Up

Joe's Thoughts:
“Up”- Made Me Want to Throw “UP”

I’m just kidding, as much as id love to follow in the footsteps of president drew dahles attempts to take reviews on pixar films to an all time minimal, I feel being this my first review of the year I owe our dear readers a great deal more. So here we go. Pixar scorched the silver screen with its debut film Toy Story, which was released in 1995. It depicted the lives of living toys that belonged to a boy named Andy. Before this film was released I felt the same way as director John Lasseter did, that when I indeed shut the door to my room to attend beockman creek primary my toys magically came to life, and as my sister has admitted to feeling the same way I think its safe to assume the majority of people with toys gave them some sort of life. And what happened when they came alive, each toy had a specific personality that somewhat related to who they were. This led to a great tale in which Lasseter utilizes every aspect of every toy, be it size or shape. He takes us into a new world in which we all had been to before, and puts a creative spin on it. Another terrific Pixar movie is one entitled Monsters Incorporated. Now, we all know monsters live in our closets or under our beds, and when the lights go out they groan and moan with lanky teeth and sharp claws in an effort to make us scream. What we didn’t know is why these monsters haunted us into the late evenings of our youth. Thankfully in 2001 pixar explained to us that monsters put us through agonizing pain simply because these monsters needed us to power their buildings and cars and houses. Director Pete Docter (who also directs UP) takes us into a new world in which we all had been to before, and puts a creative spin on it. And we all believe in super heroes, but what do they do at home? Or when the run out of steam? Luckily director Brad Bird introduced us to the domestic life of super heroes in his film The Incredibles. We see elasti-girl station ally vacuuming the entire house, while the Mr. Incredible lifts the couch with one hand. It’s a world we’d already been to, but with a new creative spin. That is when Pixar is at its best. When it takes hold of common old ideas, and brings creative life to them. UP does not do that. The story follows an old man who loses his wife, and when near certain eviction, he hatches a scheme in which millions of balloons turn his house into a flying boat. While this idea is clever, not much comes of it, or at least director/co-writer Docter chooses not to make much of it. Instead his main character lands on an unknown island with a child companion, where they find this magic bird thing that is being hunted, and of course the kid grows to love it and wants to save it. Where was this in my childhood? Or everyone else’s childhood? This wasn’t something that haunted me or took up my afternoons. Without much of a story the laughs for the movie have to rely on one-liners normally delivered by the kid, and they are disastrous. For example, he asks the old man if he should dig a hole before or after he takes a shit, only to reply it was suppose to be before. These awful jokes spew for the kid’s mouth the entire movie. The one clever thing, besides the flying house, was the invention of the device, which allowed dogs to speak. This creative idea had much potential only to prove to be minimal as many stereotypical dog ideas where used, which in turn led to an original idea becoming unoriginal. One can simply guess how exactly the story will end, I would say a half hour into the movie. There are however two things in which I thought were great aspects of the film. The score, though played a billion times, was memorable and maybe if it’s a weak year could be up for a nomination. And the best part of the movie was the cute relationship between the main character and his wife. Near the beginning of the film there’s essentially a 15-minute silent film that documents their lives together, and its really good and promising, and then she craps out and dies, killing the best part of the movie, and essentially murdering the movie all together. When is pixar going to get back to its old ways, in which it takes ideas we all cherished when young, and puts new and creative ideas into them, maybe next summer with Toy Story 3? I guess if I had to I would give UP a D+.

Donna's Thoughts:
Pixar Animation Studios released Up in May of 2009. This story about a grumpy old man named Carl Fredrickson and an overeager wilderness explorer, Russell reminded me of my life in the past and possibly in the future. Ellie, Carl’s wife has a dream about moving to Paradise Falls in South America. Of course many obstacles come in the way of her dream. I can certainly see this. We’re safer in doing “what is right” rather than take a risk to fulfill a dream. Ellie passes away never reaching Paradise Falls. I certainly relate to Ellie seeing myself doing “what is right” and being stuck in the suburbs the rest of my life. Carl isn’t in too much of a predicament. The city is growing around his house and he is unwilling to sell. I don’t see the city of Portland surrounding my house, so Carl should have looked at the bright side. As Shady Oaks Retirement Home sends their greeters to kidnap Carl after an angry mishap, he launches his house into the air with thousands of helium balloons. This is extraordinary, but when they come to hall me off to Shady Oaks, I won’t go willingly. (take note children)
I really enjoy Russell the wilderness explorer. I had a student that epitomizes his character. He is trying to find a way to get his merit badge for “assisting the elderly.” No one considers themselves as “elderly”. I know I never will! It’s a difficult badge to fulfill.
The story then enters a hard to believe point. An antagonist, Charles Muntz, is looking for the “flight less bird”. On their way to Paradise Falls Russell attracts the flight less bird with his candy droppings. Russell reminds me of Jack Black in Tropic Thunder. He just uses a different “candy”. The whole charades of Muntz, the unique bird and his dog pack is only entertaining to dog lovers, but I’m in the minority with dogs. I can see why Pixar went that direction. There are sentimental parts like when Carl looks at the empty journal pages behind Paradise Falls, when Russell returns Kevin to her chicks (the name Russell gives the flight less bird is Kevin which is a typical choice for a 10 year old boy), and of course when Carl takes the place of Russell’s father at the boy scout ceremony pinning the grape soda cap on Russell which earlier in the movie was pinned on Carl by Ellie. I laughed, had tears in my eyes and smiled throughout the movie and the best part is, it whisked me away from reality for 90 minutes.

Drew's Thoughts:
Joe's comment that when the wife dies the movie is murdered was hilarious but also somewhat of an overstatement. I think what amounts to roughly the first half hour of Up is a pretty good movie. The old guy and his wife make a cute couple and they are pretty enjoyable to watch; even after the guy is living by himself, the movie is still kinda funny. I laughed when the old man tells the business man, who looks like one of the agents from The Matrix, to "cut your hair, hippie!" or something like that. The score is pretty good too as Joe mentioned.
So anyway, I liked the first half hour of the movie but then Up self-destructs so immediately and so thoroughly it erased most of the goodwill it had already earned. Once the house lands in Paradise Falls the plot, jokes and characters wear thin instantly. And I'm not sure why we're supposed to care about that fat Asian kid/dumbass or find him to be anything but grating.
The movie starts out heartfelt with some emotional depth, something the viewer can connect with but devolves into unfunny jokes and unexciting action sequences, and any time the film refers back to the emotional moments it chokes on all the surrounding stupidity. I wish Pete Docter would have had the balls to make the whole movie with the same tone as first half hour because I think he would have ended up with a pretty good piece of work.
Still, even with its problems its a vast improvement over Ratatouille and WALL-E. Each year I face a choice on whether to give the new Pixar movie a shot (cause after all they gave me Toy Story and A Bug's Life) and I thought I was at the end of my rope this year but Up gave me just enough good stuff to not give up just yet. I guess I'll wait until Toy Story 3 to see if it's time to start ignoring Pixar altogether.