Up

Up (2009)

Runtime: 96 minutes

Directed by: Pete Docter

Starring: The voices of Ed Asner, Christopher Plummer, Jordan Nagai, Bob Peterson, Delroy Lindo

From: Disney/Pixar

I know people will be appalled that I just saw Up last night on Disney+ for the very first time. This is despite knowing for almost 15 years the details of the heartbreaking, gut-wrenching opening. I’d never even track down that opening then stop watching. It was long overdue to fix this mistake on my part. Turns out, I knew precious little after the opening 11 minutes, the two leads and Dug. Charles Muntz was a mystery to me, let alone Kevin.

The first 11 or so minutes are indeed a masterpiece. Carl and Ellie meet as children over their mutual admiration of explorer Muntz. From there, they fall in love, get married, aren’t able to have kids, pine to visit Paradise Falls in South America-as that’s where Muntz vanished to-and then concludes in tearjerker fashion. It was incredible between the visuals and the long stretches that are only scored by Michael Giacchino’s stirring music. That opening did live up to the hype & left me bummed out due to a now-elderly Carl having a nice life despite the disappointments and not being able to visit the location he and his deceased partner dreamed of.

Up does not rise up from such an astounding beginning or even maintain an even keel; the plot was at times predictable due to what seems like a Pixar formula (even I have noticed it, as someone who’s not even seen half of their feature film output) and “annoying kids” aren’t my favorite trope so it took some time to warm up to Russell. On the other hand, the story was more bizarre than even what I was expecting from “elderly man uses thousands of balloons to float his house to South America”; magical collars that allow for dogs to speak English, being able to drag along your house on foot & giant birds was not what I was expecting to see on the menu, yet this was presented to the viewer.

Overall, I was still entranced by this film—the two leads experience character growth and I was always charmed by Carl, whether as a kid, an adult in his prime or a cantankerous old man. It was nice to see an elderly lead treated both accurately & fairly, not to mention juicy voice roles for Ed Asner and Christopher Plummer. Lovely visuals and a quality score are further assets. To reiterate, it was a delight to have finally gone on this trek & enjoy a family film which thankfully had no puerile, crass “humor” even if not all the jokes landed.