Up
Up was an interesting little film. I guess I had some expectations, because this one surprised me. I really didn’t think I had any, because I didn’t know anything about it other than that it was computer animated. Well, the first 5 or 10 minutes was a complete surprise. I almost couldn’t believe what was happening. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone that hasn’t seen the film, but I was just confused. I guess it was required to give enough back story for the rest of the film, but it makes me feel like there could have been some other way to do it without stretching the film out too long. So you get past that and into the main story itself — it’s alright. Nothing too special. It’s certainly a unique subject matter for a kids film, but it works alright. I’d recently seen a factoid that there were only 2 animated Disney features that included both parents together and neither dies. This maintains the status quo. I don’t get the happy Hollywood ending out of it, though. It’s just not there. Anyway, I put the story at about a 5. The computer graphics and voice acting were superb. The quality and thematic styling of the animation was really outstanding. I really feel watching it in HD gave some benefit to the content. Overall, I’m glad I passed on seeing it in the theater, but renting it was alright.
