Up revolves around Carl Fredrickson (voiced by Ed Asner), a retired and grumpy widower, who, faced with the demolition of the home he had shared for decades with his wife, attaches thousands of balloons to the roof, and flies the house to South America in order to see Paradise Falls, a trip he had long promised to his late love.
As with other Pixar movies, such as Finding Nemo (2003) and Monsters Inc. (2001), Up is essentially a buddy movie, Carl being followed by a young Wilderness Explorer, Russell (Jordan Nagai providing the wide-eyed innocence). The contrast between the determined and permanently aggravated Carl and the youthful excitement of Russell is familiar to the dynamic on display between Marlin and Dory.
Where Up differs from earlier Pixar buddy movies, but not from 2008's Wall.E, is in the emotional depths and mature stories which fuel and develop between the two leads. Whereas Marlin loses his wife at the opening of Finding Nemo, in a violent way reminiscent of the notorious murder scene in Disney's Bambi (1942), there is very little mention of it again in the film, Nemo's peril becoming the main concern.
The death of Ellie, Carl's wife, hangs over the whole of Up. The house which Carl drags along Paradise Falls with him is a constant, potent reminder of Ellie, to the point that Carl talks to the house as if it is his wife. The melancholy and bitter loneliness that this conveys is a striking device for a children's animation, but it works effectively due to the warmth of feeling the team brings to Carl.
The Up Opening Montage
A major part in establishing this emotional resonance within Up comes from the opening of the film, in which a montage displays the entire relationship between Carl and Ellie, from childhood, to her sad death. Aside from an opening scene which details the very first meeting between the two as children, where they bond over a shared love for the adventurer Charles Muntz, the ten-minute opening is wordless.
Carl and Ellie's wedding, a lost child, the frequent attempts to save for the Paradise Falls trip (which sees their savings jar repeatedly smashed as various issues arise which need paying for) and Ellie's heartbreaking death mark the major moments dealt with in the montage. The real success of the sequence comes, however, from the smaller moments on view, such as a subtle and loving holding of each other's hands when the pair are sat next to each other reading.
Dug The Dog
Pete Docter, who came up with the original story for Wall.E and directed Monsters Inc., directs here, and paces the film exceedingly well. Amid the amazing emotional scene, Docter also manages to fill with Up with some very funny lines, and bizarre and engaging characters.
Upon Carl and Russell's arrival in Paradise Falls, Up moves in to more fantastical territory, as the pair are followed by a massive, brightly-coloured bird which Russell names Kevin, and a dog named Dug, who is able to talk due to a specially-designed collar. Dug, and his fellow talking dogs who are tracking Kevin, get most of the funniest lines, due in part to the interesting sentence structure they all use.
The dogs' talking collars were invented by Carl and Ellie's childhood hero, Charles Muntz, who has been in Paradise Falls for decades trying to catch Kevin and dispel the accusations levelled against him that a skeleton of one of Kevin's predecessors had been a fake. Muntz is voiced by Christopher Plummer, who manages to switch from heroism to menace to desperation in quick and effective order.
Toy Story 3
The continued success of Pixar, and the longevity of their films such as Toy Story (1995), is exemplified by Up's willingness to deal with emotional issues and still find enough room for creative characters and humorous dialogue. This is the same formula that Walt Disney's early successes, such as Bambi and Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1937) were built upon, bringing children both ends of the emotional spectrum and consequently engaging them entirely. With the inventiveness and exemplary storytelling displayed in Wall.E and Up, it will be intriguing to see if the company's emotional growth will be reflected in their next release, Toy Story 3 set for release in July 2010.
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