Cinema review
Directed by Pete Docter, Bob Peterson
Starring the voices of Edward Asner, Christopher Plummer, Jordan Nagai, Bob Peterson, Delroy Lindo
Release date 9 October 2009

Following the death of his wife, 78-year-old Carl Fredricksen decides to fulfil the couple’s lifelong dream of moving to Paradise Falls in South America. To get there he attaches hundreds of balloons to his home and floats off across the skies. Carl’s peace is shattered by the presence of a stowaway, the eight-year-old Wilderness Explorer Russell…

You certainly can’t accuse Pixar of playing it safe. After the terrific WALL-E, which featured a virtually silent first half and an astonishingly original vision of a junk-filled future, the studio’s next feature throws several new curveballs, not least having a pensioner as the hero. Pixar’s ambitious, mould-breaking approach to filmmaking has once again reaped enormous rewards. Admittedly, we seem to say this every time a Pixar movie is released… but could this be the studio’s best picture yet?

As with WALL-E, the first 20 minutes are light on dialogue. In a smart move that should help kids identify with the elderly protagonist, we first meet Carl and Ellie as children. Carl is shy, virtually silent; Ellie is dreamy and self-assured; but both share a love of exploration and storytelling. We’re then treated to a wonderful montage of their subsequent life together: both the happiness of getting hitched and settling into their home, but also their tragedies too (including the couple’s pain at learning that Ellie can’t conceive). Eventually, Ellie dies, leaving Carl as a taciturn, grizzled old man who risks losing his home to local developers. Rarely has a cartoon explored love, life and mortality in such an honest and moving way, and it’s all treated with a refreshing lack of slushiness or tendency to patronise.

However, Up isn’t all Pixar-style social realism. Once Carl affixes hundreds of balloons to his house and floats away to South America, events take a turn for the fantastical and we’re treated to an explosion of tropical colours. As with the second half of WALL-E, you could argue that the film enters more traditional territory in its later stages. Yet, even that is not entirely true. For starters, the structure is actually very unconventional; the villain, Charles Muntz, isn’t introduced until the final third, and he’s hardly your traditional baddie (an OAP who comes across as Howard Hughes meets Apocalypse Now’s Colonel Kurtz). And in terms of narrative and characters, Up carefully blends its traditional elements with nutty new ideas.

Carl is joined on his trip by an unexpected stowaway, the eight-year-old Russell. The young Wilderness Explorer - who’s attempting to obtain his badge for assisting the elderly, whether the elderly want that help or not – is, like Carl, entirely likable: gauche, well-meaning and prone to landing in scrapes. The gradual bonding between two characters separated by 70 years feels both touching and genuine. Carl comes to take on the role of Russell’s frequently absent father, while Russell becomes the son that Carl never had and helps the old man appreciate living again. And again, these themes are treated with subtlety rather than sledgehammer sentiment.

As their adventures progress, the duo team up with Dug, an endearing mutt with a high-tech collar that enables him to speak (though it does nothing to halt his canine tendency for chasing furry animals) and a rare giant tropical bird that Russell gives the improbable moniker of ‘Kevin’. It’s the battle for Kevin that eventually leads to Carl and co’s conflict with Muntz and his band of talking dogs who wait on his every whim.

Up is, quite simply, cinema at its most joyful. It’s one of the funniest films of the year – check out the literal aerial ‘dogfight’ or the showdown between the two pensioners that’s marked by bad backs and creaking bones – and is stuffed full of thrilling action set-pieces, including a madcap escape from Muntz’s cave that sees our heroes pursued by an army of dogs. And as with all Pixar movies, the CG animation (whether you’re watching in 2D or 3D) is gorgeously rendered and filled with incredible detail, without being needlessly showy.

But Up really succeeds because of its characters, who are brought to life by a spot-on voice cast. Kids will warm to an aged hero, while Russell will inspire a child-like sense of wonder in adults. These unlikely heroes are the key to making the strange adventures so compelling in a movie that certainly lives up to its title: few viewers could fail to be uplifted by this animated masterpiece. Matt McAllister

VERDICT: 10/10
Unconventional in story and structure, and filled with winning characters and hilarious set pieces, Up is a delight.