Movie Review | Up by Matt R.
Posted by Greg Weinstein | Filed under Culture, Film
If I can fly higher than an eagle, then grouchy, old men are the wind beneath my wings.
Get off my lawn and onto the flipside.
Pixar is the Dr. Dre of kid’s movies. Just having their name on a project gives it all kinds of credibility. Plus, I heard that when Pixar was a young G, they once slapped a ho to prove a point.
The film starts off with a news reel like they used to show at the movie theaters before your grandparents thought the maid was stealing their pills. Having all these events explained like this is called cheating, instead of finding a real way to give the back story. But look, it’s a younger version of the old guy from the poster, and he loves adventure. I bet he’ll find some of that one day.
Young old dude meets a fellow adventurer. She talks. He doesn’t. She’s brave. He’s not. She takes two steps forward. He takes two steps back. They come together cuz opposites attract.
It’s incredible how the animators are able to show their relationship without using any dialogue. Human actors aren’t always able to show the amount of emotion that these guys can create with pixels and the dark voodoo magic. And what a heavy montage it is. Infertility, bad luck, and death. I’m surprised they didn’t show the time younger old man Fredricksen went to that balloon convention out of town, had a few too many scotches, and made out with Heidi the helium sales rep. Can Disney make a movie without killing a parent?—No , I’m not crying, I just got some Sour Patch Watermelon dust in my eyes. *Sniffle*
Old dude, who is a three dimensional Mr. Magoo, promised to take his wife to Paradise Falls, just like their hero from the earlier movie montage. But then they got old and she did what old people do—they die. So now he’s all by himself in a neighborhood that he doesn’t recognize. He saw signs of it for years. First, that one Asian family moved in down the block. Then the evil construction company Hippies showed up and broke his mailbox. They obviously must have missed Gran Torino. You don’t mess with old people’s stuff until the dimentia sets in.
The fat boy scout shows up on the old man’s doorstep. And really, all he wants to do is help out. But you know old people. The only thing they hate more than missing the Price is Right, are grifters, gypsies, and meddlers. Although they do seem to all hate “The Home” as well. And that is exactly where the courts are sending old man Magoo. Well, not on his watch. Good thing he kept that lifetime supply of helium tanks (and all those fond memories of Heidi on that Indian summer night in Cleveland…)
Cue balloons. Adventure ensues.
This is what the other, lesser animation companies don’t seem to understand. You can make it believable to have talking animals if you create some invention that translates what they’re saying. Then it all makes sense in a solid, convincing manner.
Old man bumps into his hero from the opening newsreel, who had never returned from Paradise Falls. Except that was when the old man was a child. And his hero was already a grown man. So if old man is in his seventies now, this other explorer must be about 90? 100? It’s like an animated version of Cocoon. I swear on Ron Howard, if old folks start doing it, I’m out of here.
Speaking of doing it, how much dog incest went on here in the past seventy years? Muntz clearly got on his ship with three or four dogs. Now there’s hundreds of the things. No wonder Doug is such a dimwit. His bloodline has less diversification than the 1980’s Cincinatti Reds.
More whimsy.
I’m not going to push this matter, but these old folks are really in great shape for their age.
This is Disney people, so everything works out in the end. It’s never actually made clear, but I think fat boy scouts parent’s are dead . He seems to being raised by some woman named Phyllis. Good thing old man is there to adopt him. Until he dies. Or do only the women die in this world? Because the men seem to be of the stock that allows them to run around on top of zeppelins well into their hundreds.
We all know by now that Disney knows how to deliver. If you think this movie is just for children, I will bury you in alcohol, cigarettes, and pornography. The laughs are frequent because the elderly are funny. And movies generally don’t make them the hero, except for Eastwood. I’m giving this five out of five squirrels. Not because its perfect, but because everyone should get to enjoy this flick whether they have kids or not. Unless you have no soul. Then you should get your witch doctorate in voodoo and make animated films. Seriously, does anyone know how these cartoons are made? It’s headless chickens, right?
Pingback: Culture Shoq - Online Lifestyle Magazine Blog Archive Movie … | Senior Cyner