I was set up a bit for this movie by others who had seen it first and kind of fed my some erroneous spoilers.  Someone told me it was very sad and the dog died.  So, I kept waiting for the dog (of which there are many) to die, and it never did.  It was a bit sad at the beginning, but not too much as it involves a character the audience doesn’t get too heavily invested in, and incurs in the first 20 minutes or so.

It was an important 20 minutes though, as it created all the motivation for the movies main character, the older gentlemen to do what he does.  The person who dies early on, is his wife, and it does more then add a touch of sadness to the movie.  What it does, is make the older person seem more of a real person, especially to a younger audience.  The earliest scene, shows the older gentlemen as a young boy of about 8 or 9, meeting is futre wife over their shared passion for adventure.

We see them grow up, get married, have a life together, and realize a lot of their dreams will never come true.  Those first 20 minutes are a bit of a mini movie itself, and with an extra 1 or 2 minutes to wrap it up, I’m sure it could have been a pretty decent movie short.  But, that would take all the fun out the rest of the movie.

Up, is a movie by Pixar, so as you would expect it’s incredibly well done.  Not just the animation, but the attention to detail the story tellers incorporate into the movie.  From the way the house is floated and navigated through the sky.  Totally impossible to achieve in real life, but with enough explanation through the movie telling, the my suspension of disbelief was sufficiently appeased.  Being a sailor helps here (see the movie and you’ll know what I mean.).

One of my favorite parts of the movie has to be the dogs.  The talking collar on all the dogs is pure genius.  Not to mention an incredibly abundant source of humor for the movie.  From the nasty mean doberman with the malfunctioning collar that sounds like Alvin from the chipmunks to our main character good dog, that has a fascination with squirrels.  I have a dog that goes nuts over squirrels and forgets everything else in the universe at the time.  Anyone that has a squirrel chasing dog, has to laugh at this bit of the movie.  Having some insight into dogs, and having them say what a dog would it would really be thinking in a human voice is quite comical.  Reminds me of that old Gary Larson cartoon, where the dog hears nothing the owner says, except for the dogs name.

Definitely a fun movie, and one I would recommend without hesitation to just about anyone.  Unless of course you’ve had your sense of humor surgically removed, and hate dogs.

Tags: pixar cartoon, pixar movie, The Movie Up, up review