UP (2009)

Premise: An elderly man undertakes an adventure he's put off for decades but finds more than he bargained for when a neighborhood kid accidentally is brought along.

Stars: Ed Asner (voice) * Jordan Nagai (voice) * Christopher Plummer (voice)

Story: Carl Frederickson (Asner) is an elderly man whose life has been filled with love of his wife Ellie. After her passing, he lives alone, a shut-in, while the city moves in and surrounds the plot of land where the two had built their lives. Facing a forced move to a retirement home, he decides to undertake an adventure that both he and his wife had wanted to pursue as children, but had to put off as reality took most of their meager earnings.

Attaching thousands of helium balloons to his home, Carl detaches his home and life from the old plot of ground, but quickly discovers an unwelcome guest - Russell (Nagai), a Wilderness Explorer scout that was attempting to help the elderly man has accidentally stowed away on his porch. Unable to get rid of the boy, Carl faces his trip to South America with the passenger and experiences some - at first - unwelcome adventures as they approach his target.

Russell encounters a strange bird that he names Kevin and unwittingly involves Carl in the life's hunt of Charles Muntz (Plummer), setting the man against his childhood hero.

Review: The movie is absolutely superb. As with most Pixar films (A Bug's Life, Finding Nemo), the animation is excellent and does not distract. That aside, the story is moving, inviting, and endearing.

Without seeming to, Pixar has created their first truly human character, in Carl Frederickson, a triumph of writing, visual storytelling, and the gravelly voice of Ed Asner. Asner does an excellent job as Carl, an elderly man who has recently lost his beloved wife. The quiet, subdued music that accompanies the story of Carl & Ellie's life together is near-perfect as ten minutes unfolds and the trials, triumphs, and tragedies of their lives together unwinds on film. It literally left me in tears. As Carl faces life alone in his small house, the sprawl of the city takes over the once suburban landscape, leaving the man nothing but his dreams of the past. One can clearly see the years and care on the man's face, an achievement for Pixar animation.

Russell, voiced by newcomer Nagai, is a young boy whose happiness is built upon his scouting and the visits by his father at the awards ceremony. His earnestness and honesty are welcome even as they initially do nothing more than irritate the old man. His positive outlook masks an attempt to move past the disappointment in his family life, and the slow reveal of his inner character visibly moves Carl out of his shell.

The bond that grows between the two is possibly one of the finest storytelling moments in Pixar's movies. Previous films focused on established families (The Incredibles, Finding Nemo), blossoming romance (Cars, Wall-E), situational comedy (A Bug's Life) or buddy movies (Toy Story & Toy Story 2). This is the first film by Pixar where a family relationship is created on-screen, and between two dreamers - an old man setting off on what seems to be the end of his life's journey and a young boy trying to hold on to his fragile links to his father.

Their adventure together - it is unclear if the journey takes only a few days or more - brings Carl back to life, as it were, and through his experience, we share in the joy, the pain and heartache and the realization of a dream.

P.S. The opening animated short Partly Cloudy is also quite entertaining and serves as a nice appetizer for the film.

Overall: Good.

Other Sites: IMDb * AllMovie * Wikipedia * Rotten Tomatoes