I wanted to love Up because it was a Pixar film. Pixar has produced some excellent films, the only disappointment to me was Cars. First, I liked Up, but I didn’t love it. I couldn’t figure out why and I was thinking about it while waiting for lunch and on the drive home. Then, it hit me.
If Up were a live action film, it would have been very average. I’d have been bored off my ass. The animation saved it, but that meant it wasn’t a good movie. (The Incredibles, for instance, would have been just as good as a live-action film or as a hand-drawn animated film.)
First, in defence of Up, the first ten minutes were brilliant. Absolutely phenomenal and entirely lost on kids. The rest was just okay, a summer popcorn film. It wasn’t a work of art. Wall*E was much better, I can tell you that.
Edward Asner (as Carl) has always been a favourite actor of mine, so I expected good things from his character and mostly got them. But Jordan Nagai (as Russell, the kid) damn near stole the movie — as real as any human kid. Villains, always the hallmark of any good, animated film, are important and Christopher Plummer just was weak, which is surprising because he’s very good at being bad. John Ratzenberger had his standard Pixar cameo — very brief. I also liked Dug the Dog only he had very little screen time.
I certainly recommend this film to kids. I think most adults will like it because as a Pixar film it’s very lavish and well done, but I’m just not feeling the love.
Afterwards, we had lunch at Cracker Barrel, simply out of convenience. Too bad because it was more below par than usual. The service was good though.
My ride home was delayed due to an overturned boat in the SunPass lane, so everyone had to drive around through the paid-toll lanes and it was pretty backed up.
5-31-09: BTW, a retro post was made today for those who are fans of the ECHL Matadors — hockey fans take note. Of absolutely no interest to anyone else 🙂
6-2-09 Edit: Fixed title to make SuzieQ happy.
6-2-09: My company is now on Facebook at this URL: if you’ve got an account, please become a fan 🙂