Last night, I saw the new Pixar movie, UP! and I have to say that it was an interesting movie. I don't know that it makes my Pixar top 5 (which are, in no order, Finding Nemo, Ratatouille, Toy Story, Wall-E, and Monsters Inc.) but it was a solidly interesting film. In it, the main character, the grumpy old man Carl is mourning his deceased wife, who always wanted to live a life of adventure. Yet, Carl feels that she died prematurely, before she was able to realize her dream of going to "Paradise Falls" in South America. He feels that he needs to find Paradise Falls so that he can realize their shared dream, and complete her work. Carl's quite unsavory for the first half of the movie, and snaps at Russell (the token pseudo boy scout) who miraculously ends up on his porch once he's lifted off with his balloons. Aside from all the adventuring and 3-d graphics, there are some bigger issues that underpinned this film.
1) Carl is so caught up mourning Ellie (his wife) that he can't live in the moment, and he can't really communicate with other people effectively. He is unable to accept her absence, and almost blames everyone else in the world for her death. That's pretty heavy stuff for a children's film, and I honestly think it's very relevant.
2) Carl has regrets for Ellie's life, and constantly feels that they didn't live their life together to the fullest potential. At a point in the film, he opens her childhood journal, where she had outlined the adventure to Paradise Falls, and "the stuff I'm going to do there." He assumes that she never got to fill in the "stuff" part, since she never went there, but then discovers that she filled it with pictures of their life together. She led her life with no regrets, and that her biggest adventure was really with Carl. It didn't really matter that they didn't go to Paradise Falls- it was more that she had loads of smaller adventures with Carl. When he realizes this, he's able to move on, and stop mourning her as much. She writes in the book "Thanks for the adventure...Now go and find a new one!"
3) When Carl and Russell finally get to Paradise Falls, they come upon a rare bird (that looks like a dinosaur) that an old explorer on the island is trying to capture. Even though Carl idolized this explorer as a child, he realizes that this man will do anything to capture this bird, and isn't able to realize the importance of the bird's life or family. Much like Wall-e, Pixar is able to subtly suggest an environmentalist agenda, i.e. being kind and helpful to all animals. While Carl initially regrets that idea, Russell (the boy) is on a mission to help all animals, which reminds us to be caring and respectful to the wilderness and the animals there and here, in our own backyards.
Overall, the film still has some odd plot holes. (Like how come the dogs can talk? How did Carl get all those balloons? Why didn't he bring more on the journey? How did they get to South America? How come the adventurer guy is like 25 years older than Carl, and then they look the same age when they meet?) But the messages of the film are still quite nice, as they usually are with Pixar films.
Currently listening to: the new Andrew Bird album. Finally.
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