My Favourite Movies: Up



I have been a Pixar fan since their early days despite a few disappointments (I’m looking at you Nemo). Whilst The Incredibles is still the best of the bunch, in my opinion, Up comes a close second. It is a simple tale of old age, lost dreams, boy scouts, lost worlds and talking dogs – oh, and a whole host of balloons.


The story follows the life of Carl Fredrickson who, along with his life-long love Ellie, dream of adventure in the mysterious South American jungle. Unfortunately, as it often does, life gets in the way of dreams. They need repairs to the car and the house and, very sadly, hospital bills need to be paid. Almost before we’ve settled into our seats Ellie has died and Carl is left all alone (this is the saddest start to a Pixar movie ever). Years later Mr Fredrickson is a deeply grumpy old man who refuses to sell his house to make way for new developments. When it finally comes time to leave he escapes his old life by tying thousands of balloons to his house and sailing away – finally following his dream to discover lost worlds of adventure. Of course things are never really that simple. There’s Russell, an overeager adventure wilderness scout, to deal with as well as Dug, a talking dog. Of course there has to be a larger than life bad-guy too. This is the explorer Charles Muntz who has gone ‘off the reservation’ whilst looking for an extinct bird to save his reputation. When the dreams of Mr Fredrickson and Charles Muntz clash, sparks and dogs fly!


Once I got over the heart rending beginning I really enjoyed this film. Maybe this is partially explained by the guys at work who said that I was the real life Mr Fredrickson. I was honestly insulted. I don’t think that I’m anywhere near that grumpy! My favourite character – by far – was Dug the talking dog (can we keep him… please!) – who was one of the funniest characters I’ve seen in ages. So dumb, so friendly, so loyal….. so easily distracted [squirrel?]. As you might imagine, the animation was outstanding though purposefully cartoonish. The action moved right along and I didn’t roll my eyes once. Of course, being Pixar, there was a warm and fuzzy underlying story behind it all – don’t give up on your dreams but don’t let them consume you, don’t give up on life just because it’s dealt you a shitty hand and be really careful about helping boy scouts or adopting chatty pooches. But such things are easily forgivable considering how funny, clever and simply delightful this movie is. Even if you don’t have the ready excuse of having young children I can heartily recommend that you give yourself 93 minutes of high class entertainment – though I do recommend that you have a few hankies ready for the first 10 minutes. You might need them.