Up

[Swarz]

After seeing 'Up' this afternoon in the cinema, I decided to visit here to see what the ol' forumers were ranting about the film, and after trawling through the first 5 pages of this section I'm shocked there's not a topic on this film.

 

So, I logon to wikipedia, read a bit of the blurb about the film, and scroll down to the reception bit. I didn't quite finish that section regretably, as my eyeballs fell out of their sockets when I saw that it had received an overwhelmingly positive rating of 98% on rotten tomatoes.

 

Now, it wasn't my shock at the rating which caused this optical catastrophe - the film unquestionably is deserving of acclaim - it was my surprise that others saw rated it as highly as I. So I wonder, how has such a magnificent film, recipient of such applause, evaded discussion here?

 

(although maybe there is and my visual difficulties are worse than I thought)

 

I recently ranted and raved about the opening credits of Watchmen - being a beautifully crafted montage, comprehensively summarising the multiple mini-stories of the novel which would have been too lengthy to play out during the course of the film. That said, if the opening credits of Watchmen were to be likened to a meal cooked by a Michelin star chef, the opening scenes of Up can only be likened in comparison to a meal cooked by a chef sporting two Michelin stars.

 

The magnificent tale unfolds after a chance meeting between a young boy and girl, both who idolise the same explorer, in an abandoned house which the female has turned into her 'clubhouse'. What follows in the minutes afterwards is an artistically crafted bard, showing the couples progress from marriage, through the key stages of their life. The beautiful detailing - I cannot stress enough. It's a true wonder that such craft should be carved into a film assumed to be aimed at the younger audience. How wrong this assumption is.

 

The opening scenes strike such a cord it's hard to force down the lump in the throat. It's the transference of life into the film that's so wonderful. It's not just a bunch of animated characters running around - you find yourself relating to them. The young couple, just freshly married. Moving into the old abandoned house. The renovation. Setting the aims and goals of what they wish to achieve. The desire to travel to distant lands. The couple laying on the grass, cloud-watching, combined with the cloudy-dream to have a child, and the heart-wrenching scenes when this impossibility becomes a reality. All the way through to the various 'spanner-in-the-work' moments of life; the burst tyre; the broken leg; the natural disaster, all hampering their long-term hopes and dreams. It's the realisation that life has suddenly passed you by, your initial goals unaccomplished, with your loved one lying on their death bed, and the empty loneliness which inevitably follows.

 

This all of course leads onto the main body of the film, which is unsurprisingly a wacky and child-like adventure to a distant land, incorporating various animals, the token villain looking to ruin the day, with the main protagonists being a geriatric and a chubby boy-scout. Humour there is, but this is interspersed with the main characters near-constant reminiscence to his deceased wife and the various items accumulated during the course of their life.

 

Of course, the younger children in the audience enjoyed the silly humour, but sitting there as an adult, I still felt a pang of sadness at the films conclusion, despite the trademark happy ending. It's a film that jolts you back to those first goals you ever made, and delivers that kick-up-the-ass reminder to do more to achieve them. It's a film that'll make you hold your loved one a little bit tighter next time you sleep. It's a film that for anyone who's lay on the grass with someone special, cloudwatching, and daring to dream.

 

Perhaps I'll be criticised by some of you for examing the undertones of a generically childrens film, or perhaps for not discussing the 3-D element. Well... they're sidenotes as far as I'm concerned, for a film which deserves high acclaim, for leaving me emotionally wrought, if nothing else.

[Don Garcia]

I'm shocked there's not a topic on this film.

There was one. Back in May.

[Mand'alor]

I saw this with my girlfriend last Tuesday. It was a simply fantastic film. Throughout, I laughed and felt saddened a lot and my girlfriend cried her eyes out at parts. Up is a very adult film but still manages to be a child's movie. I'd highly recommend this to anyone. Some parts in the film are simply genius.

 

Oh, I saw this in 3-d and to be honest it didn't make the film any better. It was still pretty cool though.

 

I also loved the opening montage with the Clouds.

[Andyzoot]

SQUIRREL?!

[TommyMufc-Champs]

Up was brill i went to see it with my mates last week (in 3d)

[chennaz321]

I don't mean to offend but i seriously can't imagine you gonig to see up in 3d with your 'mates'. Then again youth does change*grumbles*.

[Mand'alor]

I don't mean to offend but i seriously can't imagine you gonig to see up in 3d with your 'mates'. Then again youth does change*grumbles*.

Your statement makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

 

I just got the soundtrack to this film. It's genius, especially the track entitled 'Married Life'. Such a sad track.

[Ronnyboy]

I was shocked about the one scene in the opening where they find news from the doctor. That went over most kids heads, but it really does give you that sad feeling. I really enjoyed it because the jokes were good, but all in all it's a lot like Wall-E with that underlying message that really tells you to do something. It's one of those movies a 10 year old can watch now and laugh, and 30 years from now laugh and then go "This movie is right, I gotta do sh*t with my life"

[Slingaa]

This film was awful.

 

But I did lol when Mr. Frederickson smashed that guy in the head with a tennis ball and he had a huge gash on his head. Rather unrealistic.

[blitsie]

^ no comment^

 

The beginning scenes (the quick montage of Fredrickson's life) were one of the most touching scenes I have ever seen,its hard not to feel sorry for the poor guy

 

 

 

[Blind Joe Death]

I loved this film, especially in 3D. I'd definitely rate it as one of Pixar's greatest achievements.

 

Also, I found this on the wikipedia page.

 

 

In addition to the positive critical reviews the film received, Up highlights Pixar's corporate image as an altruistic company through its charitable acts. In June 2009, a 10-year-old girl from Huntington Beach, California was suffering from the final stages of terminal vascular cancer. It is reported her dying wish was to "live to see the movie" despite the advanced stage of her disease. However, due to her deteriorating condition, the girl was unable to leave the family home. As a result, a family friend contacted Pixar and arranged for a private screening. A Pixar employee flew to the Huntington Beach home with various Up tie-in toys and a DVD copy of the film. The child could not open her eyes, so her mother described the film to her scene by scene. The young girl died approximately seven hours after the screening ended.

[Saggy]

 

This film was awful.

 

But I did lol when Mr. Frederickson smashed that guy in the head with a tennis ball and he had a huge gash on his head. Rather unrealistic.

I think the gash had more to do with the metal of the walker than the tennis balls.

 

Anyway, it was a pretty nice film. I just watched it tonight, and I think it's one of the better Pixar movies that has been released lately. Though I don't know that it completely lives up to the hype, at some points in the movie, the plots deviate in such a way only to progress into more descriptive story. It's not something that someone just watching a movie leisurely or a child might notice, but when they spend 15 minutes with a bird and a house on balloons trying to "walk" to the other side of Paradise Falls, it's one of those obvious moments where they're interjecting for the sake of plot, and it was rather painful in this movie. Now I'm not a stickler for realism either, but the whole idea of the talking dogs that apparently came from nowhere was kind of clumsily tied up by the presence of Mr. Muntz, however how do they explain why he is still alive all this time when Mr. Frederickson was a child when he was lost, and how he apparnetly devleoped technology to make dogs talk. The ability for the dogs to speak was a pure plot device, and a gimmicky on-- SQUIRELL! --e at that.

 

Those small criticisms aside I really enjoyed it. I thought that the 3D and visual aspect of the films was probably some of Pixar's best work yet. The rendering of some of the textures looked so superb, you sometimes wondered why polygons were walking around in a real world scene until it hit you that it was 3D. The story overall was pretty nice, devoid of the usual "romantic" pursuit that is so common. The introduction was very biting and harsh in my opinion as a person who has experienced the grief of losing a loved one rather recentley, but I enjoyed the moral of the story at the end in "Having a new adventure." There is a very refreshing sentiment to this story which I enjoyed, but in some ways I feel that the tone is a little heavy for a Pixar movie.

 

 

Honestly I've got to say that this is a Pixar movie with much more powerful substance for an adult viewer than their usual production. There is a lot of gimmicks and novelty that server for comic relief, but overall there is more of a mature pretext at work for most of the movie, dealing with concepts of grief with little or no dialogue, leaving the viewer to come to their own conclusions on the messages in a very introverted way instead of the usual explicit narrative. I mean, in some scenes when you would see Mr. Frederickson reflecting on what just happened, and then looking over to a picture of his wife, some of the "natural" conclusions of what his resolve would be lead to a lot of self-reflection ( for me at least ) beacuse they don't immediately make it expressly obvious what his actions or feelings are. Having watched my own father go through the stages of losing his wife, it's interesting to see them mirroring some of the processes of grief that I've seen first hand, such as trying to fulfill promises, trying to keep the living quarters the same. etc. I've got to say that this is one thing that I would have to say is refreshing and winds up with a good outcome, it is a little unsettling at first.

 

 

@Ya Mum

That's just so harshly ironic that I just can't believe it...

[Ronnyboy]

Am I the only one who finds that Mr. Muntz was in his 20's or 30's when he set off to Paradise Falls, is a bit strange? Because that means with Fredrickson's age, he would have to be around 80 or 90 years old or so. So how does that work out?

[Andyzoot]

He found the fountain of youth in Venezuela.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That or he had a very good diet and did alot of exercise which kept him in good shape.

[TommyMufc-Champs]

I don't mean to offend but i seriously can't imagine you gonig to see up in 3d with your 'mates'. Then again youth does change*grumbles*.

Come on i was bored on a sunday afternoon so rang up a couple of my mates and said do you want to go and see up in 3D. There was nothing else to do.

[Chinatown Wars]

Meh, after reading all of the good reviews on it ill decide to give it a rent

[Chunk]

Meh, after reading all of the good reviews on it ill decide to give it a rent

You can't rent it yet mate, it's still in cinemas.

[Andyzoot]

Meh, after reading all of the good reviews on it ill decide to give it a rent 

You can't rent it yet mate, it's still in cinemas.

You can in Yankyland.

[AnotherDave]

The start of the film was excellent, the opening montage was one of the best things I've seen from Pixar, and that got my hopes up for the rest of the film. Most of the rest of the first half is very good but after the dog arrives on the scene it goes down hill and keeps dropping until the end. The film is absolutely beautiful though, and without doubt the best looking 3D animation film I've seen.

 

As a film though, it's nowhere near as good as Toy Story. It could have been but the second half really let's it down. Dogs flying planes? Really?

[HolyGrenadeFrenzy]

Fun movie and I am excited to see the sequel if one over comes out.

 

I can see the tittle now, Up2Down or Down, whichever seems trendy enough!

 

Seriously, the film was fairly done and it totally pulled on the 1930 and 1940s Science Fiction and Pulp comics, books and films of the 50s of the genre, like a kind of tribute.