Up (2009)

This film is about an old man (Carl Fredrickson) and a young,jolly lad (Russell) who go on a flying adventure to South America in a house. That is pretty strange isn't it but what's even more strange is that the house is flown by hundreds and thousands of colourful balloons.

It's 1940 and nine year old Carl Fredrickson admires famous explorer Charles F. Muntz who rode the 'Spirit of Adventure' an aeoroplane. In the Documentry film, Muntz is accused of fabricating the skeleton of a rare,exotic bird so he vows to not return to humans until he has found the bird in paradise falls. On the same day Carl meets a girl called Ellie (who was also a Muntz fan) and they instantly become friends. As time goes on the two of them fall in love and get married. They work in a zoo together - Carl sells ballons and Ellie does tours. After Ellie suffers a miscarriage and cannot have a child they remember a childhood dream of flying to Paradise Falls and start saving up but the tin has to be broken several times because other problems occur. By the time they are elderly they can afford the trip to Paradise Falls but Ellie falls ill and dies. In present day, Carl still lives in their house while all the other houses are being destroyed and made into skyscrapers. He accidently injures one of the builders and has to go to court where they decided that he would have to move into a residental home for old people but still grieving for Ellie he collects thousands of balloons which he ties to his house and makes it fly. Russell -a wilderness explorer- visited Carl in an attempt to achieve his last badge for assisting the elderly but becomes a problem for the old man instead. Carl was determined to fulfil their dream. Surviving a thunderstorm Russell and Carl land opposite Paradise Falls so Mr Fredrickson decides to walk the way and place his house down before all the balloons pop. On the way there, they meet a colourful flightless bird ('Snipe') and a golden retriever called Dug who has a special collar which allows him to speak. What Carl and Russell don't know is that the dog works for Charles Muntz who is still trying to capture the exotic bird. I'm going to stop there so if you want to find out what happens next watch the film.

Personally I am in the middle with this film because it was very creative and imaginative but it was pretty slow and I got easily fed up when no major action was happening. The part that I found was very cute but sad at the same time was when Mr Fredrickson opened the hand written book by Ellie of the 'stuff she wanted to do' and saw that she added recent photos and left a note saying 'thanks for the adventure now go have a new one' because she edited the book just before she died. My least favourite part was when Mr Fredrickson was judged at court to be taken to the residental home but I was glad to know that he escaped. The part which made me laugh the most was when Russell introduced himself repeatedly to Carl. The part that made me cry the most (you will just have to have a roll of tissues by your side-you cannot watch the film without them :) ) was when Ellie had her miscarriage and when the funeral scene because it was all dark colours for mourning and I prefer bright lively colours.At the funeral scene th emusic was very emotional which partly made me cry. This film was very out of this world because in real life if you tied lots of balloons onto your house it still wouldn't fly and collars like Dug had would probably never even be invented in real life. The music throughout the duration of the film was filled with emotion,every single note had a different character and made me do what it was supposed to do (sad music=crying happy music=smiling/laughing).

Overall, I enjoyed this film since it was well animated and well thought through. Anyone who enjoys adventures fantasy or has a spot for eldery this is the film for you! It is a film of many emotions and for all the family...so grab a snack and watch the Pixar movie in comfort!