So this is the very first movie I watched in New York City (well…since 2006 anyways).

When I was sitting in the cinema with the Buddy Holly 3D glasses on, I realized that I knew nothing about the story of this film even though I had seen the trailer. I knew that it was about 78-year-old Carl Fredricksen who flies his house to South America by attaching hundreds of balloons to it (a very brilliant man, I wish I had thought of that, then I would have all my stuff here…). What completely took me by surprise is the story that leads up to this rather unusual event. It starts with Carl as a young boy, wanting to be an explorer, but being a shy and scared kid he only fantasizes about adventure. One day he meets little Ellie who actually plans on becoming an adventurer when she grows up. They become best friends, fall in love and eventually get married. She is everything to him and his greatest dream is to make her happy and go on the adventure with her that they had been planning since childhood. But before they can finally go, Ellie dies. Carl is so upset about the loss of his loved one that he becomes a bitter old man. For Ellie, he goes on their big adventure alone. What he didn’t plan on was taking the little boy scout Russell along with him.

So this is only the beginning of the story. The main part is, of course, the journey and what happens on the way to Carl’s dream destination.

Up is made with so much love that it really goes right to your heart. I was incredibly moved by Ellie’s death. I haven’t felt this sad watching a movie in a really long time. I know it is supposed to be a fun movie with a positive outlook on life because Carl finds a way to move on and live his life without Ellie, but I found it mainly depressing, at least two thirds of it.  Disney/Pixar always put so much effort and detail into their films that it is so lovely to watch them, though. I guess if you are spending that much time working on it, the film becomes very precious to the film-makers and nothing is rushed or “accidentally” put in. I really think this is one of the best 3D animated films I have seen. If you haven’t seen it, go watch it!

I have never actually seen a Disney movie in 3D before (I don’t think I have seen any full length 3D film…just a short when I went to Universal Studios a long time ago…how odd…), but Up isn’t a film that has to be seen in 3D. It doesn’t really make good use of the effect. But it was still quite fun to have the feeling of almost being able to touch the characters.

Tags: Carl Fredricksen, Disney, Up

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 at 3:44 am and is filed under !Must See!, American, Kids and Teens, Watched at the Cinema. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.