Up

The amazing thing about Pixar films, and the main reason why their films are so consistently excellent, is that those responsible for the stories--and it's all about story--know how to be poignant without being mawkishly sentimental. And so it is with Up, directed by Pete Docter, a film that is so heart-wrenchingly poignant that even as the wee ones will have their funny bones tickled, the grandparents taking them to the theater will have tears streaming down their faces.

I was sold after the stunningly brilliant prologue, about five to ten minutes that could have been a short film of its own. We meet Carl, a young boy who dreams of adventure, and worships an explorer who disappears in South America. He meets a kindred soul, a spunky girl named Ellie, and they share their love of adventure. We see as they get married, move into a house, have the heartbreak of learning they can't have children, and grow old together. They both work at the zoo--he as a balloon salesman, she as a zookeeper in the South America exhibit, and they dream of visiting a mysterious place there called Paradise Falls, where the legendary explorer of their youths collected exotic specimens. But unexpected things happen, and they never get there, as Ellie dies and leaves Carl in their beloved house.

As the action of the film proper begins, Carl's house is surrounded by new construction. He's held out and won't sell and move into a rest home, but after an altercation with a construction worker he's court-ordered out. Not going quietly into that good night, he attaches his house to thousands of balloons, and drifts off into the heavens. Being a Disney film, there's a catch--he has a stowaway, an over-eager and lonely Wilderness Explorer named Russell (not a Boy Scout, interestingly) who needs one more badge to be promoted: the assisting the elderly badge.

Eventually Carl takes the boy in and they drift to South America, where they find some grand adventures, including a giant bird that Russell names Kevin, a maniacal villain, a blimp, and most amusingly, a pack of dogs that have been outfitted with collars that translate their thoughts into English. The collar for the Alpha dog, a Doberman, doesn't work right and he sounds like Alvin the Chipmunk.

Deciding what Pixar film is the best is a little like deciding what your favorite flavor of ice cream is, i.e., virtually impossible. Suffice it to say that Up is right there with both Toy Story films, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and Wall-E. Up is both a fantastic adventure yarn (a better title might have been The Spirit of Adventure, rather than the prepositionally prosaic Up) and is a beautifully wrought poem of a life-long love affair. There's a scene at the end in which Carl looks through a picture album that is as touching as anything I've seen in a film in a long time, and reminds me of the scene in The Grapes of Wrath when Ma Joad looks over the valuables she's forced to dispose of.

All that remains for Pixar, a complaint that Manohla Dargis made a few weeks ago in the Times, is to have a female protagonist (after Ellie dies, there is no female presence in this film). The only one I can think of is Elastigirl in The Incredibles, and she's really second-fiddle to Mr. Incredible. I'm confident that when they get around to this it will be well worth the wait.