Pixar Playlist #10 - UP

Ladies and Gentlemen, whether you like it or not, the Pixar Playlist

Ever wished your problems would just float away? Ever tried attaching 23 million balloons to your house? That’s the solution for one Carl Frederickson, let’s take a look at UP

Up was the brainchild of Pete Docter, who in 2018 became the Chief Creative Officer for Pixar, he’s been there since the beginning, helming the story and being a lead animator for Toy Story. Tom McCarthy, writer and director of multi-award-winning films The Station Agent and the Visitor helped with the story for a period of 3 months, with Bob Peterson, another Pixar veteran helping finalise the story and screenplay

The Pixar team went to visit Tepui and spent 3 days covering it from every conceivable angle, as this is where the bulk of the film takes place, and researched local wildlife for their purposes. But there were some new animation challenges here, and it really boils down to its heavily stylised design. Our protagonist is an old man with a massive head and they needed to make it look believable, designing new systems for fabric and feathers. There’s also the technical challenge of animating in a general shot over 10,000 balloons.

The film released in 2009 and made $735m on a $175m budget, it was a massive critical success with a 98% Rotten Tomatoes rating and is the second animated film after Beauty and the Beast to receive a Best Picture nomination at the Academy Awards, it won best animated film.

Up follows the story of Carl Frederickson, a keen explorer in his youth who meets up with and befriends an even more eager explorer, Ellie, who would later become his wife. The two dreamed of visiting a place in South America named Paradise Falls, a known hangout for an adventurer named Charles F Muntz, who was disgraced when a bird he supposedly found is thought to have been faked.

They try to save up for it, but find their everyday problems take up their money for years, when Carl finally has enough saved and tells his wife about the trip, she collapses and later dies. This is done spectacularly with minimal dialogue. The tragedy of Ellie is heart-breaking as we really do sympathise with Carl.

Now, alone and with everything around him being demolished, Carl becomes a grumpy old man who just wants to live in peace, despite the business of everything around him, after an altercation leads to a construction worker being injured, Carl is branded a menace to society and is about to head off to an old person’s home but instead sets a plan into motion to relocate his house to paradise falls, creating lift with helium balloons and using sails to direct him.

Unbeknownst to him though, he’s about to be dragged into a whirlwind with a scout explorer named Russel and a still alive somehow Charles F Muntz, still obsessed with the bird and paranoid (and crazy) wanting to kill him with his army of dogs.

OK, this one is tough to talk about, it’s a good film and like all the best Pixar films it hits hard emotionally, looks gorgeous and is incredibly funny when it wants to be, but my focus has always been on the story and the story of Up is probably its weakest aspect.

I suppose there are 2 major problems I have with this story, the first is the speed of the house. For the sake of argument, let’s assume Carl lives in San Juan, one of the southernmost areas of the United States, I do not feel this is accurate given the city’s aesthetic and population but benefit of the doubt. Angel Falls, the inspiration for Paradise Falls in the film is close enough to 900 miles away. Now, the house got caught in a storm in the film and we cut to them arriving the next morning, benefit of the doubt again and assume 12 hours past in that time. The wind would have to be blowing in exactly the right direction in excess of 75mph, and that’s not a storm, it’s a hurricane and the damage to a house caught in the wind would be quite extensive, tied down or not.

This film asks you to suspend your disbelief beyond what I consider reasonable, is what I’m ultimately saying here. I will buy into the idea of your house lifting into the air using balloons, it’s theoretically possible, though would require a lot more balloons than were on display in the film. But that doesn’t mean I accept that it can travel at motorway speeds and later be able to keep up and catch up with an airship, with an actual engine. Your mileage may vary on how much this actually bothers you but it did niggle in my mind, particularly during the climax. Then again, this is the film that features dogs piloting airships so maybe this whole conversation is pointless.

And my other problem is the villain, Charles F Muntz is a classic example of the ‘don’t meet your heroes’ trope. But being selfish, rude and perhaps carrying some dark secrets is one thing, being an outright psychopath for poorly established reasons is another. His soul drive should be capturing the bird, what happens to Carl and Russel should be a bi-product of that. He should not be making continued attempts to kill them when this offers no tangible benefit to him. This is one that could have used the more humanising aspects favoured by modern Disney, this film does not really need an antagonist of this level.

Where this film does excel is in the quieter, more character driven moments. That Carl always refers to his house as Ellie as this journey is much about him dealing with his own grief and loss. He toes the line on likeability, but it was assumed that he’d be relateable to children as children relate to their grandparents and I feel they pulled that off nicely. His isolation following his origin is understandable and the frustrations with the world are framed from his perspective so we feel sympathy for him.

Russel as a character was added as a much later stage but he’s an essential part of the cast, he’s a nuisance occasionally but is sweet and innocent enough to set certain plot events into motion, and to form a human connection to Carl he so desperately needs to help him move on from his grief. Him dumping all the stuff in his house as the climax begins and later letting go of house completely is symbolic of this. (I know this isn’t some major insight or anything, I just appreciate the detail)

Russel’s family dynamic is equally tragic, we don’t hear much about his mother but his father is rarely there and his new girlfriend considers him a nuisance as opposed to a step-son. It’s great how a kid who is Asian American by both design and voice has typical kid problems that have nothing to do with his race. This is the best to way to handle inclusivity.

Kevin and Dug are the primary sources of comedy in the film. Dug is a particular eager canine who’s ambition outstrips his abilities, making him an outsider in the pack. The dog translation collars are a genius bit of writing as there is some comedic gold mined out of this. My only slight critique is they should’ve just left Alpha’s voice be the joke, rather than have other draw attention to it.

Kevin, the bird and target of the film has some more physical comedy. There’s a bit when Carl distracts them, then goes through a major change of location to get away from them only to find them right next to him again feels ripped straight out of Looney Tunes and fits kinda well with the tone. I like that they used the first-person running effect they used for Dash in the Incredibles to introduce her. I just hope it didn’t encourage kids to try giving chocolate to birds, that’s a very bad idea.

I really like the design of Kevin, it’s really colourful and unique, and surprisingly fits in the film’s stylised world.

Up is as close to perfect as you can get when it comes to character development and visuals, the comedy is mostly exemplary and the plot, whilst perhaps playing a little too fast and loose with reality, does a good job of connecting all these bits together without it feeling jarring.

#1 The Incredibles
#2 Up
#3 Finding Nemo
#4 WALL-E
#5 Toy Story 2
#6 Toy Story
#7 Monsters Inc
#8 Ratatouille
#9 Cars
#10 A Bug’s Life