Review of the new Disney-Pixar film Up, not released in cinemas until October this year but screened at Glastonbury Festival in the Pilton Palais cinema tent.

Director: Pete Docter, Bob Peterson
Starring: (voices) Edward Asner, Christopher Plummer, Jordan Nagai
Running time: 96mins

Up follows grumpy old-age-pensioner Carl Fredricksen following a life-long dream to visit South America, inadvertently bringing a new friend with him, in the form of the eager to help Russell – an 8 year old boy intent on helping Mr Fredricksen in order for him to gain his ‘assisting the elderly’ explorer scout badge. However, it is not the South American adventure section of the film which displays the usual Pixar magic; the portions of the film which take place in Mr Fredricksen and Russell’s home town seem to have a different quality to the rest. The first meeting of Mr Fredricksen and his future wife Ellie is very well conceived and scripted with touches of physical comedy and charming characterisation, character development which is enhanced by a wonderful montage of Carl and Ellie’s life together (the couple’s families seated on either side of the church at their wedding is fantastic) from childhood sweethearts to elderly couple. This set-piece is very sweet and moving, handling the highs and lows of their life with delicacy. Everything about Up’s presentation of the Carl-Ellie relationship is charming and delightful whilst never becoming saccharine-soaked and overly sentimental. Sadly as Ellie dies, Carl becomes a slightly bitter and grumpy old man, but remains endearing and likeable. He does typical old-person things with a familiar dislike of outside help (namely the ever-eager Russell and the prospect of living in a retirement home) which magically seem to maintain an element of freshness; Up demonstrates that characterisation can be thorough and well developed even with such limited running time.

As the action moves to South America (courtesy of the thousands of balloons attached to Mr Fredricksen’s house) the tone of the film shifts also, moving away from sweet and gentle and becomes more of a buddy comedy/road movie with the bickering Mr Fredricksen and Russell making an engaging (albeit slightly odd) pair – the sequences in which they pull the house along by a tether rope are particularly good. As the pair cross continents they meet an exotic wild bird which Russell names Kevin (despite later discovering Kevin to be a female with a number of baby Kevins) and a number of talking dogs – luckily these characters escape the usual Disney talking-animal schtick by ingenious collar devices which project what they are thinking through a speaker, a device which allows for some wonderful comedy, with the evil canine leader apparently having a voice hilariously incongruous to his stature and appearance. That the collars project what the dogs are thinking and not what they are saying means that with their ‘dialogue’ come random outbursts of typical dog behaviour, namely shouts of “SQUIRREL!!!” which are priceless.

With the film’s climactic final act come some excellent action sequences, involving planes and high-altitude antics all of which are well executed and visually impressive. However, as with the the early parts of the film, Up’s character-driven scenes steal the film, with the closing moments belonging to the now firm friendship between Mr Fredricksen and Russell. In all, Up is highly entertaining animated fun with a lot of heart and bags of charm.

Rating: MMMM