Up (2009)

"Up" continues Pixar's domination of not just the animation genre, but maybe every Hollywood studio. What other studio consistently puts out such high-level works of art that touch ever genre and age-level?

I love "Toy Story," "The Incredibles" and "WALL-E," and "Up" is in their league. Some scenes rise above their level in pure smartness and pitch. It's not a typical children's film, but a beautiful romantic film about an old man's (Voice of Ed Adsner) love for his dead wife. Heavy, eh?

There are funny talking animals, a pint-sized sidekick in the form of a quasi-Cub Scout (Jordan Nagai) and lots of slapstick. But there's also death and the sad reality of an old man left alone. It will make you cry.

The film starts with a boy watching newsreel film of a Howard Hughes/Douglas Fairbanks-like explorer globetrotting the world. The hero, though, is lambasted as a fake by the news reels and disappears. The little buy meets a like-minded girl, they grow up, fall in love and marry. They are childless, struggle with money and grow old. She dies. Almost all of this is told in wordless, glorious music provided by Michael Giacchino ("Lost" and "The Incredibles" -- give this guy an Oscar and a Grammy).

Facing eviction from his ancient house, the old man ties thousands of balloons to his home and flies away to South America, the dream spot of he and his now-gone bride. The Cub Scout is a stow-away, hiding on the porch. To give more away will spoil the film.

The entire film is a visual delight, with the rising of the home on all those balloons one of the great moments in animation -- the colors of the balloons vibrate and reflect a rainbow of wonder. Christopher Plummer grounds the film as a late-coming villain who is Pixar's greatest show of greed and evil yet. Dig the scene where he knocks mock skulls of prior victims of a table. Wow.

All praise to directors/writers Pete Docter and Bob Peterson (the latter who voices the scene-stealing dog, Dug.) Pixar films are built on beautifully told stories with heart and then fabulous jokes (Squirrel!!) with voice talent that isn't built on casting top stars, but the right voices. There's hardly a star here. Take that over most Dreamworks films that have flimsy stories built on jokes with highly paid voices hired to cover up the mess.

"Up" is a gem, I can't wait to see what Pixar has next. A