If you’re anything like most avid moviegoers, the idea of “3-D” may have once left you a bit nervous. After all, it wasn’t too long ago that My Bloody Valentine rocked into theaters in all its pick-ax-throwing glory. Yet, a new dawn may be on the horizon for 3-D movies, as the eerie Coraline proved, the trompe-l’oeil normally associated with cheesy horror films may be on its way to integrating itself into beautiful storytelling. Case in point? Disney-Pixar’s new release, Up.
Up is the story of Carl Fredrickson (voiced by Edward Asner), a disgruntled loner making a living as a balloon salesman in a city that is changing all around him — without his permission. But Carl wasn’t always this way. As viewers find out in the first minutes of the movie, the curmudgeon was once happily married to his childhood sweetheart, Ellie. Unable to have children but sharing a love of exploring, the two promised to one day travel to Paradise Falls in South America. Yet, as the years pass, the couple encounters several setbacks, and Ellie passes away without ever reaching South America — and that’s just the first 15 minutes (and yes, it’s heart-wrenching). Here there is a quiet realism that Pixar movies have missed in preceding works, and it colors the otherwise radiant movie throughout. Spurned by his wife’s death and other extenuating circumstances, Carl leaves the city for Paradise Falls via balloon-house, unwittingly bringing the clumsy but well-intentioned Russell (voiced by Jordan Nagai) along for the adventure.
It’s a new frontier for Pixar, and one rarely tread by Disney. Having dealt with love, friendship and even environmentalism in the past, Pixar has been unwilling to develop the gonads to deal with death (save Wall-E’s possible robot “death”) –- until now. Don’t worry, the tale still has its fair share of look-pretty frillies (an airship-house laden with thousands of balloons, an all-pallet-encompassing primal bird), but Ellie’s introduction and subsequent demise give the otherwise absurd adventure a layer of tangibility that’s all for the better.
Concerning digital animation, Up is virtually flawless, the kind of movie that will give even those unimpressed by the rendition of Sully’s fur in Monsters Inc. reason for pause. Most notable are the emotions that Carl conveys with a face that appears at the onset as rigidly blocky. Where words were once necessary in CGI; Carl, Russell, and company can say it all with facial expressions rendered in ways viewers have never seen before. I attended an early 2-D screening of Up, and haven’t seen it in all its 3-D glory. Instinctively, I have to wonder whether or not Disney-Pixar will take a tasteful Coraline approach, or if we’ll be left thinking “Did that really need to be 3-D?”
But if there is anything that’s going to bother you throughout the movie, it will be the age of Carl’s childhood hero Charles Muntz (voiced by Christopher Plummer), a man for whom the sands of time seem to have little meaning. But this is a skeptical criticism of a movie that clearly does not welcome such cynical accusations (see flying house, talking dogs, nonexistent geographical locations, etc.).
Everything else comes together seamlessly: great voicing, a solid soundtrack and a script that alternates between moving and hilarious. Up has all the potential to become Disney-Pixar’s new flagship work -– a compelling tale of remembrance, letting go and new friendships that has the capacity to appeal to children, adults and jaded college students alike.