Film Review : Up

I've always been a fan of the Pixar movies as they have never forgotten the primacy of the tale in their productions. They make great use of the latest technologies but not at the expense of a story you can commit to regardless of age.

This continues with their tenth film Up which has proven to be a runaway success in the United States where it was released in the early summer. That will almost certainly be repeated here in the United Kingdom following its' belated release last Friday.

Where it does move into fresh territory is in featuring a grumpy old widower in his seventies struggling to cope with the death of his childhood sweetheart. The first ten minutes of the movie presents a snapshot of the key milestones in their life together, and if you get to the end of this without a lump in your throat then you do need to check if you are the owner of a heart, lonely or otherwise.

This sequence has attracted some criticism for one particular scene where it shows that the couple were unable to have children. I'd got the impression that this was laid on somewhat thickly and have seen it described as overly manipulative but it didn't strike me that way at all. On the contrary, it seemed to provide a necessary understanding to why the lead character Carl found it difficult to build a relationship with young Russell when he appeared on the scene - an older man with a family would have been able to empathise much more readily than occurred in our tale.

Whilst the introduction is very serious and emotional (but without becoming too sentimental) the film moves on to the main story. Carl seeks to revisit the dreams of his youth and, in particular, to make the trip that he'd promised his late wife and to try and expunge some of the guilt he feels about his apparent failure for not being able to fulfil this whilst she was alive.

Needless to say, the inevitable children and animals are called in to support the tale, with Christopher Plummer voicing the villain in disgraced explorer Charles Muntz in grand style.

The film is primarily a 3-D movie (or, at least, in the Cineworld in Glasgow you can see it regularly in 3-D but only once a day in 2-D) and this is well done providing a real sense of depth and perspective. It's very light on tricks and a lot better for this in my opinion.

Next up for Pixar is Toy Story 3 which will be out next summer - the trailer looks enticing and there's no sign of the Pixar bubble bursting any time soon.