Up: MSN Review

An adventurer since childhood, Carl Fredricksen has always wanted to get to “Paradise Falls” in South America. But life, however happy, has always been in the way. Now he’s old and the retirement home people are knocking on the door. So he flies away, house and all. But a tubby young boy scout named Russell happens to be on the back porch and Carl has an unlikely and unwanted fellow explorer.

You can imagine every picture-perfect frame being scrawled onto canvas by a Pixar artisan. It’s a world rich in texture from the button on Carl’s jacket to the fluffy white clouds he flies through. It’s Pixar’s first 3D feature but the new tech is tastefully held back. It’s the incredibly detailed animation that blows us away. You’ll want to reach out and touch the screen.

 

Video: The Latest Up Trailer

They’re also covering new ground in the script. It’s brave to make an old man the protagonist of a film aimed at a younger audience (and Carl isn’t a cuddly Grandad kind of character). Head-on dealings with death and family tragedy lend a darker tone during the first half and distinguish Up from the chirpy story arcs found in the rest of the 3D animation stable.

With a soundtrack that won’t fail to have you blubbing into your 3D glasses and a fluffy dream-like quality in parts, it’s unafraid of tear-jerking. But, following on from Wall-e, they’re continuing to prove their flexibility with brave touches of shadow. Critics who like to talk about “the Pixar formula” should have been silenced by now. That said, there’s familiarity in the brilliant full-circle sensation of the ending; you’ll leave with a spring in your step.

The final ascent is also buoyed by what can only be described as an astonishing sequence of action cinema. This has been seen by some as an unnecessary departure from the more pensive tone of the first 45 minutes. But things became unpredictable way before this when a 16 foot bird and a talking dog became major characters. Once again, Pixar break their through own borders here with a stunning vertigo-inducing conclusion.

A joyous meeting of simple story and state-of-the-art technology, Up is one of the best animations you’ll ever see. Pixar have blown our minds again; their most outlandish film perhaps their most touching.

Groundbreaking: you'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll probably go out and buy a lot of helium balloons.

 

 

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Up is released in the UK on October 9 2009