Recent release Up has continued Pixar's run of critical and commercial success, earning $273 million at the US box office. This is in spite of the reservations of Wall Street analyst Richard Greenfield, who worried that the film's premise was not commercially viable. Implicit in his comment is an accusation of artistic self-indulgence on Pixar's part, a tendency to auteur-like premises.
What Up demonstrates is that Greenfield was not necessarily wrong. Large portions of Up are without dialogue, and dependent on facial expressions and symbolism alone to communicate meaning. They are reminiscent of WALL-E in this, and anything but what you'd expect from a cinema blockbuster. Yet for this, Pixar's releases are accessible with finely tuned commercial instincts.
This article examines the trials of Up in making these ends compatible. After all, conventional wisdom states that artistic integrity is the antithesis of mass appeal. For a mainstream viewer, personal vision is synonymous with pretension. For autuers, what is popular must appeal to the lowest common denominator. If Up reconciles these ends, does the film do so with absolute success?
The Two Sides of Pixar's Up
The opening minutes of Up are the least outright commercial, owing to the lack of dialogue. The movie establishes the personality of its characters in facial types that are suggestive of their underlying selves. Far from overwhelming the senses, the viewer must become attuned to the sensitive speech of body language. This is a stunning achievement given the absence of actual actors.
Yet before long a vein of slapstick is established in Up. Not to give too much away, but the appearance of chipmunk-voiced dobermans bears little relation to the sensitive beauty of the opening scenes. In other words the shift in gears is obvious; the points when Up panders to the audience are undisguised. Rather than integrating the two impulses, Up takes a schizophrenic approach.
This does not mean though that sections of Up are superior to others, just because they obey different instincts. The slapstick is accomplished just as well as the soulful; the humour more assured than a hundred other comedies. Simply because the premise of Up doesn't scream commercial success, the movie is not necessarily an auteur's endeavour with mainstream bits shoehorned in.
Up is a Triumph for Pixar
That Up reconciles the two ends to the extent that it does is itself admirable; few films are as ambitious. Crucially too, Up is likeable. The good feeling that it suggests in dealing with other people extends to its treatment of the audience. If the audience comes away more inclined to openness to others, it also comes away inclined to forgive Up for failing to entirely fulfil its ambitions.
Moreover it makes little sense to penalise Up for being ambitious, when this quality is itself precious. The movie is a post-modern marvel, incorporating with reverence the spirit of the slapstick comedy, the silent movie, the bildungsroman, the buddy movie, and countless other genres. It does this and makes from them something unique, and is finally another triumph for Pixar.
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