Disney Pixar's Up Soars High but with a Couple of Bumps

by Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger

29 Jun 2009 02:36 PM

Disney Pixar's Up, now playing in theaters, may be the best movie of the year so far. Still, that doesn't mean that there isn't some room for improvement. Up is a wonderful tale that thrills in parts but has a few moments that could have been left out.

Up is at once a perfectly bittersweet love story, a realized childhood action adventure, and a classic comedy in which grumpy old man meets an enthusiastically cute and innocent Dennis the Menace archetype. The animation is just amazing.

But before Carl Frederickson can become the grouchy retired balloon salesman, he is first a silently awkward kid who finds his true love in the form of a spunky girl named Ellie who shares his passion for a world famous explorer.

Next comes the very best part of the movie. In less than ten minutes, the story of Carl and Ellie life is told without dialogue from the characters but with a lot of tears from the audience. While kids may find this part of the story vaguely interesting, anyone who has ever been in love better bring the tissues.

I wish the movie could have sustained the kind of elegance and flow of the retrospective, but this is after all a commercial kids movie. And while the plot is simple, two adventurers, Carl and Russell, having adventures and discovering that life can both disappoint you and surprise you in amazing ways, the overall affect makes you leave the theater thinking, "What a great movie."

There were a couple of things that I wish I knew ahead of time before taking my whole crew, along with another family and their whole crew. There was some moments of violence that I could have done without. There are so many ways that the story line could have avoided these moments, complete with their computer generated blood. Perhaps a PG rating is more appealing to the target audience these days than is a G rating. And typical of many Disney films, the kid in the movie is missing at least one parent, in this case, through divorce.

The younger kids in our group were terrified of the snarling dogs that seemed to leap out of the screen, even in the 2-D version, but this just added to the thrill of the film for the slightly older kids.

My objections aside, out of some of these moments of darkness emerges heartrending moments, a cute kid, an even cuter female bird named Kevin, and lots of thrilling adventure.

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Learn more about Mary Ann Romans

Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, the kids and a 16-pound cat.

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