Up Up and Away! (Up (DVD))

Member Name: stephbond89

Product:	Up (DVD)
Date:	15/10/09 (38 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Hillarious, fantastic storyline. Amazing characters!!!

Disadvantages: It's not out on DVD Yet so I have to wait a few months til I can buy it!!!!

Up!

About Pixar
Pixar is a branch of Disney which has been around since its first "big" film, Toy Story in 1996, almost 14 years ago (certainly doesn't feel that long ago!!!!!). Pixar since then has continued to make world class films which are now a common name in every child's mind, and in most people's homes.

In fact Disney Pixar first came around in 1984 when John Lasseter left Disney to work with George Lucas' (Star Wars) animation group which was to later become Pixar. The very very first film by the Pixar group (even if they weren't yet to be called that!) was a short, which Pixar are now famous for, called Andre and Wally B. It wasn't until two years later in 1986, when Pixar got its famous name, although at this time there were only around 44 employees, a tiny percentage of the amount of people working for Pixar today! Even at this time, Pixar were getting awards for their work making short Red's dream. It was 1991 when Walt Disney Studios and Pixar teamed up to make feature length movies, and this is where our story begins!

During the next few years, Pixar concentrated mainly on making commercials, and over 4 years they created 44 commercials (plus an IBM and Paramount Logo!!!).

It was 2005 when everything started getting big for Pixar when Toy Story was released, the very first computer animated full movie! From then everything got better and better for Disney Pixar; with the film A Bug's Life been released in 1998, Toy Story 2 in 1999, Monster's Inc in 2001, Finding Nemo in 2003, The Incredible's in 2004, Cars in 2006, Ratatouille in 2007, and Wall:E in 2008, and now in 2009 the new film Up!

From a tiny studio of 44 people working behind a computer, they have become the biggest animation studio in the world, followed only by DreamWorks (who let's face it just doesn't do it like Disney!), they have done extremely well, with now around 700 employees, and amazing films coming off their backs almost every year for the past 10-15 years!

Plot
Carl Fredricksen is a 78 year old widow. He met his wife, Ellie when he was a little boy wanting to become an explorer. Ellie was just like him, and they both had a dream. To travel to Paradise Falls, South America, just like their favourite explorer Charles Muntz, who went there when he was a child, and never returned. But Carl and Ellie's lives don't go to plan, and it passes them by all too quickly, and soon Ellie passes away, leaving Carl as a 78 year old living on a building site, with a nasty building site owner trying to buy his and Ellie's house to demolish and build on.

When Carl is told he is to go into a retirement home for been a "menace to society", the balloon salesman devises a plan, to fly his home to Paradise falls as Ellie always wanted. So with her childhood adventure book to hand, off they go.

But, he soon realises he has a stowaway, 8 year old Russell, a Wilderness Explorer (like Scouts in this country!), who has been pestering Carl for days about getting his "help the elderly badge", despite been hundreds of feet in the sky, Carl tries to get rid of Russell telling him to go down and get a bus home! Pretty quickly though, it becomes apparent that Russell and Carl need each other, when they arrive at Paradise Falls with a crash.

There they meet the female bird, Kevin..., Dug the dog (and his HUGE pack!), and the infamous explorer Charles Muntz who is still living at Paradise Falls (one inconsistency is that this explorer was at least 30 when Carl was around 8...yet now looks younger than Carl, or around the same age, and certainly not 20 years his senior! But maybe that's his exploring body keeping him going!!!), and searching for Kevin, the bird which ruined his reputation back home!

But will Carl be able to fulfil his dead wife's wish and give her the final resting place she wanted, and will little Russell ever get home and get his "Helping the Elderly" badge!!

Characters
Carl is not a likely hero, he is an old man, with a creaky back, he struggles to get out of bed in the morning, hears with a hearing aid and walks with a walking stick. He's a grumpy old man (he reminds me of my dad haha!), but underneath the hard exterior is a soft underbelly of a lonely man who misses his wife dearly, and there are some very emotional scenes where he is remembering his wife and their lives together, which would have even the hardest of people shedding a tear. He doesn't want to "settle down" as the world and everyone in it has decided of him, he isn't ready to lie down and take what the world throws at him, he wants to do Ellie proud, he wants to do what she never got to do and have the adventure of a lifetime.

Russell is like the young Carl, he wants to have an adventure! He has a sad life at home with his rarely there dad and step mum. All Russell wants is to get his final Wilderness badge by helping Carl to cross the road, he will even settle for crossing his garden! He will go above and beyond the call of duty to help his new found friends!

Dug: The dog is quite possibly one of the funniest characters in the whole film! To clarify, the dog is a talking dog, but not through his mouth...oh no! Charles Muntz has popped a special collar on him which transfers his thoughts into a voice (kind of like the idea of the Guinea Pigs in Disney's G-Force). The things he says are absolutely hilarious, as it really is like converting what a dog says and does into human voice. The funniest of all is when he is talking to someone then all of a sudden turns, goes silence shouts "SQUIRREL!" and then turns back and continues the conversation like nothing happens! Doesn't sound like much but it is hilarious when you're watching it!!!! Dug is the loveable Golden dog who just wants to be accepted by the rest of his pack.

Who is in it?

Edward Asner: Carl Fredricksen
Christopher Plummer: Charles Muntz
Jordan Nagai: Russell
Bob Peterson: Dug/Alpha (another dog character)

There are no big names in the film really, which as I have said before I like in a film as it means you're not sitting there thinking "who is that?" and thinking that the voices don't match their faces. The character of Carl, actually has been based on the way Edward Asner looks, which is great if you know of Edward Asner as there is none of that "tut that voice doesn't match that old man!", as he actually does look like his character which is hilariously similar!

The cast is great in their parts and play them extremely well, the voices match the characters amazingly well, and they are hilarious in their roles!

Opinion
One of my favourite parts of the film was actually the short which preceded the film (not shown in all cinemas apparently!), called Partly Cloudy, which Pixar are famous for. Partly Cloudy (which will be on the DVD), was a 5-10 minute short about clouds and Storks, the idea was that the clouds produced the babies; whether they be of animals or actual babies, and the storks delivered them to the parents on the ground. But there is one lonely grey cloud, Gus, who is a master at making the dangerous babies (sharks, crocodiles, rams). But his poor stork, Peck is the one who has to take these dangerous animals down to the ground, getting his feathers more than ruffled in the process! It's hilarious, as all Pixar's shorts are, and is definitely something extra to look forward to before your film starts!

Up itself is probably the best film I have seen all year!!!!! I have always loved Pixar films, and always find them absolutely amazing, and they always have something about them which makes them great for kids and adults, with the humour usually been much more for the adults (in fact the screening we were in yesterday had more adults than kids, mainly couples!).

The film is, as I said earlier on, very emotional right from the start really, with Ellie and Carl's marriage growing, and going through their lives together in a montage of "footage" and pictures, and seeing the change in Carl when Ellie was gone.

Up has the perfect amount of humour and emotion throughout the film to keep it as a family film, and not make it so sad you'll be weeping all the way through, but making it just sad enough for it be heart-warming and real. Just when you start feeling sad about the storyline, something happens to send you giggling again, which is a very clever thing to do by the film makers.

If you love all other Disney Pixar films, then you will adore this just as much! The film has the same amount of humour as Cars and Wall:E, so if you like those films you'll adore this!

Seriously the best film this year!

10/10!

Summary: Absolutely amazing film from Disney Pixar, another masterpiece!