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NYCC: Up Will Be Another Pixar MasterpieceBy Katey Rich: 2009-02-08 23:49:48
It's really not going out on a limb to predict that Up will be 10th in a line of Pixar masterpieces, but I'm going to say it anyway: Up is going to be amazing. I've now seen certain sections of the movie twice, and the entire first 45 minutes of the film introduced each time by director Pete Docter and producer Jonas Rivera. These guys are excited about the movie, sure, but nothing compared to the cheering hordes who greeted them twice at New York Comic Con.The first presentation was of six selected clips from the film, many of which we've seen teased in the trailers. We meet Russell, the over-enthusiastic Wilderness Explorer who shows up on Carl's doorstep trying to earn his "Assisting the Elderly" badge. We see the moment when Carl and his house take flight, attached to thousands of balloons that are almost as gorgeous as the scenery he soars above. We then see what happens after Carl discovers Russell cowering on his sky-high doorstep, and Russell's enthusiastic entrance into the house-- and Carl's adventure. Then the clips take us to South America, where Carl and Russell have crash-landed near, but not near enough, to Paradise Falls, the place Carl has been trying to go all along. Then a bird named Kevin and a talking dog named Doug get involved-- but as much as I enjoyed those scenes, I'd rather they surprise you. It wasn't until later that night, though, during the full 45 minute presentation, that I got to see the film's opening scenes, which indicate more than anything how great this movie has the potential to be. Like Wall-E before him, Carl spends the first 10 minutes or so of his movie silent; we meet him as a star-struck kid, wearing aviator goggles all over town and dreaming of being liked the famed explorer Charles Muntz (a Charles Lindbergh knockoff, you might say). Amazingly, Carl meets a girl who loves Muntz and adventures of all kinds as much as she does. Her name as Ellie, and mere seconds after she tells Carl about her dream to fly her hideout (an abandoned home) to the famed Paradise Falls, he's kissing her on their wedding day. The following montage of Carl and Ellie's life together, in which they say they'll have adventures but never get around to it, will make you cry. I was surrounded by hardened journalists and comic book guys, and everyone cried. I realize it's no artistic breakthrough to have a montage of all of life's moments-- commercials do it constantly, as do plenty of terrible romantic comedies. But the Pixar magic is at work in those sequences, attaching you to Carl and giving you everything you need to know about his upcoming journey before he's said a word (the loquacious Ellie overpowers him during every one of their childhood encounters). Having seen some clips of the movie before this opening, I saw so many hints at what was to come in the film, and may have even figured out one of the introduced mysteries. Pixar movies have always been marked by an economy of storytelling, and everything in the first 45 minutes of Up indicated a huge amount of care for the characters, the story, and the audience eager to jump into this world. There will be some people-- and these people are pretentious assholes-- who will criticize Up for being more "cartoony" than Wall-E or Ratatouille, a return to the more stylized world of the Toy Story movies. But Up is as beautifully realized and stylish as any Pixar movie yet, with the effort that went into creating perfect bread in Ratatouille and gorgeous constellations in Wall-E goes toward inventive, evocative caricature here. Carl Frederickson and Russell are cartoons, and look less realistic than much of what Pixar has given us before. But like Sulley and Mike and Buzz and Woody and Nemo and Gill, they'll work their magic on us. I'm only halfway through the movie, but still, I guarantee it.
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