Joe Bartley is a guest writer whose witty commentary has been heard and seen around the campus of New England Institute of Art. Follow him at www.twitter.com/redspectrejoe.
Eight years after his first foray into feature films with his unique take on our childhood fears in Monster’s Inc.; Pete Doctor gives the world his newest vision in Pixar’s UP. Accompanied by Co-Director and Writer Bob Peterson the pair has created what I would hesitantly call Pixar’s most mature movie to date. This statement is made knowing full well that while there are childish elements in the film including an army of talking dogs, it is a movie that deals with themes and concepts which are often foreign and absent from these films.
Up is first and foremost a film about promises and devotion to those promises. The story follows an elderly man named Carl Frederickson who has spent his whole life with his wife Elle standing by his side. After she dies of an untold disease, he takes up her last wish to live in Paradise Falls, a place, which was discovered by their childhood hero Charles Muntz. Carl is joined by a young boy named Russel who is a boy scout hoping to get his “helping the elderly” badge so that he can become a senior scout. He has the unfortunate luck of being on Carl’s porch when the house takes off and becomes Carl’s companion much to the dismay of Mr. Fredrickson who was expecting an easy trip to Paradise falls.
Like The Life Aquatic and The Venture Brothers, up exists in a world where the imagination of children was captured by the idea of the adventurer on film. The man who personifies this myth is Charles Muntz, a man who was revered by the scientific and exploring communities until one of his findings was found to be a hoax. This causes him to leave the spotlight and chase after the creature that he found much like Steve Zissou’s Jaguar Shark. Charles plays the role of the foil to Carl showing what happens when a promise is held to tightly and one becomes lost to the pursuit of it.
UP is also a film about dreams. It is a film that tries to teach us that our dreams are what make us tick. They are what drives us and causes us to strive for something more than the mundane. The film very subtly states that one must never stop dreaming and moving forward otherwise they may very well lose themselves in the process.
This film was not what I expected. It was smart and charming but it also touched me in ways few Pixar films have. We expect certain things from Pixar; love, laughter, family, characters, but I did not expect those things to come together in such a way that it would bring together the hardships and joys of both childhood and old age so well. Whether or not you agree with me, I promise you will enjoy this film.
