Up

Thanks for the adventure - now go have a new one! I always thought this was towards the bottom of Pixar’s filmography. Mainly because I never bothered watching it again growing up, but that it’s probably because of how mature and emotional this movies themes are. there’s of course the first 10 minutes… which is the main takeaway most people have from this movie. While yes, that opening sequence is a punch to the gut, there’s so much more here emotionally than Ellie’s story.  Pixar is at its best when crafting characters to care about and character dynamics that are complex. Take something like ratatouille, where we don’t go in depth into that many characters. I feel as though those stories aren’t as propelling as a story like Up, where we have around 5 fully developed characters, one never even speaks, how impressive.  Russell and Carl’s relationship at the heart of the film is so heartwarming and genuine that it’s what puts this movie over the top for me. Dug’s antics and blunt speech and Kevin’s squawking, this movie is what animated filmmaking is all about.  I would consider this a Pixar masterpiece.