REVIEW: Sky's the limit for Pixar films

Do you think the people at Pixar, the animation studio behind "Up," ever get tired of the monotony of good press? "Pixar's done it again!" "Pixar's knocked another one out of the park!" "Pixar can do no wrong!" "Pixar hasn't made a dud yet!" If they do, they better get over it, because "Up" is a spellbinding gem, powered by pure whimsy and so deeply moving and emotionally sincere that you forget entirely that you're watching animation.

There must be something in the water over there.

The buoyant "Up" begins grounded on earth. When we first see Carl Fredricksen (voice of Ed Asner), he's a young boy sitting in a dark theater idolizing his hero, the explorer Charles Muntz (voice of Christopher Plummer). He meets an equally indulgent fan in Ellie, a young girl whose mouth and dreams move a mile a minute.

She makes him promise that the two of them will travel the world like Muntz. Better yet, she dreams of having a house atop Paradise Falls in South America. We watch as young Carl and Ellie fall in love, make a life and grow old together. But reality gets in the way of their dreams, and Carl loses Ellie to old age before he is ever able to fulfill his childhood promise.

One night, only hours before nursing home workers are to come for him and wrecking balls are to tear through his house to make way for towering skyscrapers, the feisty septuagenarian and retired balloon salesman comes up with an inspired idea. Tying thousands of balloons to his house, Carl literally takes flight and steers his way toward South America.

But the old man isn't alone. Stowed away on his front porch is 8-year-old Russell, a Wilderness Explorer whose mouth, like young Ellie, stops only long enough to intake air. Together, the odd couple travel to the jungle where a supreme adventure awaits them, filled with villains from the past, vicious beasts and exotic new friends.

After tackling toys, bugs, monsters, cars, fish, rodents and robots, Pixar has, for only the second time, made a human-centric movie, and like every one of its previous efforts, "Up" is deliriously intoxicating, a creation of pure fancy and childhood daydreams.

Unlike its competitors at Dreamworks, the Pixar gang understands that before you write a single joke you must first have an unassailable story, even if it is a classic, deceptively simple one like this.

For Pixar, which has always drawn on cavernous reserves of narrative imagination, it's consistently been about the characters.

Last year's Oscar-winning short animated film, "La Maison en Petits Cubes," was a deeply sentimental story about a lonely old man who experiences the memories of his past as he travels from room to room in a large house.

"Up" has a nearly identical emotional tone. Don't be surprised if you find tears brimming in your eyes. "Up," in spite of its slight animated frame, is a powerfully poignant story.

It's also a wonder to behold. There are numerous images of such startling, unusual beauty that they are sure to stick with you for the rest of your life - a home traversing the sky beneath a cone of individually shimmering balloons, iridescent bird feathers, emerald jungle flora, even matted dog fur and the stubble on an old man's square chin.

Endlessly inventive and unreservedly original, the luminously crafted "Up" could have been nauseatingly cloying but is instead a perfect balance of genuine thrills, physical comedy, laugh-out-loud humor and dramatic pathos. "Up" is and will remain one of the best films of this year, animated or otherwise.

UP

Cast: The voices of Ed Asner, Christopher Plummer, Jordan Nagai, Delroy Lindo
Director: Pete Docter
Theaters: Gold Hill, Tinseltown, Cinemark, Chapel Hills, Carmike
Rated: PG (for some peril and action)
Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

GRADE: A