Flying High!

Last night, my wife, my good friend Tom, and I went to see the movie "Up!". If you have seen the preview for this movie, it looks like a pretty standard film from the geniuses at Pixar. But the trailer and promo pics really just scratch the surface of this great movie!

Here is the info from it's Wikipedia page:

"Up is a 2009 computer-animated comedy-adventure film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. The film premiered on May 29, 2009 in North America as the first animated film to premiere on the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.[3] The film is scheduled for release on October 16, 2009 in the United Kingdom. This is the second film of director Pete Docter (Monsters, Inc.), and features the voices of Edward Asner, Christopher Plummer, Bob Peterson and Jordan Nagai. The film centers around a cranky old man and an overeager Wilderness Explorer who fly to South America in a floating house suspended from helium balloons. It is accompanied in theaters by the short film Partly Cloudy, directed by Peter Sohn.[4]

The film has received overwhelmingly positive reviews with a current rating of 98% on Rotten Tomatoes. It is the first Pixar film to be presented in Disney Digital 3-D[5]. A video game based on the film of the same name was released on May 26, 2009."

If you have ever seen any of Pixar's films, then you know that they set the bar VERY high for good movies. Filled with humor and amazing shots, the movies always are good, but always seem to have a great story. Without a great story all the computers in the world can't help the film. And Up! is no exception.

I will not give a complete re-hash of the entire movie. The trailer and info above give you a pretty good idea about what to expect. But what they don't tell you is the complex and very adult story behind all the colorful balloons. What the movie is really about is childhood sweethearts that connect over a love for adventure. The couple gets married and hopes to go on that great adventure "someday". But day-to-day "life" gets in the way. Then one day they realise that they've waited far too long and one of them has to go on alone. It's pretty heavy stuff for a cartoon.

After seeing the movie and thinking about how to sum up my thoughts in blog form, a Star Trek episode came to mind. It is my all time favorite episode from Star Trek: The Next Generation. (Yea, I know always back to Sci-Fi! But stay with me on this one!) It's called Tapestry. If you have never seen the episode, the basic theme is this: When you make your way though life, will you 'Play it safe' or 'Take a chance & go for it!' "It" will be different for everyone. But you know it when you see it. And it is a shame to see those choices from a rear-view mirror and say to yourself, "What if..." or "I should have..." I think that everyone must face such choices sometime in their life. Up! is about an old man trying to make up for lost time and fulfill a promise that a little boy made a long time ago. Like I said, pretty heavy stuff for a cartoon.

But, that being said, the heavy themes will most likely be lost on young kids as they laugh at "talking" dogs and the "old man" humor. It's a must see for everyone!