Who says that animation is just for children only? Uh-uh...Everytime I hear the song "When you wish upon a star"- Disney's national anthem, I can't help myself to transform into a little girl, er, not literally but I do mean figuratively. hehehe Animations nowadays has evolved into films which has more substance which cater not only to children but to adults as well.
Like all Disney-Pixar films, “Up” contains not just impressive animation and packed with suspenseful action, but also counts on character-driven plot to keep the audience’s attention and interest.
The plot is evident even in the early trailers: a young “Junior Wilderness Explorer” accidentally “hitches” a ride with a cranky eccentric balloonist who, to escape being placed in an old folks’ home which is Shady Oaks Retirement Village, attaches thousands of helium balloons to his home, floats away and steers it to Paradise Falls which is located in South America and to fulfill a promise he made to his beloved late wife Ellie as he made the crossing of his heart.
Sharing their wild ride and discovering aspects of each other, the odd pair of the curmudgeonly Carl and effervescent Russel end up in the wilderness where they encounter not just a childhood hero of Carl, but also a pack of trained dogs who can talk, a rare flightless bird, and Dug, who belongs to the pack but who decides his loyalty lies with the newcomers.
What I didn’t expect from “Up” was a meditation as well on timely themes: aging, loneliness, the nature of marriage, the impact of divorce on children, and even the nature of dogs.
Earlier in the film is a brief rapid montage of scenes from the life of Carl and Ellie: how they met, their marriage, their shared dream of going on an adventure to Paradise Falls, and how the little emergencies of life ate into that dream, until illness and Ellie’s death seemed to put that dream out of reach forever.
So early in the movie, and already I was tearing up! Yes, as a sensitive me but I could sympathize with Carl (voiced by Ed Asner) in his desire to hang onto life as a he knew it, even as developers were closing in on his small patch of domesticity. But it is Russell, fat and naïve, who “loves the wilderness” even if he had never left the city, who teaches Carl that there are cares beyond oneself and one’s frustrations. And it is ultimately Ellie, in a message, who tells Carl it’s time to embark on another adventure, since their life together had been as much of an adventure as a trip to Paradise Falls.
Meditations on love, life and loss—such an unexpected bonus from an animated film!
