorer Scout that he never takes off his uniform during the course of the film. What the trailers do not reveal (and that I will do my best not to spoil) is just how fantastic the adventure is that the two will experience. I hate using words like "fantastic" to describe what characters in a movie experience. I also hate to use the word "magical". And yet, those are the immediate words that spring to my mind when I think back on Up. This is a movie that is filled with more heart, poignancy, and adventure than any other movie you can name so far this year. It's almost starting to become a cliche to say it, but animation studio Pixar has outdone themselves once again. The movie is full of color, humor, emotion, adventure, and most of all, unforgettable characters who seem a lot more three dimensional than most animated (or live action) characters.

And no, I'm not talking about the fact that this is the first Pixar movie to be featured in 3D in select theaters. I'm talking about how each of the characters seem surprisingly human. Beyond the previously mentioned prologue that introduces us to Carl, we find a man who would prefer to shut himself away from the rest of the world, and just be with the memories his house holds. It's rare enough to have a 78-year-old man being the central focus of an animated family film, but to also have him be full of complex emotions proves that the filmmakers are truly aiming for a wide audience. Carl is not a sad-sack, however. He obviously still has a love of adventure, as proven by his decision to leave everything behind and take to the skies, and when he finds himself or any of his newfound friends in peril during the journey (besides Russell, he also befriends a long-lost prehistoric bird, and a dog named Dug who can speak his thoughts thanks to a mechanical collar), he's more than up to the challenge. I also enjoyed the relationship he develops with young Russell during the course of the film. Having never been able to have children with Ellie in the past, Carl becomes protective of the boy, and truly bonds with him during some of the film's most heartfelt moments.

I always know that I'm watching a truly great movie when I find myself wrapped up in the story being told. Not only was I wrapped up in the deceptively simple tale Up tells, but I also found myself admiring a lot of the design touches the artists threw in that show their devotion. The bountiful and beautifully rendered colored feathers of the giant bird who follows along on Carl's journey. The design of the massive airship Carl and his group discover halfway through the film, which looks like an ordinary blimp on the outside, but inside is a massive structure unlike anything we've seen. The wonderful imagery of Carl's first flight as the house lifts over the surrounding city. These are moments I won't soon be forgetting, and will watch again many times on DVD. It's easy to make a good looking CG film, but it's a lot harder to show us things we've never seen before in the movies. Director Pete Docter (Monsters Inc.) and the entire crew clearly let their imaginations soar here, and it creates the best experience at the movies I've had this year so far.

If I have been somewhat vague in describing the film and its wonders, it's intentional. I walked in with as little knowledge as possible, avoiding all previous reviews and articles, and walked out enthralled about the experience I had just had. This is the true definition of a family film, as it works on a number of levels for anyone who watches it. With most CG animated films these days being overhyped events or generic sequels to past hits, Up truly stands out as a wonder. It manages to be touching and poignant, almost poetic at times, while at other times being one of the funniest films the studio's put out in a while. How good is this movie? When it was over, I almost wanted to buy a ticket for the next showing, but other things prevented me. This is one of the great films of the year.

See the movie times in your area or buy the DVD at Amazon.com!

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