Up, Up And About Two Feet Off The Ground

For Brits, consider this a puff piece for the upcoming release of Pixar’s Up in cinemas. For Americans consider this promo for the upcoming DVD release. I know, I know, it’s divergent markets. Anyway.

This morning they tethered the Up hot air balloon to the South Bank near Thames Bridge as a few local celebrities popped by with their kids to have a go in it, before moseying down to the British Film Institute for the noon premiere. It was a beautiful day for it and the white fluffy clouds on the bright blue skies mirrored the Up promotional imaged wonderfully. Beverley Knight attended with her family, as did Gail Porter and her daughter and friend-of-daughter – I worked with Gail years ago, so it was fun to catch up. Bear Grylls attended with a whole troop of scouts. But the balloon was the star. Oh, and Russell of course. So naturally I popped by and took a few photos.

Pixar films are so near perfect that I feel I am overly critical of them where I can. Dreamworks can get away with rubbish, Pixar have to be note perfect. And as a parent with children, DVDs that can be watched over and over without irritation are rare, wonderful things. And it’s strange how your opinion of a film changes after the 100th time. I thought I liked Finding Nemo more than Cars. 100 times later? No, Cars wins by a mile.

So I can have no lasting opinion of Up until two years from now. But still…

Okay, so you know the basics. Widower, annoyed with where his life has ended, with dreams of memories of exploring the world, flies his house to South America with all the balloons he can muster. Young scout Russell is an unknowing stowaway, and they meet a rare bird and a We3-style talking dog as they try to get where they’re going. And then find a new purpose for all of them.

Up is far more enjoyable for in the first half hour, even with the early miscarriage and death scenes, portraying a wonderful, touching, human story. Literally uplifting, the subtext of the journey of a character made text, dreams made reality and aspirations pursued, almost magically. There’s not a step put wrong. However the conflict the movie plunges down into seems incredibly disjointed and out of place, it’s very much a film of two halves, and becomes a boy’s action adventure which, even as a boy who likes action adventure, I was disappointed with. I feel I would have enjoyed a film far more that stayed true to its early tone and themes. Also the child endangerment issues are all over the place, far more incongruous than the adult death scenes.

Saying all this, the first half hour is the most perfect thing Pixar has yet created, so any disappointment with the rest is only in terms of that superb beginning. And, hell, in two years time my opinion may be very different.

There are still problems with the choice of 3D – people are trying tricks that don’t work and its harming certain aspects of storytelling. Anything in the extreme foreground, appearing in front of the screen needs to wholly be seen on screen. If any of it is cuts off at the edges, there’s a disconnect with the audience. One key scene where someone offscreen puts their hand up in the extreme foreground fights the eye. We want to believe it is just in front of us. but there’s no extending arm. It’s disembodied. It looks like it was intended to appear as if somone in the audience was putting their hand up, but it just doesn’t work. 3D has the power to transform the cinema going experience, but it has to be a smooth, almost unnoticed transition. Poorly placed 3D elements stop that happening. However in other scenes where we see a character, their body behind the screen but their head sticking out in front, it works fine, inspired even, the screen working like a window the character is peering through. It is certainly a league ahead of the Alice In Wonderland preview that preceded it though, which has clearly been converted from 2D to 3D and as a result, aside from the completely CG creations, the live action characters look like cardboard cutouts.

The Clouds short film was absolutely perfect in every detail, telling the tale of clouds who make baby animals and the storks who deliver them. Has to be an instant classic and better than Lifted, which is saying something. I can see that being watched at home even more than Up.

I saw the film a few weeks ago at a “family” press preview. Never been to one of these before and my eldest daughter (4) loved it and has already made her friends jealous talking about it. I’m afraid she, unlike myself, was not bound by embargo…

Up is in UK cinemas from October 9th.

No related posts.