ANIMATED EXTRAVAGANZA 2 : UP!

Well, we started this week off with Pixar studios I don’t see why we shouldn’t go on with them =) No interesting story as to why I never watched this though. Nope, sheer negligence I’m afraid. But, it was the day after I watched Wall-e, and I was searching for something to watch for the day (during my sabbatical, I have adopted a “one film a day” policy. Unless something very exceptional happens, I try and definitely watch one film every day). And now since I’m hot on my new “themes” line, Up literally bounced out at me (for those of you who watched it, it was a bit like Russell “me, me, me!” =) ). It made me laugh, it made me cry… A beautiful film. Just goes to show there is a lot more to cartoons than meets the eye. So much so, I’m actually planning on doing a second week of them, studying the more unusual ones, but more on that later. It won’t be next week anyway ;)
Now, Up. Unless you moved to the moon recently, even if you don’t know the full story of the film, you will know that Up is about a flying house. Yes, an old man who ties tons of balloons to the flying house and makes it fly. It’s all over the posters and the teaser shown in cinemas. Now, let’s put that into context shall we? The old man is Carl Frederickson. He is one of the lucky ones who was blessed with true love. His wife Ellie and he were childhood sweethearts. They never had kids – not for lack of trying – but they truly loved each other and were happy. They had many things that united them and one of them was a childhood hero; the great explorer Charles Munson. When she was a child, Ellie wanted to move her house to Paradise Falls in Venezuela. Once grown up, the dream seemed slightly more improbable of course but they do their darndest to get there. They don’t manage however, and then Ellie passes away leaving Carl on his own and completely lacking in… Well many things, but above all a meaning to his existence. Then he remembers something: the promise he made to Ellie all those years ago. He was going to take her to Paradise Falls, and the house with them. As he is facing eviction and a forced trip to the retirement village, Carl decides the only sensible thing to do is to tie balloons to the house and make off. So he does just that. However, nothing in life is straightforward and the best made plans come unstitched at the seams. Carl’s begin when he realizes he has inadvertently brought someone with him on his porch… Then a pack of talking dogs, a strange bird and Charles Munson get mixed up in the whole thing. At the age of eighty-something, Carl is about to embark on one of the greatest adventured of his life…
I was once again struck by the power of animation as I watched this film. And the distance it has come since “Steamboat Willy” (that, in case you didn’t know, was the first name of the character we now know as “Mickey Mouse”). Cartoons were seen merely as children’s entertainment before whereas now, they can be used both to create new and wonderful worlds and characters and to convey very complicated sentiments. Take Up for instance. Without and dialogue and with the use of a very neat yet deep and meaningful sequence, we learn that Ellie has a miscarriage and thus Carl and Ellie are unable to have children. Ellie is heartbroken but Carl nurses her back to life, and reminds her of their dream of going to Paradise Falls, giving her a new lease of life. All this in a couple of minutes, touchingly put with all the appropriate sentiment. Then of course there’s the comedy factor. I mean not every actor in show bizz is good at mimics and accents; everyone has their own specific talent. With animation however, a host of caricatures and features become real – well pretty close to real anyway! This doesn’t mean serious topics cannot be undertaken, I mean I was so touched at one point I actually burst into tears and they were by NO means tears of joy or laughter… Love in its many forms is ever present in the film as is an INCREDIBLE adventure… Not to be missed…