Scooter Chronicles

A week or so before Christmas, I bought the movie “Up” for myself. I have gained a great affinity for the work of Pixar. It stars the voice talents of Ed Asner, Christopher Plummer, newcomer Jordan Nagai, and in smaller roles, Bob Peterson, Delroy Lindo, Jerome Ranft, and as usual John Ratzenberger makes an appearance, too.

For those of you in the world that haven’t seen the movie yet, all seven of you, here is the best description I can come up with on my own:

As a little boy, Carl Fredrickson (Asner) dreams of following in the footsteps of the great adventurer Charles Muntz (Plummer). On the way home from seeing a movie that included a news reel featuring a story on Muntz, he comes across an abandoned house with a girl named Ellie who is about his age playing explorer, too, and saying Muntz famous tagline “Adventure’s out there!” They soon become fast friends and eventually marry. When Ellie dies many years later when they are senior citizens, and Carl hits a construction worker with his cane after they run into their mailbox, he is sentenced to live in a retirement home. However, when the guys from the home show up the following day, Carl unleashed thousands of balloons to the house taking off for Paradise Falls in South America, the place that him and Ellie always dreamed of going to one day. Before Carl can get far, he realizes he has a stowaway in the form of Russell, a young boy that was trying to help Carl catch an imfamous “snipe” earlier. Soon Carl will find out that Russell won’t be the only obstacle he has to maneuver over/around to fulfill his dreams.

Now that I have gotten that all out of the way, I am not sure I can say anything new about the movie that hasn’t already been said. I love how the movie wrapped up Carl and Ellie’s with so much emotion and depth, yet there was hardly a word spoken and it was done in less then ten minutes (as stated by Samurai Frog a while back).

Newlyweds Carl and Ellie

I love the lessons to be learned about redemption and not backing down on your promises. Or more, that you have to mean what you say, even if it’s to a kid. I love how they were daring enough to thrown in the subject of a miscarriage, yet it is so quickly set passed over it gives some meaning to how one can move on from such tragedy. I love how it seems that Pixar picks the right actors to voice their characters based on the character and the movie itself and not “star-power” as evidenced with Ed Asner this time around. I love the humor thrown into the mix at the perfect places and with the perfect amounts. And I love Dug. He is just too damn funny!

Dug in the dreaded “Cone of Shame”

There is more that I can say, but it wouldn’t be worth it. As with all the Pixar movies that I have seen (need to see “Ratatouille” still), they continue to put together a quality movie that tells a great story. There is not pandering to one demographic with some parts thrown in for others that might “have to” see the movie with others. There is no need to develop characters or items within the movie so that they can make toys or games to sell to kids. There is none of the other extraneous things that have been a part of big blockbuster movies over the more recent years. It’s just about making a great movie, period. And they did it again.