UP: Just a Piece of Latex in My Eye

Twenty years ago Pixar Animation Studios revolutionized cinema with the first full length completely computer-generated film. Two decades later and Pixar is still one of the most consistently groundbreaking studios in the business. Leading up to the release of their new film The Good Dinosaur, I will be going through Pixar's entire filmography at the rate of two movies a week. As anyone who has watched Up already knows, it is a masterwork in emotional manipulation. And I mean that in the best possible way.

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Directors: Pete Docter, Bob Peterson (co-director)
Writers: Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, Tom McCarthy
Cast: Ed Asner, Jordan Nagai, Christopher Plummer, Bob Peterson, John Ratzenberger
Runtime: 96 mins.
2009

Nothing makes me cry. I'm not a tough guy, I've just never had easy access to my emotions. Crying isn't weakness, it's a release valve. One that I'm often envious of. Most of my favorite stories throughout my life have failed to move me to tears. In recent years this has been changing a little bit; as I learn more about movies and the craft that goes into them, it has made me more capable of accessing and understanding the emotions at the center of the story via an intellectual conduit. Maybe that makes me sound like a sociopath, but that's how things are. I have to understand before I can participate.

With that said, I will readily admit that the famous opening montage of Up makes me cry like a fool every single time I watch it. For those not in the know, Up is the story of a curmudgeonly old man who lives alone. The first five or so minutes of the film contain a montage showing his progression through the decades with the love of his life, Ellie. It is one of the most elegant, effectively manipulative feats of emotiontugging that I have ever seen. The story it tells is so simple, as is its montage format. But this sequence of silent glimpses into the lives of this couple--strung along to a tremendously moving Michael Giacchino composition that crops up again and again in the movie, always reminding us of this opening salvo--yanks the rug out from under us so hard, it could almost be considered cruel. Of course, the sequence is not just an exercise in pathos; it also establishes the character of Carl Fredricksen (Ed Asner) with maximum economy. Thanks to these five minutes, any time Carl is kind of a dick in the movie (which is not uncommon), we can never hate or resent him for it, because we have seen the exact emotional arc that has brought him to this point. Everything he does is out of a bullheaded sense of love, even when his decision making is misinformed.

Up follows Carl and Russell (Jordan Nagai), a young boy scout stowaway, as they go on a journey in Carl's house-balloon. The house-balloon itself is a tremendous feat of imagination, fairy tale logic, and physics engines. Carl's goal is to go on the adventure he never got to take with his wife, whereas Russell's goal is simply to assist the elderly and earn his final merit badge. Behind each of these goals are hurting humans with significant emotional depth, a depth which gets teased out as our heroes get bound up in a fantasy plot involving an aging adventurer, talking dogs, and a mythical bird. Yet despite the bright colors and the exciting action of the bulk of the film, every triumph and every quiet moment are constantly tugging at our sleeve reminding us of the montage where all the meaning of the film is rooted.

I would be neglectful for not mentioning the performance of Ed Asner, a Hollywood all-timer who I grew up with as J. Jonah Jameson in the 90's Spider-Man cartoon. Up has a much smaller ensemble than a typical Pixar film, so a hefty storytelling burden falls on Asner's shoulders. He handles this burden no problem. Even down to the little sounds he makes as he's grumbling, or lifting himself out of a chair, Asner's Carl is a perfect performance, and a compelling argument against ageism.

As usual for Pixar, the visual world is stupendously realized. Not only the fantasy elements, but the comfortable domesticity of Carl's home, and the way those two environments interact. The movie is packed with subtle storytelling moments, aided along by the characters' physicality. One that especially sticks with me is the sequence where Carl accidentally knocks a construction worker on the head while defending his beloved mailbox from harm. The men in suits had been trying to extricate Carl from his home, and this accidental assault is the ammunition they need. Carl realizes this immediately; after locking himself in his house, he peeks out the window to see one of these suited men standing in front of his property, staring directly at him. Then the man lightly places his hand on a fencepost, a small but unmistakable gesture of possession.

I can't say I was super excited going into this viewing of Up, having seen it so many times before. I planned on half watching it, maybe doing something else while it was on. That was not to be. As soon as the movie started, I was drawn in, and my attention was held tight through the entire runtime. This is a powerful movie from start to finish, and a beautiful story of love, aging, and letting go.

4.5 / 5  BLOBS

The Short: Partly Cloudy

Everything about Partly Cloudy disturbs me. The reality it posits is one in which the storks that bring babies are working in tandem with a race of cloud people who create the babies and bundle them up. These cloud people are apparently omnipotent, and seem to be propagating the continued survival of Earth's species just for kicks. They get their jollies by creating life, and they never stop laughing. The storks get their jollies by transporting this life to those who will cultivate it.

Yet there is one cloud who appears to be in a lower social strata than the rest, and he creates nasty rather than cuddly creatures. Is this by choice? Is he just the lower member of a caste system? Does this means animals that have defense mechanisms  are somehow worse than helpless house pets? Then there's the matter of his relationship with his stork, a relationship that is the centerpiece of the story. The stork gets repeatedly injured by the animals the cloud creates, but the stork keeps doing it because the cloud will be hurt if he leaves for his own well-being. This is clearly a sketch of an abusive relationship, where the subservient member sacrifices herself to stick around because she still loves the cloud. I am partially exaggerating here, but I honestly don't really like anything about this short.

2/5