This weekend I saw Up, a frightening animated picture from the folks at Pixar about a creepy old man who uses his bright and shiny balloons to spirit a confused and lonely boy away from his mother to a barely inhabited spot in South America where extradition is nearly impossible.
Kidding! Up was pretty much AMAZING. There are two absolutely devastating moments in the picture. The first comes during a wordless montage at the beginning and the second is a four-line recounting of the boy's favorite memory; what's so astounding about both of them is the sheer economy with which the two incredibly affecting plot points are delivered. The fact that Pixar does this sort of thing so well in a children's movie-see also the first part of Wall-E, which is certainly this century's best opening sequence on film-is a stinging rebuke to pretty much all "grown-up" films.
And make no mistake, Up is a children's movie. There are dirigibles, cute animals, talking dogs-hell, the movie is about a flying house, what exactly are you expecting? That said, it is an excellent children's movie, and not just because of the moments mentioned above; what makes Up so perfect for me is that it's not trying to be all things to all people. The unsubtle allusions and jokes aimed at amusing Mom and Dad that clutter up so many kid flicks today are nowhere to be found. To be sure, there are plenty of references to earlier eras of which little Madison and Brearley will be undoubtedly unaware, but they are completely of a part with the picture, so there's no sense that they're being shoehorned in. The opening part of the movie-the most, I guess, "adult" section-whizzes by in such a way that even the most intense screaming youngs (and there were a ton of them in the screening I saw; probably best to go later in the evening) are able to understand why the main character wants to float away and how the little boy winds up going along for the ride.
The animation is as good as anything Pixar's ever done, particularly if you shell out the extra five bucks for the newfangled 3D that is apparently going to save the movie industry by jacking up ticket prices (Up made $68 million this weekend, in no small part due to the added tariff.) And you should shell out. Plenty of the film is silly. It's supposed to be. It's also profoundly, unexpectedly moving. And a hell of a lot of fun. STRONGLY RECOMMEND.
You left out the part where an unemployed girl found you sobbing on the subway after the movie and comforted you.
I'm saving that for a separate post.
Yeah - the opening sequences in Touch of Evil & Apocalypse Now really suck...I can go on...
Different century! Of course, it's like naming something "the storm of the century" or "the trial of the century" in 1909.
Oh fuck me...where do I hide?
And there were 91 years to go!
Great movie and, surprisingly, emotionally draining. The last image before the credits was perfect.
Yes, it is great. Even though it could have used 20% less talking dogs.
And 15 more minutes of fart jokes.
The film was perfectly wierd. The joy of animation is that the creatives can go completely off the rails without a moment of conceit. So the child in me got to enjoy a movie without the constant scratch of realizm in my throat.
It is not, however, a good cartoon to see after smoking marijuana. It is VERY UPSETTING. My friend and I and, as far as we could tell, 95% of the audience at the 10:10pm showing on Saturday at Chelsea Clearview learned that the hard way. Drugs: still popular in Chelsea!
I went to a 9:35 pm showing on Friday. The entire audience was comprised of stoned 20-somethings. I enjoyed it very much, and everyone else seemed to, too. The story is sad, but the phenomenal 3D was sufficiently distracting.
Can someone translate this into English, please?
"Mr. Asner, whose career in pornography has been distinguished both by the extremity of what he is willing to do and an unusual degree of intellectual seriousness about doing it..."
I believe that's a description of Sasha Grey late of the Girlfriend Experience. Mr. Asner is distinguished by another extremity entirely.
You're welcome.
"You've got spunk! I HATE spunk!!"
--Lou Grant to Mary Richards, before I knew what 'spunk' was.
What a wonderful film. And judging by the trailers that preceded it, what a bunch of shit all of the other kids' movies this summer are going to be.
We saw trailers for the movie about the cruel wish-granting rainbow-stone, the farting spy rodents, and a cartoon about wasting food. Can you imagine if the jerks responsible for those movies were allowed anywhere near Up? What a calamity.
I saw it and was totally entranced. I like when movies are magical.
Movies like these are great for regression therapy.
Loved it....made me smile and think about what I should value more in my own marriage (WTF Pixar...thanks for the guilt).
The kids had a different view...8 year old daughter looked at me one point with panic and tears on her face "Mom, am I SUPPOSED to be crying? Because I don't think kids should have to cry during a cartoon!"
My 12 year old son was basically..."Meh, would have been better with Will Ferrell and boobs".
Neither of them loved it...so I clearly will have to kidnap some random kid to go see it again.
The opening from Wall-E is one of the best film sequences of all time. Slumdog is a pile of garbage in comparison to that wonderful movie.