Here are just a few quotes to begin:
Elizabeth WeitzmanNY Daily News (http://events.nydailynews.com/reviews/show/47109-review-up)
"Has there ever been a company with Pixar's unqualified success rate?
Amazingly enough, their secret seems to be as straightforward as the projects are complex: they simply refuse to underestimate their audience.
"Where most animated films pander to children and wink at adults, the Pixar geniuses assume we're all equals, and equally deserving of the best they can create."
2nd Up Early Review
Disney/Pixar Film Directed by Pete Docter, Bob Peterson
Dominic von Riedemann (http://hollywood-animated-films.suite101.com/article.cfm/2nd_up_early_review)
"Faraci watched a 45-minute clip from the movie at BNAT, filled with occasionally finished animation but – more often than not – sketches and storyboard sequences with temporary music and overdubbed voices. Despite the raw nature of the clip he saw, Faraci claims that the film was 'completely engaging and often beautiful, visually and emotionally.'"
Disney Pixar's UP - Quickie Movie Review
Posted by Brett Singer (http://www.babble.com/CS/blogs/strollerderby/archive/2009/05/30/disney-pixar-s-up-quickie-movie-review.aspx)
"I don't want to spoil anyone's fun, so I'm not going to get into too many details. Let me say that there's a lot more to the film than what you saw in the trailer. And if you, like me, are bummed out after the first few minutes, just wait. Trust me.
"This is probably the best kid flick I've seen since I had children. It's also one of the better films I've seen in recent years. Admittedly, I don't get out to the movies much. But I doubt any of the Oscar-nominated films this past year were this much fun.
"Seriously, "Up" has great action sequences, a good story, moments that tug at the heartstrings -- and by far the cleverest talking animals you will ever see. I don't mean that they say funny things, although they do. I mean that the usage of said animals is a million miles ahead of anything you've seen before.
"I'm going to go a little over the top and say that I think "Up" will get a nomination for Best Picture and also Best Screenplay. Yes, it will probably be nominated for Best Animated Feature, and like every other Pixar movie, it wil win. But it's better than that, and I think it will be recognized as such. So you heard it here first -- "Up" for Best Picture.
"I don't want to build it up (no pun intended) too much. But it's really good. Go see it and don't let your kids talk too much."
Movie review: Up -- 4 out of 5 stars
By Roger Moore Orlando Sentinel Movie Critic (http://www.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment/orl-movie-review-up,0,5308777.story)
"The third-act action is whiz-bang stuff involving the balloon house, vintage fighter planes, a zeppelin and one very big, but very subtle lesson.
"Life's adventures aren't just "out there." They're here, too, wherever life is lived and love is shared. And it's not photos or mementos that matter; it's the memories of those adventures that keep us warm when we're old.
"Up is preceded by an equally sweet short cartoon, Partly Cloudy. Pixar makes this look as effortlessly sweet and funny as everything else they do."
'Up': A Pixar-Style Lift, Pretty Much Guaranteed
Kenneth Turan (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104567219) and
(http://www.fandango.com/up_114055/criticreviews)
"As success follows success for animation powerhouse Pixar, the pressure to maintain the streak must be phenomenal. Will the next film be the one that stumbles, the one that breaks stride? No one need worry, however, about Up, Pixar's 10th and latest effort. It's not only good, it's one of Pixar's best. Some films are an obligation to write about, Up is the purest pleasure.
"Though films such as Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc. and Wall-E are tough to compete with, director and co-screenwriter Pete Docter, a Pixar veteran who had a credit on all those films, was able to push Up into the pantheon. He did it by letting his imagination fly away. Working with co-director and co-writer Bob Peterson, Docter came up the idea of cranky 78-year-old Carl Fredricksen (voiced by Ed Asner) floating off to parts unknown when his house gets hoisted into the air by exactly 20,622 helium balloons. Try pitching that idea to your agent.
"But what makes Up stand out is not just that core concept, but what the Pixar team has been able to do with it. Rarely has any film, let alone an animated one powered by the logic of dream and fantasy, been able to move so successfully -- and so effortlessly -- through so many different kinds of cinematic territory.
"Because Up is a Pixar film, it's of course clever and playful. It also has the high excitement of an adventure story, and enough menace to make it only the second Pixar film to be rated PG instead of G. (The other was The Incredibles, with its superhero-themed action violence.)
"The wordless visual magic of that floating balloon-powered house is paired with a genuinely wacky sense of humor that will have you laughing helplessly at the antics of a pack of dogs equipped with collars that turn their canine thoughts into words.
"As if all this wasn't enough, Up also generates genuine emotion by dealing unapologetically with one of Hollywood's last and most persistent taboos: old people. Instead of a Clint Eastwood-type senior citizen who is fitter than people half his age, Up gives us a man who uses a walker and can't handle stairs — but who still manages to be a hero when it counts.
"Up's opening multi-minute montage, which frames the long married life of Carl and his wife Ellie, is a small gem, and one that will stay with you for a lifetime. In fact, if parts of Up don't bring a tear to your eye, I just don't want to hear about it.
"Though Up does so many things so well, the quality that stays with you the longest is its fearlessness in the face of emotion. This is a film that is heartfelt enough to restore your faith in whatever needs restoration."
USAToday.com Claudia Puig
(http://www.fandango.com/up_114055/criticreviews?review_source=USAToday)
"Who would expect a 78-year-old curmudgeon who smells of prunes and a pudgy 8-year-old to emerge as the summer's most heroic duo?
"Adventure comes in many forms and can happen at any stage of life. Disney/Pixar's Up conveys that message through an artful blend of exhilaration and poignancy.
"The company that created WALL•E, Ratatouille and the Toy Story movies maintains its standard of excellence. Up will elicit a giddy joy among audience members with its gorgeous visuals and glossy 3-D animation.
"But the film's exquisite emotional depth puts it in a category of its own. Wordlessly, co-directors Bob Peterson and Pete Docter capture the full measure of a man's life in what may be the most touching and effective montage sequence ever. All too often, a montage functions as padding rather than narrative illustration. Here, in about eight minutes, accompanied by Michael Giacchino's evocative score, Up wondrously conveys the highs, lows and middles of a life that is both ordinary and extraordinary."
Ok. This is my first recommendation to you for summer, in case you haven't done it already. I'd like to see what you think of it, and I'd also be interested in your responses to the quotes from the critics' reviews. Perhaps you want to add your own comments (in agreement or disagreement--it's ok for us to disagree here!) or you want to take a morsel from the quotes above (or the extended reviews you can locate from the various URL's included) and defend, challenge, or qualify (if you're in AP, that's a phrase you'll hear often--defend means agree with and support your point with reasons, challenge means disagree with and support your contrasting ideas with specifics, and qualify means agree with part and disagree with part or redefine something that the original critic said and support your ideas with details). I'd love to hear from you.
Meanwhile, enjoy the movies! By the way, we'd all love to hear other recommendations, as you will be hearing some others from me in the near future as I have time and opportunity to write!
Ms. B
