Pixar's Up

We finally caught Up this weekend. Personally, I had high hopes for this movie, but have to admit to a good deal of trepidation as I hit the "play" button. While Ratatouille was cute enough, and was well done, it was at the the bottom of my Pixar list (near the bottom of animated family flicks, honestly), until WALL•E came out anyway--what a snooze-fest! So I was a little worried that Pixar might have run out of magic.

I didn't even get through the title sequence before I knew that wasn't true. How could your heart not melt (or at least get a bit squishy) watching Carl and Ellie's life together. And Up just got better from there.

The voice talents rocked--particularly Bob Peterson pulling double duty as Dug and Alpha (Dug's my second favorite dog character of the year, I'd gladly watch his further adventures even if Russel and Carl weren't anywhere around). It took Frodo a syllable to recognize ol' John Ratzenberger, just wish his part had been bigger. Of course, Ed Asner carried the film, and did so easily--Carl practically lived and breathed, the combination of that animation and Asner's voice was a match made in heaven.

This, incidentally, is one of those movies that makes our upgrade to BluRay last year absolutely worth it...gorgeous movie.

The plot may not have been Pixar's strongest (wasn't the weakest, I'll add quickly), but whatever small problems it had, they vanished in the overall brilliance of this film.

Funny, heartfelt, exciting, and touching--everything you expect from Pixar.

Grade: A+