cinemabon
07-03-2009, 08:27 AM
“Up” by Pete Docter
When I was a young man, I explored the Pacific Northwest with some friends of mine. One day as we hiked around the mountainous terrain, we came upon a waterfall. My friends were eager to go to its base and play in the cascading cool water. I felt satisfied to put my tired feet into the cool water slightly downstream. While they ran ahead, I waded into the rocky shallows. The sun that day caught a shiny object on the bottom at just the right angle. I reached down and plucked out a rock whose fall from the great height split the rock. When I pulled the two pieces apart, a brilliant vein of bright yellow gold ran through the middle. I hid the rock in my backpack, and vowed that one day, I would return to the falls to make my fortune. That was a very long time ago. The dream gradually slips away as I grow older.
This little story within my review is for a purpose. The film “Up,” directed by Pete Docter (with a non-credited co-direct by co-author Bob Peterson) begins in the same fashion. A young boy goes to the movies and sees a news reel about his idol, a heroic explorer named Charles Muntz. During the news reel, Muntz uses his blimp to visit exotic locations, one being a plateau in South America referred to as a “lost world.” Muntz is humiliated by the scientific community when the fossil remains of one skeleton he returns, is discredited as a fake, casting doubt on his reputation. Muntz vows to search for the animal and not return until he finds it.
The boy, Carl, is caught up in the romantic aspects of adventuring for fame. On his way home, he imagines he is the famous explorer and overhears another child’s voice using the same words. The sound comes from a dilapidated, old, abandon house. When he enters, he finds an assertive young girl named, Ellie, who befriends Carl and drafts him into her club with a membership of one. So begins the relationship between Carl and Ellie that we see in a short series of vignettes. They marry, rescue the old house, and live a wonderful life together to old age.
Here I must decline from describing the plot further. That would spoil too much of the film. Suffice it say that this little “film within the film” at the beginning of our movie illustrates a point, just as my story did – that our dreams often die before we have a chance to act on them. When Carl is forced by a developer to sell his house, he takes drastic action by attaching thousands of helium balloons to the foundation, and then goes to South America in pursuit of a dream. Along the way, he begrudgingly befriends a young boy scout and a talking dog, both endearing and the opposite of the old curmudgeon voiced by veteran actor Ed Asner (Carl).
The film “Up” works in so many wonderful ways that it when it fails at some, we tend to overlook those faults due to the beautiful nature of its story. Yes the film has a villain for conflict… and yes, the outcome tends to be predictable as it is in most “children’s” movies. However, the film is also full of surprises… colorful, brilliant, poignant, insightful… “Up” – penned by its director Docter and Bob Peterson – breathes new life into how we view relationships and what aging means to my generation, as we are often caught up in self-indulgent behavior, instead of looking out for the overall good. Highly recommended, “Up” is the also the highest megacritic rated film of the year with a 97% approval rating.
When I was a young man, I explored the Pacific Northwest with some friends of mine. One day as we hiked around the mountainous terrain, we came upon a waterfall. My friends were eager to go to its base and play in the cascading cool water. I felt satisfied to put my tired feet into the cool water slightly downstream. While they ran ahead, I waded into the rocky shallows. The sun that day caught a shiny object on the bottom at just the right angle. I reached down and plucked out a rock whose fall from the great height split the rock. When I pulled the two pieces apart, a brilliant vein of bright yellow gold ran through the middle. I hid the rock in my backpack, and vowed that one day, I would return to the falls to make my fortune. That was a very long time ago. The dream gradually slips away as I grow older.
This little story within my review is for a purpose. The film “Up,” directed by Pete Docter (with a non-credited co-direct by co-author Bob Peterson) begins in the same fashion. A young boy goes to the movies and sees a news reel about his idol, a heroic explorer named Charles Muntz. During the news reel, Muntz uses his blimp to visit exotic locations, one being a plateau in South America referred to as a “lost world.” Muntz is humiliated by the scientific community when the fossil remains of one skeleton he returns, is discredited as a fake, casting doubt on his reputation. Muntz vows to search for the animal and not return until he finds it.
The boy, Carl, is caught up in the romantic aspects of adventuring for fame. On his way home, he imagines he is the famous explorer and overhears another child’s voice using the same words. The sound comes from a dilapidated, old, abandon house. When he enters, he finds an assertive young girl named, Ellie, who befriends Carl and drafts him into her club with a membership of one. So begins the relationship between Carl and Ellie that we see in a short series of vignettes. They marry, rescue the old house, and live a wonderful life together to old age.
Here I must decline from describing the plot further. That would spoil too much of the film. Suffice it say that this little “film within the film” at the beginning of our movie illustrates a point, just as my story did – that our dreams often die before we have a chance to act on them. When Carl is forced by a developer to sell his house, he takes drastic action by attaching thousands of helium balloons to the foundation, and then goes to South America in pursuit of a dream. Along the way, he begrudgingly befriends a young boy scout and a talking dog, both endearing and the opposite of the old curmudgeon voiced by veteran actor Ed Asner (Carl).
The film “Up” works in so many wonderful ways that it when it fails at some, we tend to overlook those faults due to the beautiful nature of its story. Yes the film has a villain for conflict… and yes, the outcome tends to be predictable as it is in most “children’s” movies. However, the film is also full of surprises… colorful, brilliant, poignant, insightful… “Up” – penned by its director Docter and Bob Peterson – breathes new life into how we view relationships and what aging means to my generation, as we are often caught up in self-indulgent behavior, instead of looking out for the overall good. Highly recommended, “Up” is the also the highest megacritic rated film of the year with a 97% approval rating.