Up

Sitting through the previews for Pixar's Up, I racked my brain for the last animated film I actually enjoyed. I missed out on Wall-e and Ratatouille, didn't care for The Incredibles, hated Night at the Museum (that was animated, right?)...until I finally settled on Finding Nemo, from 2003.

As a result I honestly wasn't expecting to love Up. I had heard mixed reviews, and I couldn't stop thinking about how much I paid for the ticket ($10.25!??) as we sat through what felt like hundreds of farting animal jokes during the "previews."

But after the film's first 15-minutes, which I found to be mildly depressing and centered a bit too much on the realites of growing old (a trait in films that tends to turn me off completely, see: Benjamin Button), I fell in love with Up. It was touching, colorful, absurd, and hilarious in equal measure. The somberness of the prologue allowed the rest of the film to soar (not a pun). It was aesthetically beautiful (even cooler in 3-D I bet), occasionally heart-breaking, and adorable in the way only a Pixar film can be.

In the film, Carl Fredrickson, the elderly protagonist, is forced to leave his beloved home for a retirement village. But on the morning they come to "get him," his house, outfitted by Carl with thousands of helium balloons the night before, takes flight. Along for the ride by accident is young Wilderness Explorer Russell, who provides much of the humor while proving to be (heart-breakingly) desperate for a father figure. From there, I'll abandon the plot summary, because the narrative grows increasingly unbelievable (at one point there are dogs in fighter jets quoting Star Wars) and I'm afraid of using the word "adventure" too many times. Suffice it to say that Dana, in the seat next to me, cried, squirmed and repeatedly shouted at the screen -- in a good way!

The only major flaw I saw in Up is something critics have been pointing out to Pixar for years: where are the females? The only female characters in Up either died within the first twenty minutes (oh, um *spoiler!*) or was a monstrous female bird...named Kevin.

To quote Linda Holmes's open letter to Pixar: "Of the ten movies you've released so far, ten of them have central characters who are boys or men, or who are anthropomorphized animals or robots or bugs who are voiced by and imagined as boys or men...I want so much for girls to have a movie like Up that is about someone they can dress up as for Halloween...Not a girl who's a side dish, but a girl who's the big draw. And I'd really, really like it not to be a princess." I couldn't have said it better myself. Up though, Pixar, was great.