Movie: "Up" from Pixar - 'Give me peace of mind to trust, and don't forget the rest of us.'

[timepiececlock]

If you move past the fact that the only female character with speaking lines disappears 15 minutes into a 97 minute movie (and that includes the short that opened it) and that it creates a world entirely devoid of women or girls except as backdrops or objects of loss (not even the frelling dogs)--and I'm sure we'll all move past that because it's a familiar hurdle with Pixar--then I can report that this is a beautiful, moving film.

It's a little darker than WALL-E, and a little sadder. I cried at two separate points; not a lot, but my eyes were significantly wet and I had to wipe them. It's still an uplifting film, still full of wonder and adventure and grace, but there's no denying that the emotion of loss permeates this story.

There's something reminiscent of Hayao Miyazaki's work when you watch it: gorgeous vistas, brilliant colors, and sky. So much sky! Balloons, dirigibles, airplanes! And old person and a young person on an adventure together, experiencing the wonder of flight. It's not quite as funny or cute as WALL-E, but I'm not sure it's supposed to be.

There's no doubt that the Pixar studio has some of the finest writers and storytellers in the film industry today. Now they only need to live up to that potential, and open their magical world to the rest of us. It looks, as always, like a beautiful place to play.


WARNING: COMMENTS NOW CONTAIN MOVIE SPOILERS!

Comments

Re: I like this conversation better. And I'm feeling better now, thank you for your patience.

[ryanitenebrae.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I agree - I mean, it is astounding that the change of Company hands didn't faze them, and that they're actually capable of making good sequels(though we'll see if that's consistently true over the next few years), but they still may fall off course. I hope fervently that that does not happen, however, and right now, there's no reason why it should other than my own cynicism. I do wonder what will happen once Lassetter retires, but that probably won't happen any time soon.

One of my favorite things about Up is that Ellie never becomes a MacGuffin - she's always there, she's present, she's honored, she's a distinct emotional force throughout the story, and it's her final message that is able to give Carl the strength to both overcome Muntz, and to finally let her go.

Also, I found Russell's role in the film interesting. In any other film, he'd be used largely as comedy relief, I feel, but rather it's Carl's bonding with him that allows him to finally continue to live his life and move back to the city rather than remaining in South America, which I feel shows that he is honoring Ellie's memory by obeying her command to go find his own adventure.