Movie:UP

Starring: Christopher Plummer, Edward Asner, Jordan Nagai.

Director: Bob Peterson, Pete Docter

Genre: Animation

From the Academy Award®- nominated director Pete Docter (Monsters, Inc.), Disney•Pixar’s "Up" invites you on a hilarious journey into a lost world, with the least likely duo on Earth.

Release Date: 20-Aug-2009

Language: English

Distributor: Walt Disney Pictures

Synopsis:

A comedy adventure about 78- year-old balloon salesman Carl Fredricksen, who finally fulfills his lifelong dream of a great adventure when he ties thousands of balloons to his house and flies away to the wilds of South America. But he discovers all too late that his biggest nightmare has stowed away on the trip: an overly optimistic 8-year-old Wilderness Explorer named Russell.

My Comment/Review(s):

Starring: Christopher Plummer, Edward Asner, Jordan Nagai.

An original and imaginative masterpiece, Up is the movie to catch this summer. A refreshing change from the gore and slapstick screenings saturating the cinemas, Up tells a story of grief, hurt and joy but most of all, love.

Carl Fredricksen (voiced by Asner) takes the journey of his life when he decides to fly to South America with his house and a bunch of balloons as his mode of transport rather than get bundled off to a retirement home.

To his dismay, eight-year-old Wilderness Explorer scout, Russell (Nagai) happens to be on his porch when he takes off on his grand adventure; but Carl's not about to let Russell spoil his escape into the dark and dank depths to a lost world.

You can tell that Up has been crafted with a lot of tender careful thought for detail, and there are no hints of cliché. The storytelling is beautifully and lovingly told. The characters are lovable and emotionally, we can relate to them too; they're almost like people we know.

Disney / Pixar have always achieved this result if you think of movies like Finding Nemo and Wall*E for example, where the relationships and characters are life-like in how they express themselves. It is surprising how yearning is so well expressed in Up: yearning for the loss of a loved one is really the driving force of the film.

Up is a story that you may find yourself wishing you could live through. In fact, it tells you that you are never too old to do what you have always dreamed of doing because if Carl Fredrickson can do it at 78, so can you.

The sky's the limit to what we can achieve, Up tells us, yet ultimately it is the little everyday relationships that matter. How inspiring is that?

This review is very brief compared to the rich storytelling that Up has to offer so the suggestion is to go watch it. Enough said.

Making The Grade: