Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Up: An Adventure for the History Books

Every once in a while a movie comes along, that is so good that it is hard to explain it to people. Up is one of those movies. People ask me about it, and I find it hard to contain my excitement. It is just brilliant on every level. It looks great (colorful, bright, graphically stunning), but more than that, the story is great. It reminds us that nothing can trump a good story. 

Not all the graphics in the world can trump good writing and stories that transcend and touch all people. As we will see later this summer when Transformers comes out (already breaking box office records with pre-sales) and is full non-stop, mind blowing visual effects, but is completely void of any story whatsoever (not surprisingly confirmed by Empire Magazine who has seen the film and wonders if it was shot by a 13 year old boy because of its gratuitous obsession with Megan Fox's torso (see here), among other problems.

Up though never looses itself in effects (even though it is Disney 3-D); they are a supporting role to the story. Classic Pixar. Characters we love, adventure and action, funny and above all applicable and touching. It is about the human experience; never getting to go and do the things you and your spouse always promised to do, and then it being too late because life has a way of just getting in the way. Finding love and caring in the most unlikely places. And living so as not to regret. Up is the direction ones heart soars while watching this movie, through the pain and sadness it opens with right on through the laughter to the humbling ending.

When I last checked the film was rated 88/100 on Metacritic, the highest rated mainstream film of the year, and it deserves it.

1 comment:

Tim said...

Great movie, saw it in 3D which was pretty cool too. This story made me like Pixar a lot more than I already did: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/pixar-up-movie-2468059-home-show