Pixar’s 2008 smash “Wall*E” gave us 20 minutes of pure cinematic perfection.
Then the story kicked in, and we were left with a flawed but visually dynamic tale of a trash robot in love.
“Up,” the animation studio’s latest hit, maintains its brilliance a bit longer than its predecessor, but it, too, can’t sustain its initial blast of genius.
That means “Up” has a leg up on 90 percent of other films, but it’s still frustrating to see such an opening give way to a pedestrian resolution. Even if said resolution is still sweeter, funnier and more touching than any other animated film this year.
Such are the high expectations Pixar has set for itself. It’s a movie studio that shoots for the stars and more often than not gets pretty darn close.
“Up” follows an unlikely hero, a cranky old man named Carl (Ed Asner) whose life consists of drab daily rituals since his wife passed. When a construction project threatens to uproot him from his long-time home, he decides to uproot the building instead.
He ties a staggering amount of helium balloons to the home and up it goes, off (hopefully) to South America where he and his lovely bride always intended to visit – but ran out of time to do so.
But Carl has a stowaway, a boy named Russell (Jordan Nagai) who is trying a mite too hard to earn a Boy Scout badge for helping the elderly.
The first half hour of “Up” is perfect. Not in any qualified fashion. Just … perfect. Heartfelt. Storytelling that reminds you of how a motion picture can touch your heart in a way no other medium can match.
Once Carl’s house floats closer to earth, the film falls for predictable scenarios. We get talking dogs, a villain who makes little sense and some action sequences which could have been duplicated from other, inferior animated films.
Yet the animation is consistently gorgeous, nearly every sequence worth hitting the “pause” button to admire or simply gape at. Each Pixar film represents a technological leap from the last, and “Up” is so breathtaking it’s hard to imagine the next Pixar feature can one-up what’s been captured on film here.
The humor throughout the film doesn’t require any visual razzmatazz. It comes at the viewer in waves, a funny line here, a brilliantly executed sight gag there. And bravo for making Russell such a delightful character, a very real young boy with the same insecurities, fears and passions of any child that age.
He’s never grating, forced, or hip in any modern way.
“Up” represents another example how Pixar projects live in the rarified air of their own greatness, and how some of its films can’t measure up to the standards they set for themselves.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Agreed completely. I think it’ll be worth owning “Up” just for the backstory at the beginning of the movie. It’s sweet, poignant and moviemaking at its very best, even if it’s just computer animation. The rest of the film? Pah!
Mrs. WWTW cried during the opening romantic montage, and I was getting a bit misty-eyed myself.
Yes, I got the blu ray just for the beginning!
BTW what’s WWTW. Waste Water Treatment Works ?