boston progress radio

This article comes to BPR courtesy of Grace S. Grace enjoys living near the Pacific Ocean. One of her favourite pastimes is gorging on movies and tv.

“Up” is the latest movie after a series of phenomenal story-telling from the people at Pixar. This time, brought to you by Pete Docter who also directed “Monsters, Inc” and part of the writing team for “Wall-E”. Warning: This post may contain spoilers!

At San Diego’s Comic Convention last year, I had the opportunity of listening Docter introduce the film to a roomful of Pixar fans, showing a few clips that introduced their characters of “Up”, the location of “Paradise Falls” in South America and even a clip from the movie. The Pixar panel was very successful in influencing my decision on whether or not to see the film. It was an easy yes, and I knew I wanted to see the film the weekend it came out. This was the first Pixar film I have seen opening weekend.

The story is at its best in the first five minutes, bringing people to tears and tugging at the heartstrings of every person in the theatre leaving no one dry eyes. Hardly a word is uttered in the first few scenes, but, using only a series of images and some strong music, the emotional impact that Pixar and Michael Giacchino induces is unbelievable.

The main protagonist is a 70 something year old man named Carl Fredricksen (voiced by Edward Ash), who was a former balloon salesman living in a home belonging to him and his late wife surrounded by construction. Motivated by a desire not to be taken into a retirement home and aiming to fulfill a lifelong dream of reaching “Paradise Falls”, a fictional place located in South America, he decides to take his home and himself there with the help of hundreds or thousands of helium balloons tied to his fireplace, lifting his house. Unbeknown to him, the relentless Asian American Wilderness Explorer Russell who tries his hardest to assist Carl finds himself on Carl’s floating house — on his porch. Russell is there to reach his own personal goal of becoming a Senior Wilderness Explorer hoping his father would be there at his ceremony. However, Russell finds himself along for the ride, and land in South America, both Carl and Russell get a whole lot more than they bargained for. Russell and Carl meet a large, colorful bird named Kevin, a talking dog named Dug, and what seems to be an infinite number of other talking dogs leading to an incredible adventure.

There is no reference to Russell being Asian American except for some of his features. In fact, Russell is Pixar’s first Asian American character voiced by an Asian American actor, Jordan Nogai. He offers many of the laughs in the film, as do Dug and the many dogs in the film. I have to say, it was refreshing to see—that there was an Asian depicted in the film, and he was not a know-it-all or a martial arts expert or a gang member and he spoke with no accent. He could have been any ordinary, annoying yet endearing American boy, and I liked that.

I went in with high expectations and came out satisfied. Not unlike other Pixar films, it is a movie that stays with you, and the lingering emotions and messages that the film delivers remain rolling around the head for hours afterward. Wonderfully vibrant in colors and textures, the animation, along with the music and voicing, were completely perfect for the film. Again, Pixar delivers a film that is probably more for adults than for kids, as the message about life is aimed for the adults, though kids will certainly still enjoy the film.

Poignant, funny and entertaining. This is a movie I highly recommend everyone to see, to live like a kid again, and to take the message to heart. Pixar does not disappoint.

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Tags: Movie, review.