Up (Pixar's 2009 film)

Because if I don't put that qualifier in the thread title it'll be impossible to search for.

Pixar's next two films after this are Toy Story III and Cars 2 so let's take the time to celebrate this one all the more. I've thought Pixar's strongest overall years have actually been these last few and this film on top of Ratatouille and Wall-E has the makings of a hell of a trifecta.

NYT demi-whimper article with people complaining that it won't be a super-colossal hit but just a hit is good for laughs but contains these details:

The film, about the adventures of a cranky 78-year-old who ties thousands of balloons to his house, features dazzling animation that evokes the work of Hayao Miyazaki, the refined Japanese filmmaker and anime master. Like Pixar’s Oscar-winning “Wall-E,” there are stretches without dialogue. A few scenes are rendered in black and white.

... A commercial juggernaut or not, “Up” has struck many early viewers as creatively stunning. The story focuses on Carl (voiced by Ed Asner), a prune-popping balloon salesman who, after the death of his wife, sets out to see the wilds of South America.

His young companion, Russell (voiced by Jordan Nagai), is a “Wilderness Explorer” working on his last merit badge, “assisting the elderly.” An exotic bird joins the excursion, which encounters a hilarious squad of talking dogs.

The animation is heavily stylized. Carl is not realistic looking, for instance, but has square features: fingertips, face, liver spots. The color palette is notable for its turquoise and magenta.

Nothing involving the picture was rushed — Pixar spent four years on it — and, apparently, no expense was spared. Mr. Docter and some of his colleagues flew to Venezuela for a three-day helicopter and Jeep tour to study jungle scenery; others spent time observing a rare pheasant at the Sacramento Zoo.

“We wanted more ‘Dumbo’ and less ‘Star Wars,’ ” Mr. Docter said. “In certain parts, it’s more of a feeling we’re going after than linear storytelling.”

http://img293.imageshack.us/img293/3673/imageuploadimageu.jpg

Realistic!

Cars 2? Oh great, a sequel to the one Pixar film I couldn't even sit through until the end.

This one sounds pretty neat though.

*cough* sounds familiar...
http://www.vgculturalcenter.com/images/event_images/james-and-the-giant-peach.jpg

LA Times fluff but it provides more context and detail and etc.

Cars 2?

Hulk smash

There's been lots of noise about this being heavily miyazaki influenced; I'm pretty psyched.

friend of mine who saw an early screening of this says it's fantastic

Russ Meyer's Up >>>>>>>>>>>>> Pixar's Up >>>>>>>>>>> R.E.M.'s Up.

^^^ this is likely factual.

all the trailers and sneaks that they've put on youtube are great. this will be the first movie I take my son to (he's 3); he's been asking about it every day for a month.

Not looking forward to Cars II unless they really improve on the first one (which is possible); Toy Story III will be excellent though.

I am probably alone in liking the first Cars movie, which I did expect to hate.

It's far from their best film, but still miles ahead of any other studio animated movie.

http://img12.nnm.ru/2/0/8/4/9/52f7324d7446c6d51d781b18499.jpg

Oh, that's right. I'll revise:

Russ Meyer's Up >>>>>>>>>>>>> Pixar's Up >>>>>>>>>>>>> Shania Twain's Up! >>>>>>>>>>>>> R.E.M.'s Up.

Elvis T. is a major Cars fan so you're not alone on here at least.

yeah didn't like Cars at first but it's grown on me a lot upon repeated viewings (my nephew's obsessed).

Anyone seen it yet? (Will probably be catching it next weekend, though I do have the day off tomorrow so maybe then...)

Cars isn't their best, but I like it. My son went through a phase of watching it constantly, so I've seen it plenty of times.

I've been a pretty big Pixar fan, but I wasn't particularly thrilled by the Up trailer. Seems like people are enjoying it so far though...

I can find something to like about every Pixar film, and I don't expect Up will be any different. The trailer's not making me enthusiastic, but the article Ned posted to start the thread is.

Linking to Armond White review here so Morbs doesn't have to:

http://www.nypress.com/article-19876-the-way-of-pixarism.html

Instructions to most fully enjoy link: do not click on link.

The comment section under the article is pretty enjoyable, though.

Seeing this for five bucks on a weekend morning...excited. (Skipping the 3D.)

Nothing involving the picture was rushed — Pixar spent four years on it — and, apparently, no expense was spared. Mr. Docter and some of his colleagues flew to Venezuela for a three-day helicopter and Jeep tour to study jungle scenery; others spent time observing a rare pheasant at the Sacramento Zoo.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_D1ZZyTOG7tQ/RxEFGKS5WEI/AAAAAAAABJo/xAn3g6X3bAw/s320/DevilDoll.gif
what

Comments on the nyp article ARE entertaining

there are bad critics and then there are bad people and armond white consistently seems like the latter imo

Haha CHICKEN LITTLE!

It's so hard to take him seriously. I mean he's obviously fucking with everyone here.

no i think he's "serious"

i'm gonna go see this tomorrow in 3d and i'm going to argue with the ticket window girl about charging me extra for 3d glasses when i kept mine from when i saw coraline

Maybe you should make a list of your strongest points first. Preparation is key!

"no i think he's "serious""

It's pretty hard to tell sometimes, I'll give you that.

can't wait for morbs to weigh in on this

Remember, tho, Morbs liked WALL*E.

He's such a sucker for cuteness, that Morbo.

morbz is obviously off somewhere buying balloons

ha ha hahhaaa!

i thought the previews for this looked pretty good!

That review - hoo boy!

The whole Pixar as corporate shill argument is cute and all, but if you're main line of attack against a film is criticizing a film studio for corporate connnections, then you probably need to either find a new line of work or move to Scandinavia.

Haha CHICKEN LITTLE!

Fuck anyone who takes Zach Braff poultry for high art.

no one revived this thread for 5 days?
SHOCKING!
i wanna see this badly

Waiting on Saturday for me...

i was reading somewhere that it's the saddest pixar movie yet,
as opppose to the the trailer, which shows fragments of funny bits.
makes me wanna see this even more

Same here, which makes me think that the claims of this being especially Miyazaki-like in terms of tone aren't far off.

seeing this tonight in 3D!

Saw it on Friday, I agree pretty much completely with: http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/?p=1873
... but I was also somewhat frustrated by the film’s somewhat transparent philosophizing (”don’t live in the past”, “don’t let your belongings hold you down”) and ham handed psychological metaphor (Kevin the Bird as mother figure, Doug the Dog as child, hefty round boyscout evoking wife’s spirit of adventure, Muntz the bad guy as castrating father). When so much thought is clearly given to every nuance of a film, I expect more complex subtext.

That said, it’s a must see; though perhaps not as good as Wall-E. It’s half a spectacular film and half a good film.
The Miyazaki connection is pretty much only skin deep.
Most of the theater I was in was bawling at one point or another.

THIS MOVIE IS SO GOOOD :D A+++++++

and i got 3d glasses now so the world is in 3d SQUIRREL!!!

in the scene where u first hear doug and they think its a guy the theater was totally silent and a little girl yells out ITS THE DOG

LOOOOL

so many great moments

Oh god, that bit. Devastating.

I love the looseness of tone, but it could come across as uneven I guess. The whole visual side has really stuck with me too; Pixar have made a lot of great looking films, and this might be their most beautiful - the landscapes, and colours and hugeness of the environment are wonderfully done.

That's ironic, because I always thought of this as one of the lest visually interesting Pixar films. The jungle is empty - no creatures but that bird. The rest is set in a barren, rocky valley. Compared to the incredible water stuff in "Nemo" (my vote for best looking), or the planet in "Wall-E," or even the landscapes in the otherwise terrible "Cars," I think "Up" is just full of missed opportunities, on both the story and visual front. BUt dif. folks, etc. Obviously a lot of people like this one.

I had totally forgotten about the scrapbook bit. Yeah, that's brings back the heartbreak, all right.

This is a sparse movie. Maybe he really went back into the house and killed himself instead of unleashing the balloons. Everything after that moment is just his afterlife ride into salvation.

If the balloons were already inflated, they should have taken the house Up into the sky already. See what I'm sayin?

Maybe he's still dreaming as a kid about his adventures as a lonely old man.

And he's Korean.

Maybe it's Doug's dream about talking humans.

I just have a hard time negotiating my way back to that place after flying talking dogs and blimp battles and giant exotic birds and fat kids, et al.

Ehh, I think the movie was fine despite this. There's clearly a major shift in gears but there's really nothing wrong with a movie that tries to be two things

I mean, it's no Full Metal Jacket or anything.

The sadness doesn't really go that far away though, it's always the why of what he's doing and where he's stubbornly going to. I mean yeah it gets sidelined by an adventure, but that kind of the point?

oh oh oh and I love the hero stubble. stubble! makes you tougher!

Lots of stuff in this movie is hilarious. That's why I wish it was all dog and animals. Imagine a movie with a secret society of talking dogs left to fend for themselves in the jungle after their master died!

― Josh in Chicago

see this yet?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxJj64D5alE

bah - embedding disabled - you'll have to click the link

ha, thanks! hadn't seen that

Wall.E way more uneven, to me, than Up.

I've avoided spoilers, but apparently "Brave" gets derailed halfway through by its own silly digression. Still excited to see it with my daughters. They like silly digressions.

Wall.E way more uneven, to me, than Up.

Good point. The first section of WALL·E is so wonderful that I tend to forget how much I (now) actively dislike all the human stuff in the 2nd half.

it was all real!

https://p.twimg.com/AxWTRZyCAAAIYle.jpg

I rewatched Wall-E a few weeks back and I don't think any of the spaceship stuff is so markedly worse than the (fantastic) opening act.

Was never a big fan of Up, in comparison to Wall-E or otherwise, but ... after the recent Cars 2/Brave twofer ... man ...

i'm glad this thread was revived with an adorable picture, i really hated to think the same circular conversation going on here a couple weeks ago was still at it

A list of the Pixar movies that made me tear up:

Wall-E
Toy Story 3

So is Monsters Inc. 2 next up? Trailer for that looked sort of straight to DVD.

Watching almost anything with my kids makes me tear up.

Ratatouille was my most recent favorite. Toy Story 3 was great but still just a sequel.

Otherwise ive found diminishing returns with each film since 2007.

There are more Pixar films that make me tear up than don't.

If you did not cry at the "When Somebody Loved Me" bit in Toy Story 2, man . . .

haven't seen Brave yet but imo outside the Cars movies Pixar is still pretty much unimpeachable with the 07-09 run being especially great

Toy Story 3 was great but still just a sequel.

Matters not if both sequels are greater than the original.

So is Monsters Inc. 2 next up?

Wreck-It-Ralph is next in line.

Wreck-It Ralph is Disney but not Pixar

does brave have a crying moment?

Scenes in Pixar movies that made Jer cry:

-the "When She Loved Me" sequence in Toy Story 2
-the final shot of Monsters Inc.
-the entire first 10-15 mins of Up
-the final scene in Toy Story 3

If that doesn't seem like a lot--and if you think me heartless for not tearing up at Finding Nemo or Wall.E--know that I honestly think I've cried at less than 10 movies in my life as an adult, and there's four of them right there.

xps oh I thought it was Pixar. d'oh

Cars 2 made me wanna cry, too, but for very different reasons than any of the aforementioned.

The two Cars movies are the only Pixar works I've not seen (well, haven't seen Brave yet either). I think my cry moment's are the same as jer's.

*moments

the final scene in Toy Story 3

The welling up bit for me was when the toys were holding hands sliding down towards the furnace. The final scene was ruined a bit by grown-up Andy being kind of a idiot.

Final scene's weight didn't have much to do with Andy, but rather the little girl and the toys' reactions to Andy.

I should get around to seeing Toy Story 3 some day.

haven't seen Brave yet but imo outside the Cars movies Pixar is still pretty much unimpeachable with the 07-09 run being especially great

Cosign, especially on that last part.

I did, however, enjoy the Cars ride at Disneyland yesterday so hey.

Coming up on the tenth anniversary. Definitely a keeper. (All the complaints about the film on this thread leave me puzzled.)

Anyway, Disney shared this yesterday: the original storyboards for THAT sequence, set aside the final result.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoyZmu0IOKc

i cried at the opening of this movie in the theatre.

i remember next to nothing about the remainder of the film, which i remember being bored by. the complaints upthread have jogged my memory.

same. the opening eclipsed the rest of the film for me and I still feel awfully sad about that scene

I haven't seen this in eons, but keep meaning to. Love it.

I don't know what's wrong with me, but the marriage portmanteau in this feels mawkish and manipulative, whereas the silent pathos of WALL-E quite reliably evokes a tear.
(NB what is this "mawk" that "mawkish" things are like?)

Not least because Wall-e>>>>>>>>>>>Up

Up is Pixar's most inventive film apart from anything else, perhaps the best as a result.

it's certainly up there

I'm going to admit while at the Lego Movie last night when the trailer for Toy Story 4 came on (the teaser which is just the characters with "Both Sides Now" playing) I welled up in tears.

Time to (re)mix it up! This pixel perfect adventure is one you don’t want to miss. pic.twitter.com/gDWWbRtwHb

— Pixar (@Pixar) February 18, 2021

wow

official!