Tonight Chris and I saw Pixar's new movie, UP, in digital 3D! We both really liked it - we thought it was GOOD, but not GREAT. There are other Pixar movies I like better, but that being said, they can basically do no wrong, so the movie is still enjoyable and clever :) Perhaps it's because I just watched Monsters, Inc. yesterday when I was painting and you really can't beat it, or maybe it's because my expectations were VERY high..but whatever it was, I would put it in the middle of the pack for Pixars. I actually thought it was really, really sad. WARNING - SPOILERS AHEAD!! The story centers around an old man, Carl, and his wife, Ellie, who met as young kids and always wanted to be adventurous explorers - as they grow up, though, other things come up (as they always do) and they never quite make it to South America as they always dreamed. After Ellie dies (which was so sad, by the way...talk about sadness only 3o minutes in, is this Bambi or something??), Carl decides to "float" his house by balloons to South America on his own to put it where he and Ellie always imagined it. As his house floats away he realizes he accidentally took along a passenger, a cute round kid named Russell - a wannabe "wilderness explorer" who just needs to earn his last badge - Assisting the Elderly. Carl is bitter and cranky in his old age and it takes him a long while to really warm up to Russell. Once they land in South America, they embark on a journey to walk the house to the cliff alongside Paradise Falls, Ellie's dream location. On the way, the encounter a "snipe" who Russell names Kevin, even though later they find out Kevin is a girl, hahaha. Kevin is hilarious, I love the wide open eyes and the squawk - but really you can't beat Doug. Doug is a dog that discovers Carl, Russell and Kevin on their walk - he wears a collar that allows him to talk. As you can imagine, dogs like Doug (I imagine he is some kind of lab) only have so many intelligent things to say - and the funniest parts are when he yells "squirrel!" and immediately looks for one hahahahah. Well....as it turns out, there is another old explorer in the area, a man who was Carl's boyhood hero who came when he was younger to prove that he had found this exotic bird that the people back home thought he made up. Turns out that bird was Kevin, hahahaha -the more I picture Kevin, the more he makes me laugh :) The explorer had been there for many years and now that he found Kevin again, thanks to Carl and Russell, he tried to birdnap him and go home....aaaaaaaaaaaaanyhoo, as you can guess, a big rescue takes place and everyone ends up safe and sound - back home again, Carl becomes a sort of fatherly figure in Russell's life and of course they keep cutie Doug :)
What I didn't like about it were the dogs...although I loved Doug, I did not at all care for the dogs that the old explorer kept - I thought they were hokey. I liked the idea of the collars that made them talk but I didn't like when they started flying planes and serving dinner. Something I really DID like about it was the message - Carl was holding on SO TIGHT to the house and to all of Ellie's things. Eventually, he learns to let go of the "stuff", saying to Russell in the end, "It's just a house." He knows he has the memories of Ellie and as long as he held onto the house he couldn't fully help Russell, who really needed him. It was definitely sad though - much less comedy than normal for Pixar.
.....and AWESOME - next summer will be TOY STORY 3!!! Yay :)
.....and oh yah, the 3D was really cool. We got to wear awesome Buddy Holly-esque 3D glasses and it was definitely fun to watch it that way :)
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