It's a new year and, once again, a Disney/Pixar film is hitting the top of many movie critics' must-see lists. This time, it's Up, written and directed by the team of Pete Docter and Bob Peterson (A Bug's Life, Monsters Inc.), which earned "must-see" status from both Entertainment Weekly and JoBlo.com.
So far, the gang from Emeryville have been batting a thousand for their flicks; Cars was the lone disappointment from a critical standpoint but, as someone once observed, it's like dinging a kid for getting a 'B' when she usually scores straight 'A's.
While A Bug's Life and Monsters Inc. weren't the most honoured films in the Pixar canon, writer/co-director Peterson also helped write the screenplay for the studio's biggest hit to date, 2003's Finding Nemo.
Entertainment Weekly and Empire both scored exclusive images from the movie, which feature grumpy old man Carl Fredericksen (voiced by Ed Asner) and his 8-year-old sidekick, Wilderness Ranger Russell (Jordan Nagai).
According to EW, Pete Docter and 11 other Pixar artists hiked up to Venezuela's tabletop mountains (which also inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic novel The Lost World) in 2004, to do some research for the film.
'We hiked up to the top of the mountain and stayed there for three nights, painting and sketching. It was great,' director Docter told EW. However, he said the best part was: 'Everybody made it out alive.'
So far, Up is looking like another winner for Pixar. The animation is nicely done, and reviews have so far been kind to the film. It will definitely do well among critics, even without the goodwill Pixar's generated over the years.
The big question is whether Up can do well at the box office: the economy is currently in the toilet, and there are a lot of animated films coming in 2009. Will Up be able to hold its own against DreamWorks Animation's Monsters vs. Aliens or Disney's own The Princess and the Frog?
Possible Up Spoiler
Okay, if you didn't get it the last 3 times, SPOILER ALERT: DON'T READ THIS IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW!!! Got it? Good.
According to Michael over at The Pixar Blog, the ultimate fight in THQ's computer game adaptation for Up (available for Mac/PC, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Sony PSP, and Xbox 360 on May 26th) is: "Battle the villainous Muntz in the final level."
It's widely believed that Christopher Plummer – who, according to IMDb, has been cast in the flick – will voice Muntz, since Plummer has a long history of playing onscreen baddies.
"According to reports from test screenings, early on in the movie, when Carl and his sweetheart Ellie are still kids, she tells him all about her 'hero,' an explorer named Muntz, who's travelled to the mountains of South America," writes Michael.
"It's he who serves as Ellie's inspiration for her dream trip to the region that she, of course, never gets the chance to make. But there's apparently no indication to the audience at the time that the character is to be the villain of the film."
Given that Muntz will probably be at least a decade older than Carl, will there be some sci-fi element to this film, such as the Fountain of Youth?
Pixar Blog also scored a look at The Art of Up, which features initial cartoons of Carl and Russell, plus "Dug the talking dog and a female bird named Kevin".
Up comes out May 29th.
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