Sometimes this beat can feel like All-Disney/Pixar-All-the-Time, but it's unavoidable when the Emeryville studio seems to be moving from strength to strength. It's rare that one studio's films generate such a massive buzz before their release, but Pixar's earned that right simply by making great movies like The Incredibles, Finding Nemo, Ratatouille and WALL-E.
Up, the next Pixar film from Pete Docter and Bob Peterson (A Bug's Life, Monsters Inc.), appears to be extending that winning streak. A second sneak peek review – this time from CHUD's Devin Faraci – asks, "Is Up the best movie of 2009?"
Up Preview Gets Great Review
Faraci watched a 45-minute clip from the movie at BNAT, filled with occasionally finished animation but – more often than not – sketches and storyboard sequences with temporary music and overdubbed voices. Despite the raw nature of the clip he saw, Faraci claims that the film was "completely engaging and often beautiful, visually and emotionally."
The best-known sequence from the film – where Carl Fredericksen (Ed Asner) launches his house into the air with the aid of several thousand helium balloons – is merely the beginning. Carl, along with an 8-year-old inadvertent stowaway named Russell (Jordan Nagai), ends up in the South American jungle where he encounters "giant crazy birds (and) talking dogs," plus Christopher Plummer as the villain of the flick.
"The reason a 45 minute presentation of mostly still or barely animated images can work so well is that Pixar places so much importance on the story and the characters," Faraci writes. "The animation is gravy.
"Based on what I saw, Pixar has again created a couple of great characters that manage to be funny and completely human at the same time. That humor/humanity split is also present in the story; there's a montage showing the lives and love of Carl, the crotchety old man played by Ed Asner, and his wife Ellie that's more touching (in rough form!) than the entirety of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, but is still filled with humor."
How enamoured is he with the movie? Faraci claims that Up could even be superior to WALL-E, a flick that dethroned Hayao Miyazaki's 2001 classic Spirited Away as the most beloved animated film on IMDb.
Faraci's only reservation is that "I know that Up will have adventure elements in the second half, and I almost wish it didn't," mainly because he thinks Carl Fredericksen's story is so strong.
"If the rest of the film continues building in quality," he concludes, "Up is guaranteed to be one of the best films of next year."
It flies into theatres on May 29, 2009.
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