Synopsis:
By tying thousands of balloon to his home,
78-year-old Carl Fredricksen sets out to fulfill
his lifelong dream to see the wilds of South
America. Right after lifting off, however, he
learns he isn't alone on his journey, since
Russell, a wilderness explorer 70 years his
junior, has inadvertently become a stowaway on
the trip.
The Freak's
Rating: C+ : PIXAR has been absent for
a while from theaters, allowing Dreamworks to
become a front runner in animation production
(at least with speed). With most of the
world anxious for Toy Story 3 (in the works),
PIXAR's latest effort only needs to tread water
to keep our excitement up for their films.
Up does just that, but nothing more.
Bright spots of the film are the crisp animation
and lighting along with the hilarity of dogs
that can actually talk. I must admit there
were a number of moments I laughed out loud in
regards to Dug the dog. Casting is decent
for the film, not having any voices so
identifiable that they steal the impact of their
on-screen persona. Ed Asner is a nice
choice for Carl and delivers his lines
perfectly. Direction and editing is also
decent, allowing an evenly paced film.
Writing is the biggest complaint, being a tad
too morbid at times, especially at the beginning
of the film.
When
Toy Story was released, the animation quality no
doubt carried its ratings even higher by
audiences and critics alike, but we're past that
point now and animation can't carry the film any
longer. We require, or at least should
require, substance to our films, even the
animated ones.
PIXAR
has hit a slump as of late. They started
heading downhill with Cars, took a slight lift
with Ratatouille,
dropped tremendously with Wall-E
and have now hit the middle of the road with Up.
If you look at their previous features in terms
of quality (Toy Story 1 & 2, A Bug's Life,
Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo and The
Incredibles) it is difficult to rank Up very
high. The studio is capable of so much
more and at this point are just generating
mediocrity at its animated finest.
Jen's Rating:
C- : This movie did not impress me. I'm
really wanting the old Disney back. Remember
the good ole days when Disney character's broke
out into song in the middle of a scene? I love
that! They've gone away from that but at least
they usually have a decent soundtrack even if
the characters don't sing (like Cars). This
movie had NO music whatsoever. Plus it was just
so depressing. His wife dies, he's grouchy, the
little boy's father apparently ditched him, Dug
the dog nearly dies....it goes on and on. I
laughed only at Dug the dog which to be honest I
thought could be much funnier. I'm sick of
Disney and Pixar putting all of this work and
time into creating something that "looks" so
cool and not as much time on the actual content
of the movie.
Sebastian's
Rating: A : Unfortunetly Scott and Jen, not
only am I going to disagree with your reviews,
but I am also going to comment on them.
To start off, Up is a brilliant film. The
animation, the 3D, the voice acting and the
storyline is all superb. I'll start off by
saying this, Pixar has never made a bad film,
not even wall-e or cars in the freaks opion, and
there is certainly no way this is a bad film
either.
It starts of very depressing I will admit. With
carl's wife dieing, leaving him an adventurous
soul. It is sad, yet touching, and shows us that
even strong men can feel sad when a character
they haven't even met dies. It's very well done.
Russel, the little boy, is also quite a good
charactor. You'd think this movie would be all
happy, but it's not, however it's still
enjoyable for kids. However, my favourite
charactor would have to be Kevin, every action
he does and every sound he creates makes me
chuckle. He's a very likable charactor and makes
you forget about everything else when you watch
him jump around on screen.
I'd like to also quickly comment on jen's quote
about this film not having any music whatsoever.
This may in fact be true, however it doesn't
need music. There's a lot of orchestra playing
throught the film and really does keep you
entertained.
Overall the film not only "treds the water" but
really does have a high standerd. Scotts comment
saying that PIXAR rarely creates a film, only
once a year, whilst dreamworks creates a couple.
This may in fact be true, but PIXAR is a much
stronger company. They take time and pride into
each and everyone one of their films scripts and
animation. This makes PIXAR the best company out
there to me, for they have not made one bad
movie up to that. And not only does Up keep it
up in the top, but exceeds it, making it
possibly the best animation of all time. Some
depressing scenes and small faults (like hiding
under the porch) keep it from being an A+, but
it well and truely deserves an A.
click here to review
it yourself!
