Up (U.)
Directed by Pete Doctor with Bob Peterson.
Starring voices of Ed Asner, Christopher Plummer, Jordan Nagai, Delroy Lindo, Bob Peterson. 96 mins.
In these days of simultaneous worldwide releases, it will come as a shock to younger readers that in the not-too-distant past people in the UK often had to wait months to see the latest Hollywood blockbuster. You’d get all the hype about how great something like Ghostbusters was in the summer when it came out in the States and then have to wait till Christmas to see it yourself. (Good Morning Vietnam took the best part of a year to make it over here.)
For some reason we are one of the last countries on earth to get the latest Pixar wonder, a mix of Darwin award style premise with a Lost World adventure and Russ Meyer title. You’re probably familiar with the sight of a grumpy old man flying in a house elevated by an enormous cluster of balloons attached to the roof and the small boy that inadvertently finds himself along for the ride and I’m not going to enlarge on that – these people know how to tell their story far, far better than I could.
A shuddering bolt of humour, heartbreak, warmth, adventure and joy, Up easily surpasses anything the cinema had to offer this summer and anything Pixar has come up with before. Like Wall-e last year, the film starts off with a daring, unconventional and almost dialogue free section before progressing into more conventional territory. The advance is that in Up the shift isn’t so jarring – in Wall-e all the stuff in the spaceship was a massive letdown after the timeless wonders of the opening 35 minutes, while in Up the heartbreaking 10 minute prologue feeds perfectly into what follows.
If I had to nitpick I’d point out that the need for exciting chases towards the climax leads to Mr Friedrickson (Asner), who is supposed to be a geriatric pensioner, suddenly performing acts of derring-do that would tax a pre-War Indiana Jones.
I supposed one day Pixar will make a bad film but it’s hard to imagine right now. Up is available in a 3D version which I haven’t seen and I’m sure is fine though I doubt is worth the bother – I can’t think of a film in less need of augmentation than Up.
Directed by Pete Doctor with Bob Peterson.
Starring voices of Ed Asner, Christopher Plummer, Jordan Nagai, Delroy Lindo, Bob Peterson. 96 mins.
In these days of simultaneous worldwide releases, it will come as a shock to younger readers that in the not-too-distant past people in the UK often had to wait months to see the latest Hollywood blockbuster. You’d get all the hype about how great something like Ghostbusters was in the summer when it came out in the States and then have to wait till Christmas to see it yourself. (Good Morning Vietnam took the best part of a year to make it over here.)
For some reason we are one of the last countries on earth to get the latest Pixar wonder, a mix of Darwin award style premise with a Lost World adventure and Russ Meyer title. You’re probably familiar with the sight of a grumpy old man flying in a house elevated by an enormous cluster of balloons attached to the roof and the small boy that inadvertently finds himself along for the ride and I’m not going to enlarge on that – these people know how to tell their story far, far better than I could.
A shuddering bolt of humour, heartbreak, warmth, adventure and joy, Up easily surpasses anything the cinema had to offer this summer and anything Pixar has come up with before. Like Wall-e last year, the film starts off with a daring, unconventional and almost dialogue free section before progressing into more conventional territory. The advance is that in Up the shift isn’t so jarring – in Wall-e all the stuff in the spaceship was a massive letdown after the timeless wonders of the opening 35 minutes, while in Up the heartbreaking 10 minute prologue feeds perfectly into what follows.
If I had to nitpick I’d point out that the need for exciting chases towards the climax leads to Mr Friedrickson (Asner), who is supposed to be a geriatric pensioner, suddenly performing acts of derring-do that would tax a pre-War Indiana Jones.
I supposed one day Pixar will make a bad film but it’s hard to imagine right now. Up is available in a 3D version which I haven’t seen and I’m sure is fine though I doubt is worth the bother – I can’t think of a film in less need of augmentation than Up.
