Up

In 2009, Pixar released Up, directed by Pete Doctor who co-wrote the screenplay with Bob Peterson. The film, starring Ed Asner, Christopher Plummer, Jordan Nagai, and Bob Peterson, grossed $731.3 million worldwide. It also opened the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, becoming the first animated film to do so. Nominated for 68 awards, including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay, it won 40 including Best Animated Feature, Best Original Score and the Annie Award for Best Animated Feature.

Carl Fredricksen (Asner) promised his wife Ellie (Elizabeth Doctor) that they would one day move to Paradise Falls in Venezuela. But life gets in the way and she passes before they can. Guilt-ridden, Carl shuts himself off from society in the house they built together.

What is there to say about Up that hasn’t already been said? Especially about the first 10 minutes.  It’s got humor, showing how Carl never quite learned how to tie a tie, joy in the many things the pair do together, sadness in the doctor’s office and Ellie’s eventual passing. There’s more emotion packed into that montage than most films have in a two hour run, completely proving the point of the meme stating it’s a better love story than Twilight.

SQUIRREL!

Um… anyway, from then on, it just keeps getting better, with Carl slowly coming to terms with Ellie’s death. It starts with an attempt to take the entire house to Paradise Falls and ending when he realized that in the years between Ellie dying and that point, where he realizes that until that point, he was failing to remember her in a way that she wanted. And the film becomes one of the best love stories that has ever been produced.

There’s also a lesson to be learned from Muntz, the villain. It’s not a bad thing to want to discover something new. But when it becomes an obsession to the point of giving your dogs the power of speech and making them your minions while killing everyone who gets in your way, then it might be time to reevaluate your priorities.

But what Up really does is it gives us a desire to not only love, but to explore. See new locales and find things you never knew existed. After all, adventure is out there.

#7