Up.
Hotsauce84
8,450 Posts
*This is just a placeholder for my review of Disney/Pixar's Up which I will be watching tomorrow night. I'm super geeked.*b/wHi Day!P.S. Daze: Tell Lil' Cash Money to hurry and grow up so Uncle Herm can take him to Disneyland.
Comments
pre-emptive strike monopolization of messageboard post topics is on some WHOLE_NOTHER internetness!
I like it.
Herm's review will pretty much be him gushing about the visuals while using words like "bestest" and "super duper" and then tying it in to some story about Disneyland and/or some girl he used to have over for "visits"
^^What he said^^
the review preview.
Went Saturday during our 22nd honeymoon.
It was the bestest with great visuals.
I have never been to disneyland, ~world or Euro~.
Much better than WallE, which I thought was less than great.
Could it be Pixar's best? I don't know, where is the list?
Here's the deal, the movie is sad.
It is about getting old, something I can relate to.
There are strong parallels to It's A Wonderful Life.
Pixar does it right.
This has to be the worstest written review ever.
Dan
Walle
Ratatatullie
Cars
Incredibles
Nemo
Monster Inc
Toy Story2
Bugs Life
Toy Story
I have not seen Cars, Nemo or Bugs Life.
The bottom of my list are Incredibles and WallE. Ideas were great, and of course visuals, but the characters in the Incredibles were weak and while WallE and Eva were good characters the rest of the WallE characters were weak.
Ratatatoullie and Up I think are the best, but those Toy Story movies are right up there.
The movie is fantastic. And yes, sad. The first 3/4's at least. It holds the record for making me teary-eyed in the shortest amount of time.
I won't go into too many details 'cause I don't want to spoil it, but a few props (which may contain the slightest of spoilers):
- I loved the way Russell talked. The way they captured his mouth was so spot-on. I know it sounds strange, but seriously, watch his mouth in his first scene and maybe you'll understand what I mean.
You can see it here when he talks about the ceremony.
Kind of an unimportant, but I noticed it early on and made me appreciate the attention to detail.
- The fact that Russell is Asian. I just think that's neat.
- The talking dogs (especially Dug) were hilarious. And I'm glad Delroy Lindo was called on to lend his voice.
- The montage of Carl's & Elie's life together.
- The dramatic action. Very far-fetched (duh! the whole premise is!) but it was done well enough to keep me antsy.
- Little real-world tie-in with Carl watching this. (No spoiler, you can only hear the audio in the movie.)
- Also, I'm no Bay Area expert but I read this from a blog: Apparently there are a few Oakland references/shout outs tossed in. (I guess that's where Pixar's based?) Merritt Bakery's hamburger cake is on one of Russell's scout badges, the floating house is partially based on a Victorian house near Sixth St. in Berkeley and Russell & Carl eat at Fenton's Creamery.
I really liked Partly Cloudy, Dan. I thought the idea was original and I was happy that the beat-up stork stayed committed to his job regardless of...well, you know.
I have to say though, my favorite part of the whole movie happened before it even started. As I said, I was in a sold-out show full of families, pre-teens without their parents, couples and knuckleheads. I was anticipating some annoying talking, texting, etc (which, thankfully, was kept to a minimum). Anyways, when the teaser trailer for Toy Story 3 came out, the WHOLE CROWD was applauding. That was INCREDIBLE. I don't think I've ever seen that kind of a reaction for any movie, much less a trailer. Some kid next to me - must've been about 15 - said "That's my childhood!" That movie's gonna be HUGE. (You know where I'll be June 10th, 2010!)
Disney & Pixar = Peanut butter & jelly. Every time.
P.S. Take THAT, Daze!
P.S.2. I read that Pixar considers John Ratzenberger (aka Cliff from Cheers) their good luck charm and that's why he voices a character in every single movie they do. The self-referential bit he does during the credits on Cars is awesome.
What are these people thinking?
What he said. I didn't notice that Russel was Asian. His badges were a nice detail, and the ones in the closing credits were cool.
We almost went to Coraline instead, it's local, it was in 3D, and it was at the Living Room theaters which have wine and truffles instead of popcorn and soda. When I got there and found out that tickets were $12 I freaked and we left. I wanted to see Up a lot more than Coraline anyway. .
BTW, I also freaked when Up was $9.50.
I am poor.
So we went to the mall and there were only about 10 people in theater. Probably because the Starlight parade was about to start. We only missed about half an hour of the parade.
Here's my review:
If I had seen it as a team-building work outing I wouldn't have liked it either.
But you shouldn't scoff.
There really was a 1920s explorer who got lost in South America with his dogs and invented a dog voice translator collar with video.
Of course all the stuff the dogs were saying in the movie was fake.
They wont reveal what dogs are really saying because dogs are in touch with the other world.
I am not making this up.
The ancient Egyptians also had technology that allowed them to talk dogs.
Fawcett?
What?
Reminds me of when I was at Oklahoma State Tech.
There were some guys there from Egypt in the Plumbing Arts Dept.
They had jobs waiting for them bring plumbing out to the old tombs.
It was the '70s.
We called them Pharaoh Fawcett Majors.
Girl and I were debating did Ellie have a miscarriage? I took it that way. If that is right, that is kind of heavy for a kids film.
Nothing beats getting into the right frame of mind and going to see a pixar movie. 3D is Bonus! [/color]
Whoa!! **SPOILER ALERT!!!**
White textin' it:
[color:white]
Either that or she couldn't have children. You're right, though. Deep.
What did you think about Russell's dad situation? That was deep too! Either deadbeat or just wouldn't make time for him? [/color]
[color:white]We just told Miles (who's 5) that she couldn't have babies. I got the feeling that Russell's Dad situation was that he was remarried and paying no attention to his "first" family.[/color]
damn, i just welled up.
But "Up" also revealed, more so than other Pixar films, some of the conventions they're forced to engage in, especially the "action-packed" second-half (a problem I also had with "Wall*E"). I didn't have a problem with that in "The Incredibles" (which I loved - top 3 Pixar film) since it's supposed to be an action flick but it felt out of balance in "Up." I also thought making Russell's dad absentee was transparently forced.
I did enjoy the Bay Area shout-outs, especially Fenton's (note: I *wish* Piedmont Ave looked like what the Pixar rendition of it does, but alas, no).
No "Toy Story 3" teaser trailer for my screening
And the Pixar short before "Up" sucked balls. One of the worse I've ever seen.
Weak Pixar Films:
Cars (I stopped watching halfway through out of sheer boredom and never regretted not finishing it)
Bugs Life (Seven Samurai with bugs. Meh.)
Good Pixar Films:
Up
Toy Story
Monsters Inc
Great Pixar Films:
Ratatouille
Toy Story 2
Wall*E (the first half carries the entire weight here)
The Incredibles
Finding Nemo
I agree with O that Cars was the weakest movie Pixar has made. That being said, watching it on TV awhile ago, I liked it better than when I saw it in the movie theater.
Plus Ratatouille is by far the best one they've made.
Among the top Pixar films, I find it very hard to argue which is better than which. They're all great in their own way.
I agree with your analysis of Up and WallE I just liked Up better than WallE. For all the reasons you said.
In Toy Story the animation of the humans did not work. Pixar is much better at that now.
Seems like Ratatouille is everyones favorite.