- Location: Crowne Block E 15
- It's tough to recognize these things while they're happening, but we may very well be living through the second golden age of American animated film. They're digital now, but surprisingly it is the stories and characters that are defining the era rather than the technology. Gone are Disney's obnoxiously frenetic and cliched fairy tale reinterpretations. Now Pixar is here to present us with films about lonely robots and, in the case of Up, bitter old men. And they're great films, too.
- The first ten minutes of Up, for example, are among the most touching and tragic one could imagine in an animated feature. In that brief time, we meet adventurous young versions of Carl and Ellie, experience the better and worse parts of their loving marriage, and finally join Carl in mourning the death of his dear wife. Most of this introductory montage is dialogue-free, but the visuals paint a clearer portrait of these characters than verbal descriptions ever could. It's because we've seen the entirety of their lives together that we can sympathize with Carl (voiced in old age by the incomparably gravel-throated Ed Asner) when he crankily lashes out at a construction worker who accidentally damages the mailbox that he and Ellie had decorated. The house and its contents are all that Carl has left of his formerly happy life, and he doesn't want to lose them. Unfortunately, it looks like he might not have a choice.
- As Carl worries about his impending eviction, he is visited by Russell (Jordan Nagai), an enthusiastically roly-poly young man who needs only to assist the elderly to earn his final "Wilderness Explorer" badge. Little does Russell suspect about what kind of assistance Carl will require. As it happens, Carl's plan to save his house involves tethering thousands of balloons to the roof and letting an extreme feat of buoyancy do the rest. Soon Carl is soaring free above the city, fondly recalling the adventure fantasies of his youth and...wait, who's that knocking at the door? A terrified stowaway named Russell, of course. After some deliberation, Carl admits Russell into his floating home, and the two form a partnership of hilariously mismatched personalities. A violent storm blows them to South America, naturally, where Carl hopes to locate the exotic mountain vista that he and Ellie had always dreamt of visiting. As Carl is quick to remind his young companion, their adventure will not incorporate "rap music or flashdancing." What he doesn't anticipate is that it will involve a rare, squawking bird named Kevin, a vocorder-assisted talking dog named Dug (Bob Peterson), and Carl's childhood idol, the famed explorer Charles Muntz (Christopher Plummer).
- While their eventual conflict with the obsessed Muntz and his uber-hounds follows a fairly predictable trajectory (aside from a surprisingly amusing "geriatric battle scene"), Carl, Russell, and Dug are sufficiently entertaining that any plot could have served an adequate backdrop for their interactions. In a typical exchange, the always taciturn Carl suggests that he and Russell play the game "See Who Can Go the Longest Without Saying Anything." Russell innocently responds that his mom loves that game, which we can appreciate since Russell is talkative in a manner unique to eight-year-olds. Dug, too, is surprisingly vocal, although his thoughts are distinctly those of the canine variety, humorously interrupted by imagined sightings of squirrels. Oddly enough, it is this same talking dog who delivers what is probably my favorite line of the film. Upon encountering Carl and Russell, Dug captures the sentiments of adorable pooches everywhere, emoting that "I have just met you, and I love you." That quote doubles as a way to describe my feelings about these characters and this film.
- The film was preceded by a very amusing short, Partly Cloudy.
- As Cole (and the imdb) point out, Charles Muntz was named in homage to Charles Mintz, a Universal Pictures executive who apparently stole some of Walt Disney's early production rights.
- John Ratzenberger voiced one of the construction workers.
