Up

When am I going to learn to stop doubting the brilliant minds of Pixar?

Yes, I am the guy who said, “Does the world really want to see a talking rat that can cook?”

And, I’m the idiot who said, “I don’t know if people are going to see a movie about a family of superheroes.”

And, I’m the fool who was thinking, “An old dude puts some balloons … on his house?”

Again, I am very wrong. Thankfully.

Ed Asner provides the voice of Carl - an elderly balloon salesman who is declining. Since they were young kids, he and his wife have been planning a massive adventure to the remote Paradise Falls in South America. Unfortunately, life got in the way before they could fulfill this dream, and Carl is becoming grumpier and angrier since losing his beloved and watching his house become surrounded with new, high tech development. With nowhere else to go, and no responsibilities holding him down, Carl decides its time to escape this world that doesn’t have anything to offer him anymore.

When he ties thousands of balloons to his home and starts to sail away, will Carl find Paradise Falls?

Will he be able to put up with his little stowaway?

What you will love about Up is what you don’t expect it to be.

We all know Up will provide silly, funny, uproarious moments to make kids and adults laugh with equal parts goofiness, funny one-liners and sneaky little pieces of dialogue dropped subtly into the script like a master chef sprinkles a bit of secret spice into a signature dish.

We know director Pete Docter and co-director/writer Bob Peterson will find ways to create animated characters who are more real, complex and interesting than every character in Night at the Museum and Wolverine combined. Yet, what makes Up special are the moments that reach out and touch your heart when you least expect it.

Docter and Peterson put together one of the most amazingly emotional sequences I have ever seen in a movie as we watch Carl’s entire life story play out on the screen in front of us without any dialogue, but with images straight out of our most romantic hopes and dreams. Even Simon Cowell and Donald Trump might shed a tear at this amazing piece of storytelling and a few others like it that give you insight into the happiness and sadness the different characters feel.

These are the moments that set a movie like Up apart from the simplistic, childish and one-dimensional movies that might be called family friendly and might make lots of money at the box office, but could never honestly claim to have one iota of a scintilla of the emotional impact this movie has.

Sure, the story might seem to get lost from time to time, but that seems so trivial when you think about all of the greatness on screen.

Up is rated PG for some peril and action.