Up

The latest animated brilliance from Pixar, Up achieves a welcoming blend of humour, emotion and action. And perhaps best of all, the hero is a senior citizen! The story begins when the main protagonist, Carl Frederickson (voiced by the gruff Ed Asner), is a child dreaming of adventure. His main inspiration is Charles Muntz (voiced by Christopher Plummer), an adventurer who has returned from South America with the skeleton of an amazing creature. Muntz is publicly humiliated though when the bones are said to be fake, and he vows to go back to South America to catch a live specimen of the creature. Carl meanwhile meets Ellie, a spirited young girl who has similar dreams of adventure.

In one of the most beautiful and moving montages we are likely to ever see in animation, we watch as the two marry and build a life together. They hold on to their dreams of adventure and put money aside for a trip to South America, but the events of everyday life conspire to frustrate their plans. So they grow old together in their home until Ellie falls ill and Carl is left on his own. The montage is done silently except for a beautiful score from composer Michael Giacchino, and it is hard to think of a more poignant beginning to a film.

Carl is now 78 and living alone in his home, shutting himself off from others. The world is increasingly forcing its way in however, with construction turning his neighbourhood into a high rise centre. After accidently assaulting a construction foreman, Carl is forced into a retirement home. But Carl has decided to fulfil a promise he made to Ellie to go on their adventure. Utilising equipment he has from his lifetime work as a balloon seller, he fashions his house into a flying machine and lifts off into the sky over the city and south towards his destination. To his surprise and dismay though, he has a stowaway on his front porch. Russell (voiced by Jordan Nagai) is a young boy trying to achieve the last badge to be a full-fledged Wilderness Explorer, similar to being a Boy Scout.

They make it to South America and are tantalizingly close to Carl's ultimate destination before they are forced to track through the jungle. Along the way they meet an exotic bird and a pack of talking dogs. Not to give away too much, these animals are tied up with Muntz, who to Carl's initial delight has been living upon his giant flying fortress in some caves in the area all this time. The resulting battle between these two senior citizens, with some help from Russell for Carl, is both humorous and exciting to watch.

This is an ideal film to see with your grandchildren, but it is also very rewarding to see by yourself or with friends. Being a senior citizen, it is especially easy to connect with Carl and his situation. It is absolutely wonderful to see the main star of the film as someone other than a know-it-all teen or a buff 30 or 40-something year old man. As with the best Pixar films, Up deals with a sense of loss, isolation, family and connections between people. Each of the main characters has suffered loss and is on a quest to replace it by meeting some kind of challenge. By the end of the film, these challenges have been largely met by Carl and Russell. But it is the relationships and realisations formed along the way that provide these two with a new sense of purpose and emergence from isolation.

The film features Pixar's trademark groundbreaking animation. It is available in 3D at the cinema, and there are some beautiful effects achieved with the technology. Scenery is shown in layered depth, the characters are fully rounded and some action scenes are spiced up by projectiles flying out at you. On the other hand, the glasses are somewhat uncomfortable and they restrict your vision in a sense as you are forced to look at the focal point instead of allowing your eyes to wander around the screen. People who wear glasses or contact lenses are also likely to face further discomfort. Finally, the 3D prints are actually a little washed out compared to their more colourful 2D counterparts. Our recommendation? Save your money, and your eyes, and see it in 2D. The animation is still cutting edge, and some would say better in 2D.

Up is now showing at cinemas nationally.

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