“Up”
5 out of 5 Stars
Voices of Stars: Ed Asner, Jordan Nagai, Christopher Plummer
Directors: Pete Docter, Bob Peterson
Rated PG for some peril and action.
Running Time: 89 minutes
Pixar Animation ups the ante yet again. Its “Up” elevates the current movie season to great heights of imagination, wit, visual pop and, even, meaning. And it does this with an almost subversive twist, by using two marginalized figures as its unlikely stars.
Today’s tender, colorful CGI comedy may be the first family film in the medium’s history to idolize into swashbuckling heroes both a senior citizen being forced to a retirement home and a fat kid from a broken home. But together, these social outcasts defy their stereotypes and embark on an awe-inspiring adventure to the fantasy jungles of South America by way of a balloon-powered Victorian.
Along the way, curmudgeonly widower Carl Fredericksen (voiced by Ed Asner) and his tag-along 8-year-old sidekick, a Wilderness Explorer called Russell (Jordan Nagai), will rescue a rare mother-bird, vanquish the fanatic who hunts it (Christopher Plummer) and tame the villain’s wild pack of talking dogs. Russell will gain the agility and confidence to compliment his many merit badges. And Carl will show that the seeming handicaps of old age are, in fact, his best weapons. At one point, he wields his walker and his dentures, quite literally, to win a duel.
The story is simple. But the storytelling is rich with the observant references and humorous details for which Pixar is now famous.
In edition to their unconventional elderly protagonist, Academy Award-nominated director Pete Docter (“Monsters, Inc.”) and his co-director and co-writer Bob Peterson create two memorable supporting critter characters: the giant, chocolate-loving female fowl named Kevin and the squirrel-obsessed, submissive doggie Dug (voiced adorably by filmmaker Peterson). Docter and Peterson never resort to anthropomorphizing these two into clich cartoon animals. For instance, Dug speaks by way of a special collar and not because he is anything but a real slobbering, ball-fetching and hilarious canine.
The action is also inventive since so many of the chases and fights must be choreographed around an unusual obstacle; the floating house is often physically tethered to Carl and Russell when they are on land.
And yet, amid the excitement, there is endearing human emotion. A montage depicting Karl’s loving relationship with his late wife touches deeply as a mini-silent movie within the movie.
During a summer dependent so far on a hairy vigilante, a hostile galaxy, a dead pope and killer machines, the uplifting “Up” is a very welcome alternative.
