Up

[topaz]

Saw UP on Sunday.  It's very very good.  It didn't hit my buttons the way Toy Story and Finding Nemo did, but it's very good -- and it is without question the most audacious, brazen thing that Pixar has done yet.

The truth is that when the previews for UP came out I wasn't impressed.  I thought it looked terrible.  I thought they had lost their minds.  A story about a cantankerous old man who uses helium balloons to turn his house into a floating airship?  With a stowaway annoying Boy Scout?  And together they go have adventures in the South American jungle?  It looked like an incoherent mess -- like something we might have seen from Disney or Ralph Bakshi at their lowest, most desperate hours.

In order to make an idea this preposterous work, the only solution is to grab on to the story with both hands, and hold it high and proud, no apologies.  And that's what they did.  What we got is an animated fable about loss and rebirth, about dreams and living, about hope and disillusionment.  We got an animated film cheeky enough to quote movies from Fitzcarraldo to Wings to maybe even a little of Island of Lost Souls (to say nothing of C.M. Coolidge).  In the end I was kind of amazed that they pulled it together, but pull it together they did.

Do bring tissues.  You will need them sooner than you think.

Comments

[lhn.livejournal.com]

And bring lots-- prilicla wound up crying through about 3/4 of the movie.

"Toy Story", "Finding Nemo", and "Up" could be viewed as a thematic trilogy, covering as they do three different transitions in life. But of them, "Up" pulls the fewest punches. "Toy Story", to paraphrase Gaiman's pastiche of G.K. Chesterton, knows when to close the book to give the viewer a happy ending (and "Toy Story 2" makes the real end of the story eminently clear-- "When She Loved Me" may be Pixar's biggest tear-jerker before this movie-- even if it hands out a little hope). "Nemo" begins with tragedy, but the story it tells is fundamentally one of growth more than loss. "Up", meanwhile, keeps whipsawing the viewer between laughter and tears while keeping its central tragedy (unusually for an animated movie, one which will probably hit adults harder than children) front and center throughout.

(And damn if I'm not getting a lump in my throat just thinking about nothing more than seeing a certain building in a certain location, late in the movie. Or a single scrawled line in a scrapbook.)

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

prilicla wound up crying through about 3/4 of the movie.

People saying things like this are keeping me away from the movie. I don't care how great it is, I don't think I need that much crying right now...

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

I think that this movie was made more for you than perhaps anyone else on my friendslist.

And while there are many weepy moments, I am pretty sure you would not be crying through 3/4 of it. :-)

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

I am both strongly attracted and strongly put off by everything I've heard about this movie. Usually when I feel that way about something, that means I do it. :)

[prilicla.livejournal.com]

Please don't let my reaction keep you from seeing it--it's a wonderful movie! Unfortunately, it happened to hit one of my hot buttons, but I'm still very glad I saw it.

[vespid-interest.livejournal.com]

Same here.

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

"Toy Story", "Finding Nemo", and "Up" could be viewed as a thematic trilogy, covering as they do three different transitions in life.

Wow, I love this angle.