Review - UP

I've really got to hand it to Pixar. They've got fewer than a dozen feature films to their name, and yet they are all (in my opinion) great movies well worth seeing. During the same time period, the Disney studio has been a little hit-or-miss for my taste. I generally "like" all of the animated films from Disney and Pixar over the years, but as a whole, I personally find Pixar to be the stronger studio.

Since Disney officially bought Pixar and brought them formally into the "Disney Family", it feels like Pixar has rubbed off a little on the Disney studio itself. I'm not sure how much cross-pollination has gone on, but I must say I'm very grateful to Pixar for helping revitalize the Disney studios and help them produce even better movies.

After that lengthy introduction, it's probably no surprise to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the latest movie, UP. I've been hearing great things about it since it was released…interestingly, some of the best friend-reviews I've heard have been from friends who don't have kids.

This seems to be a recurring theme with some of the recent animation productions…adults are enjoying them as much as the kids. The hazard here is that the movies will cater too much to adults and then the kids won't have fun. Fortunately, that hasn't yet been a problem I've seen for Pixar.

When I first saw the trailers for UP, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. It looked interesting and fun and promised to have great animation and fun writing, but I wasn't exactly sure what to expect.

The family and I went to the dollar movie theatre up in Kaysville to watch the movie. As is customary with Pixar (and with recent Disney animated films too), there was a short before the movie.

This time, the short was Partly Cloudy a very creative take on the idea of Storks delivering baby creatures across the world. The short was hilariously fun. Jason was laughing so hard he started coughing up a lung and I was worried he was going to make himself puke. The other kids were also laughing themselves silly. The great animation and simple story were presented wonderfully and the slapstick style humor made the audience roar with laughter. It was A+ work once again.

As the feature film started we were given a very cute introduction to the main character beginning with his life as a young kid and progressing to his present self as a crotchety old man. This introductory sequence was super cute and filled with great humor.

The next few minutes were a bit slower paced but still kept the kids engaged with funny moments spattered throughout. Before long, the house was lifted off the ground by balloons and the adventure began.

I don't want to spoil the plot of the film, since so little was exposed by the trailer, but I will just say that I truly appreciate the creativity and imagination of the writers. The story was well thought out, very interesting to follow and had plenty of wonderful writing to keep the audience laughing with the characters and engaged in the suspense of the adventure.

Everybody in the family had a lot of fun with this movie and I'm sure we'll see it again.


4.5 stars