‘Up’ Where We Belong
by Jason Killian MeathA young scout yearns to help an elderly widower in order to earn a merit badge. A senior citizen unfurls hard-learned life lessons for the world. Disney/Pixar’s Up is a lofty film that thrives off old fashioned values, and it is your new number-one 2009 summer blockbuster. Complete with newsreel footage only a great grand-dad could recall, Up is a film which cherishes that very dated, old fashioned concept – great storytelling.
In an age where Dreamworks’ feeds us a steady diet of kung-fu pandas and boogie-in-your-butt lemurs voiced by the guy that gave us Borat, three-to-thirteen year olds have a place to fill up on some traditional values – Disney/Pixar.
My wife and I took our 6-year old boy to see Up on Saturday to a packed movie theater in Washington, DC’s Georgetown neighborhood. All we heard in the theater was laughing, deep emotion and applause. And why not? Up is film that, had it been produced with live actors decades ago, may have starred Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant. It is classic American storytelling – true love, big dreams, self-reliance and fierce determination. It doesn’t need gimmicks, politically correct characters or audience focus-group testing to determine its destination. It relies on Russell, who misses his Dad, and Carl Fredricksen, a lost old curmudgeon grieving over the death of his wife – they get us where we’re going. You know them – they’re the sort of folks we see and meet most everyday.
It’s crystal clear — the golden age of animation has returned to the American cinema since Pixar made Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Wall-E and Up. Pixar virtually invented CGI animation, but masters such as John Lasseter, Brad Bird and others have remembered that dazzling audiences with the computer doesn’t really matter if you can’t remember to have healthy dose of humanity. Case-in-point: the exchange between 8-year-old Russell to old man Fredricksen – when walking though the jungles of South America, Russell recounts a simple day with his estranged Dad as they counted cars on the curb of a local ice cream shop. “That might sound boring,” Russell says with a flushed face, “but it’s what I remember most.”
“Wonder and interest doesn’t have to come out of pizazz and spectacle and huge ideas. … I always knew that the power came from the small, and not from the big,” Wall-E director Andrew Stanton told Newsweek earlier this year. Oh, there may not be any sure-fire Happy Meal spin-offs, or top-40 hip-hop smash hits in Up, but that’s never what has made lasting, and ultimately successful, cinema.
With all this good feeling, there has to be a catch, right? Sure! More and more, Pixar is coming under scrutiny from feminist critics who would rather see female lead characters featured in their films. Seemingly, themes on the the do-not-call-attention-to-list are a father’s undying quest for the well being of a son (Nemo), the willpower and love of an elderly man (Up) or the robot love of Wall-E (apparently, even though the female robot was clearly superior – the film was named after the male robot, and thus, inviting to criticism).
But, hey – it’s summer. Can’t we all just get along? If you want to remember how glorious it is to find true love, to dream the dreams of a child and then find out how life ends up after all that falls apart, Up is your movie…
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33 Comments
I would not agree in any way that a golden age of animation has returned to cinema. Today's sterile computer generated films in no way, shape or form can compare to the classic Disney films or Looney Toons in its heyday.
Your bio says that you were a "member of the Maverick Media team that produced all advertising for President George W. Bush." I hope you thanked the Swift Boat guys for doing your job for you.
I agree with you – the depth of storytelling by Pixar is refreshing in this day of remakes. Pixar has taken to telling a story first and foremost, and I hope they keep it up. As far as I'm concerned, they have not made a bad movie yet. The Incredibles and Rattatouie were rich and deeply conservative in the best sense of the word. Long may Pixar reign!
Bill, I know it is hard when the truth comes out. Just remember that Kerry was a traitor and instead of prison he is allowed to be free.
Something you liberals want to take away from all of us.
I can't say I remember any ads from Bush. I saw them, but I don't remember them. I do remember the Swift Boat ads though — good stuff.
Kerry was a turd, that's not my point. The Bush people were horrible. They got very lucky that the Swift Boat guys pushed him over the top. Thank God!
Here's an idea for "feminist" critics who want to see more female leads in Pixar films: write the screenplays, direct the films, or create the animation! What the hell is it with people insisting on telling successful creative minds they'd "better include this type of person/plot" in their material?
Ah, more well-deserved praise for Pixar and 'Up.' Keep it coming.
Outside of that stupid ass robot trash thing, Pixar is a pure delight. Brad Bird has nailed all three -don't forget Iron Giant!- of his animation works right out of the park and I wait desperately for his next one!
wall-eee blew chucks of stupid. The concept that produced the wasteland of Earth made not a lick of sense and if Everything living was destroyed there, who the hell is making the Oxygen? Outside of that, the ship seen may carry perhaps tops five hundred thousand -it did mention there where other ships- but how the hell can all those obese humans survive on the brutal gavitational pull of 1G?! I only see hearts popping when they trundle out of the ship. I've seen so many insanely stupid crap out of that movie, that I can't list them all here without going on a rant. But finally, I must ask this one simple question:
What the hell are REAL humans doing in a COMPUTER GENERATED Movie?!!?
Hey, you can't please everybody.
One of Pixar's secrets is that they, unlike the work Robert Zemeckis is doing with Beouwulf and Christmas Express, is that Pixar puts real emotion in the eyes of the animated characters.
I disagree. It really isn't about the technology you use, it's how you use it. While Disney produced a lot of great stuff in 2-D, it also produced a lot of clunkers, especially near the end. Sure, there's Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and Lion King, but there's also Pocahontas and Home on the Range. Pixar's managed to produce very human, very warm pictures; they aren't sterile at all, unlike some of the products of its competitors.
I do agree on one thing–nothing beats Looney Tunes. Nothing.
Saw "Up" yesterday, and yes it was excellent. Has any other film maker or studio ever had ten straight critical and financial hits?
We saw Up this weekend with my young men in training-my sons who are 8 and 5. It's a great film, and the feminzis have missed it again. What I took away from it was you honor your commitments, no matter what. That's the kind of stuff I want my sons to see, early and often.
do you mean polar express?… But great point… I loved your review of Up! and I had to see it twice… One thing you really have to do is put your self in the movie and allow yourself to get lost in the story, I cried twice and it was one of the sweetest things I've seen on film. With all this talk about feminine characters, the next pixar film im looking forward to seeing is the "Bear and the Bow" Directed by, Brenda Chapman, co director of The Prince of Egypt. This will be Pixars first female lead and looks very intriguing. Given Chapman's work on the Prince of Egypt, it should be yet another hit.
Dude: I's a fairy tale fantasy. It doesn't have to be scientifically accurate.
This was a GREAT movie. I loved it. Very refreshing to have a good story with a moral. My boys 3, 7, and 12 all liked it too. One of the few films that captivated my 3 year old's attention for the entire show.
[...] ‘Up’ Where We Belong by Jason Killian Meath [...]
It's the story, not the look. If Disney had rendered the stories Pixar has churned out in their 2-D medium, we'd be talking about them, but they've fallen flat since Lion King.
I know. It's a shame. They'll destroy it and cry when the PC films aren't as good. They'll never stop to think that maybe they were the ones to blame. They're like libs everywhere who blame everything under the sun but themselves and the policies they endorse for the inevitable problems that arise.
Oh my. Someone got up on the wrong side of his starship this morning.
I don't see how it's supposed to be an old-fashioned movie. Any excellent movie would have vivid characterization and emotional connections the way this one did, regardless if it were made in 1939 or 2009. The bad guy in the film is a rather complex character who has all sorts of motivations, yet you are kind of mesmerised by his menacing persona, much like Anton Chigur from "No Country For Old Men" though not nearly as R-rated or cattle-gun trigger happy. And Brad Bird was not always a computer animation pioneer at Pixar. He got his big break directing episodes of "The Simpsons", a show that has a lot of in-your-face attitude and pop-culture references, but it's the characterization and emotional content that mattered, and that's how the show worked: Essentially as an animated "Terms Of Endearment" with pop culture references.
Nope. Pixar is unprecedented. And I'm betting they'll go 25 for 25, because it's not just a few geniuses at the top — they're training directors and story men as they go.
The only thing about Pixar that worries me is their production costs — estimated to be in the $150-200 million range. I hate to argue with success, but it sure would be nice if they could get costs down 20% or so, to take the pressure off box-office results.
I'm still waiting for Lasseter to have some influence on Disney's movies. So far, it isn't apparent.
That's good to hear, especially since in the other Up thread, some whiney parents complained about the "adult" themes, claiming their kids were bored. My 6- and 9-year-old girls both loved it, completely enthralled. Wifey and I are already planning a second trip to the theater.
My 10-year old daughter and I saw Up this past Friday night based on John Nolte's review. This movie was everything he said it was – it just blew us away. The following paragraph in John's review really sums it up for me:
Up” is what people mean when they say, “You know, they just don’t make ‘em like they used to.” That lament isn’t about a particular genre or even nostalgia for a simpler time. It’s about when a visit to the local theatre came with the promise of a sense of wonder and satisfying emotional journey; about being transported to exotic places with characters you feel something for, be it love or hate; about not having the spell broken by ham-handed filmmakers adding things that don’t belong.
Way to go Pixar!
For the 'feminazis': if you sat through the credits instead of getting up in front of me so that I can't watch them, you would have read all the female names that helped Pete Docter make the film.
Wall E was good for about the first 20 minutes. Then it was 'why don't you hit us on the head a little harder with that don't litter mother earth mantra?' Lame… stunning to look at, but lame.
Kung Fu Panda (directed by yet another Calarts alumni like Bird, Lasseter, Stanton, Docter, Burton, Selick, Sanders etc.) was a gorgeous film, well studied for the beautiful Chinese rice paper art backgrounds, and had a great message- everyone has something special to give. Perhaps the success of all these films is not a Pixar thing, but a Calarts thing. Lilo and Stitch, Up, Coraline, and Kung Fu Panda are some of the best films to come out in a very long time!
To Forlourned: I loved "WALL-E". To the point that a year ago I asked my family for this favor and they granted it to me, that we bought tickets to fly to Southern California, we saw Disneyland for the second time in a year, but also bought tickets to see "WALL-E" at Disney-owned El Capitan Theater in Hollywood. It's a beautiful "Golden Age of Hollywood" theater directly across from the Kodak Theater where the Oscars are handed out each year. "WALL-E" looked and sounded superb! And "WALL-E"'s true message was as appropriate for our times and appropriate for conservatives as it could be: Do not abdicate your responsibilities to your own health and well-being, or to slick-sounding government or government-like or pseudo-government-corporate officials. Determine your own destiny. And we flew from Louisiana to the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood so I could see that movie, with that message, in perhaps one of the best movie theaters there could be, I was proud to do it, money well-spent IMHO. Forlourned can disagree, so can anyone, but "WALL-E" is one of the best films of all time, not just animated, not just CGI, one of the best, period. The "global warming" alleged stuff in it was actually in the background and not even, really, alluded to. To me, "WALL-E" was about our own responsibilities to each other and to ourselves to not be lazy, to stay sharp and attentive. That is the metaphor within "WALL-E". And we see how "WALL-E" is coming more and more true, every day.
"Up" is Pixar's WORST effort to date. "Up" sucked…and this comes from a guy who has admired EVERY PIXAR picture to date. "Up" was an overly sentimental boring, re-hashed bits from previous Pixar movies – bad writing, PIXAR for adults and not that entertaining….incoherent…flaccid effort
Geez- who tinkled in YOUR coffee?
More like crapped on his cornflakes…after tinkling in the coffee, en route to the Bitter Bus!
Seems that you're saying unless you actually make movies, you have no business criticizing them, no? Doesn't anyone have the right to lobby for more representation in Hollywood? What if you substituted "Christian" or "conservative" for "feminist?" So much for Big Hollywood! Everyone gets to bitch.
If the feminist critics wants strong female leads, let them look across the ocean to Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli films. Disney has released most of them here. (I'm still waiting for Only Yesterday, Disney.) But let Pixar be Pixar. They are doing just fine making wonderful stories.
Apparently you have only seen Dreamworks movies and not Pixar.
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