A wonderful short film stretched into a two hour movie. Bigger ain't always better.
The first part is moviemaking at its best and a milestone in animation. The two minute depiction of a lifetime marriage is a class act in itself: moving storytelling without a word spoken. Audiences the world over mellow and cry; why shoudn't they? Whereas, the scene when the balloons burst out and the house takes flight constitutes the film's showstopper, meaning not only that it's the most spectacular, but that it marks the emotional conclusion of the story, and should have ended it right there. For beyond that point, the sentimental balloon can only deflate and go down.
Two minor gripes on the descent:
Supposedly, once you buy the idea of a balloon flying house, anything goes. It does not. Talking dogs that fly planes can extract a laugh or two, but they totally wreck the mood created so far. It's like matching a Magritte with "Dogs Playing Poker" (a painting lampooned in the movie, by the way) on the basis that they're both surreal images. Not so. One pertains a subtle magic that's incompatible with the other's bold crassness.
Second, I don't quite get the villain. Sort of an airborne Captain Nemo; a discredited, embittered mad genius bent on vindication, if not revenge. In an obvious nod to both Verne and Disney, Muntz's art-deco zeppelin resembles Nemo's lavish Nautilus. Yet the man ought to be a centennial old geezer by now, instead of the silverhaired swasbuckling fiend that comes up with talking devices for dogs but can't catch a giant peacock that only requires a bite of chocolate. That's another thing: people who love nature and adventure tend to grow happy and wise as they get older. Would anyone kill an endangered bird, let alone shoot a kid, after a lifetime of experiencing nature's wonders? Sorry, doesn't click.
At long last, the movie ends as it should: the house arrives at the falls, the boyscout earns his badge, and the old man reacquaints himself to life. Lovely film that should have followed its own moral: in life, as in balloons and movies, one has to drop dead weight in order to soar.Get more detail about Up (4 Disc Combo Pack with Digital Copy and DVD) [Blu-ray].
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