Up - Discussion and Grading thread [Spoilers]

[Trekker4747]

Up

Rated: G

My Grade: B

Disney Pixar's "Up" is their worst outting yet.

That said, it's still a pretty fucking fantastic movie.

It's just that, well, something has to be last (I've never seen Finding Nemo or A Bug's Life) and up until yesterday afternoon "Cars" was their "last" for me but now Up holds that spot but, really, it's not a bad spot to be in.

True to Pixar's ability they made a beautiful and warm movie but for me the characters were not that interesting unless we're talking about a dog with a collar on him that allows him to "speak."

Visuals are beautiful, animation is great -though I'm not a fan of the character design in this movie for the humans and story just lacks a certain ammount of "adventure" and it gets bogged down with an escort mission over a rare bird and a mustache twirling villian who's so set in getting to his goal he's willing to kill a child. :yawn:

I didn't hate this movie it just didn't motivate me to love it. It was just meh. A fair outing.

Which, again, for Pixar is pretty good.

 

[melancholymecha]

did anyone understand what a going on with Russell's parents? I get that he had a deadbeat dad but I didnt get what the deal was with his mom & why he called her by her name(was it Phillis?) Was that her in the final scene when he gets his pin?

 

[Ptrope]

Phyllis was Russell's stepmother; I thought it was pretty clear that his parents were divorced, and his father spent more time with his new family than with Russell.

 

[Michael]

I'm so looking forward to this movie!

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

On Thursday afternoon I went to see Terminator: Salvation a flashy, soulless, average hulk of a movie. I wasn't blown away by what I saw.

On Friday I took my two children to see Up. Who knew that such a kindhearted movie about a senior citizen and his flying house would be so much more satisfying and exciting than the latest entry in the Terminator series?

I don't want to go on a rant like I did my T:S review so I'll just try to post a few bullet points.

1. Nobody told me this sucker was going to be a love story. It wasn't in the trailers.

Thank God.

In the first ten minutes I got treated to one of the most beautiful, poignant stories of marriage and aging I have been priveleged to see in my life. Just watching the ups and the downs and the young and the old and the regrets and the loss and the...

It was emotionally draining and the beauty of it was that they managed to capture the feeling of the first ten minutes throughout the length of the movie.

Ellie was dead but by God she was there throughout the whole movie. She was the movie!

I cared about Ellie's dream. I cared about Carl trying to fulfill her dream. I wanted to bawl when he had to sacrifice his dream and then...

I wanted to bawl even louder when in the end we saw he had brought her dream to fulfillment after all.

Beautiful work!

2. The sinister character of Munst. I had no idea this movie was going to have someone this dark and dangerous as the villain. I didn't even expect a villain from the trailers. And the danger level this guy presented! He'd killed before! He had dozens of trained attack dogs! His giant zeppellin of death! I mean this sucker was such a thrill ride!

I didn't expect that from the trailers!

I love surprises!

3. Fuck it was good!

I think that was the most important thing to take from this movie. How many movies are worth seeing twice? Or even once? A lot of movies are strictly worth waiting for the DVD. This is one of those flicks you can see multiple times on the big screen and it'll be worth it any time.

A few weeks back I predicted that Up was going to kick so much ass in so many different ways.

I don't mean to be smug but...

I was right!

Thank God!

 

[Trekker4747]

did anyone understand what a going on with Russell's parents? I get that he had a deadbeat dad but I didnt get what the deal was with his mom & why he called her by her name(was it Phillis?) Was that her in the final scene when he gets his pin?

It seemed to me he had a mother and an... "other mother."

And that his dad was pretty much a loser who was out of the picture. I do wonder what they all thought of Russell being missing for several days. And I really have to hand it to the engineers of Carl's house, not only could it withstand the stresses of ballooned flight (through a storm none-the-less!) but it also held up to a lot more stress than that!

 

[Tomato]

I cried. and Cried.. Like Nathan Fillion said, This movie is the perfect robot test. If your date doesn't cry they are a robot.

Pixar does it again!

And was Russel Asian? My friends and I were having the longest debates. We were like no he isn't asian. He's just fat. That why his eyes are squinty.

 

[Messianni]

And was Russel Asian? My friends and I were having the longest debates. We were like no he isn't asian. He's just fat. That why his eyes are squinty.

Nope, he was meant to be an Asian character and voiced by a nine year old Asian actor named Jordan Nagai.

 

[trampledamage]

did anyone understand what a going on with Russell's parents? I get that he had a deadbeat dad but I didnt get what the deal was with his mom & why he called her by her name(was it Phillis?) Was that her in the final scene when he gets his pin?

It seemed to me he had a mother and an... "other mother."

And that his dad was pretty much a loser who was out of the picture.

Yeah, my take on it was that Russell's dad had divorced his mom and now had a new family. Phyllis is his new wife. Going by Russell's good memories of when his dad was around, I think he was a good father while he was there, but now he's moved away and has a new family.

And yeah, Russell's meant to be Asian.

Funnily enough I had these two exact conversations with mr trampledamage - things that seemed really clear to me (he's Asian and the divorce) my husband didn't pick up on. Maybe it's a life experience thing

 

[melancholymecha]

thanks all for clearing that up! And I too wondered if he might be Asian.

 

[trampledamage]

Thought you all would like this. A note and a drawing from Pete Docter to the "Friends of UP" group on Facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=103081094296&ref=nf