Some years ago, Randy Newman won a Best Original Song Oscar for his work in Pixar’s Monsters Inc. In his speech, (which included the line, “If I had a heart, I think I’d be feeling what they call ‘joy’”) he said “Pixar’s done four movies now, and they’ve all been good. I don’t think anybody’s done that before.” With the release of Up, the studio has ten movies under their belt, and they’ve all been good. In fact, they’ve all been really good.
Up tells the story of Carl Fredrickson (voiced by the great Ed Asner), a cranky old man dealing with his wife’s death. That’s right, Up is Pixar’s Gran Torino! In the opening, we first meet Carl as a young boy with a thirst for adventure. When he comes across a spunky girl named Ellie with the same interests, it’s love at first sight. In a stunning montage, we see their entire relationship play out. It’s a masterpiece of wordless storytelling. Finally, Carl decides to grab the adventure he’s always graved and takes flight in his house, held aloft by thousands of helium balloons.