We’re ranking the films of Pixar Studios, leading up to the release of Inside Out.
Up
Directed: Pete Docter, Bob Peterson
Writers: Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, Thomas McCarthy
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The first 8 minutes or so of Pete Docter’s Up contain the best cinematic storytelling Pixar has yet accomplished. Starting with the introduction of the young boy Carl, and ending with the montage sequence of his marriage to Ellie, Up reaches higher than any other Pixar film before or since.
Oh, oh, that montage. It opens on a flash bulb, and a wedding. Smiles. That this is a silent montage makes the efficiency of the story telling and the empathy of the audience all the more affecting. Ellie and Carl are young, and they are in love. Docter’s camera works as an emotional guide-wiping from light to dark, from nursery to hospital-just as Michael Giacchino’s music starts to come down from its airy dancing quality to a singular extended note. A pregnancy has been lost. But that color and light bounce back with the same strength embodied by Ellie and Carl, who promise to continue looking for adventure. They make plans together, seeing the world instead of babies, and again, these plans fall apart. But they smile, and hold hands, and laugh. In a montage-inside-a-montage, we see decades of commitment personified in Ellie’s dedicated tying of Carl’s ties, tender and beautiful. Pete Docter does not shy away from the sadness of aging. Even as they dance, and smile, Carl mourns that he cannot fulfill his promise to bring Ellie to Paradise Falls. Instead, we see a life lived almost completely inside a single house. A house that becomes their tether in love. They are in love to the end, when a slow, soft piano plays over a single blue balloon floating to an elderly, dying woman in a hospital bed.
The sequence is elaborately designed, beautifully animated. It is marvelous to behold. Watch it, again, then try those tears.
The problem for Pete Docter? Nothing in Up reaches this level of storytelling again. Nothing even comes close to the first act.
Which is not to say that the remainder of Up is not worthwhile. It’s actually quite lovely. Carl (voiced by Ed Asner, decides to float his house to the top of Paradise Falls, which provides a beautiful, imaginative journey across the globe. His unexpected child companion Russell the Wilderness Explorer provides some hilarious dumb-kid physical comedy. The overlapping narratives of longing-Russell misses the time he spent with his now absent father-provides enough emotional heft to carry some of the weight that Pete Docter established in the early scenes. Throw in the wacky bird named Kevin, the talking dog named Dug, and you’ve got good comedy, and a bit of action to fill in the edges.
Still, watching Up again, it did seem a little more boring than I remembered. When I think of each part individually, I am struck by the parts. The contrast of the balloons carrying a house on the blue sky, paired with the music of Giacchino is satisfying enough to last a life time. The Alpha Dog’s voice box being stuck on the high-pitch nasal whine. The creepiness of Charles Muntz megalomaniacal search for Kevin. It all seems great .
But it never adds up to more than those three minutes in montage. Those three minutes make it all worth it, but without it? Up becomes a pretty good movie about an old crank a sad kid, and a talking dog. Which, you know, still sounds pretty good.
Best Line positing the simple philosophy of Up: “It may sound boring. But I think the boring stuff is the stuff that I remember the most.”
Best Line positing the simple philosophy of Pixar: “I have just met you. And I love you.”
Animation Inspiration: Pete Docter wanted his characters to be caricatures of humans, using unrealistic body shapes-blocks for Carl, balloons for Russell. That decision created naturalism issues for animators, but freed Up from the uncanny valley, which Pete Docter though plagued the Toy Story toys.
Best Double Picture: Up is the first film ever nominated for Best Picture two times: It received a nomination for Best Picture and Best Animated Feature.
Height Trivia: Carl is three Carl-Heads tall.
Pixar Positive Racial Representation: Russell is the first Asian-based character to be voiced by an Asian-American actor, Jordan Nagai.
Ratzenberger:
Best Animated Feature: Winner. Up also won Best Original Score for Michael Giacchino. Well-deserved.
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