Up Blu-ray
After a lifetime of missed opportunities Carl starts the adventure of a lifetime but without his beloved wife Ellie in their shared dream.
Film making 25/25
Video 25/25
Audio 25/25
Bonus Features 23/25
Total 98/100
Okay, after reviewing the recent Monsters Inc. release and writing up the review I thought Pixar had about done their best but they continue to surprise and delight. Up is not only a fantastic animated adventure it very well could be a picture of the year not only in animation but in the overall Best Picture of the Year category.
The film starts out with a lengthy montage of a young couple, actually two kids meeting and falling in love to grow old together. They share a dream and love for an explorer who promises to make the find of his lifetime of a mysterious bird that he could only find the bones of.
Carl voiced by Ed Asner meets Ellie while they are kids and quickly become best of friends and then lifelong partners but this story does not really begin until Ellie passes away. Carl is an old man when his home is threatened by continuing development that has removed all the old homes and replaced them with modern high rises.
When Carl slips and attacks a worker he is forced to move into an old folk’s home but before the home can get him on the bus Carl makes his move. He moves his entire house to South America as his last dream that he shared with Ellie and finds along the way adventures he missed while his wife was alive.
After his house is airborne, great scene with lots of helium filled balloons, a knock at the door introduces the other main character of wilderness scout Russell voiced by Jordan Nagai. After Carl lets Russell in they share adventures when they find the explorer who started Carl’s lifelong adventure with Ellie.
A talking dog, actually dozens, a bird that takes a shine to Russell and great South American locales bring this adventure to a full circle by the end. Carl discovers that the famous explorer Charles Muntz voiced by Christopher Plummer is not the awe inspiring role model Carl and Ellie believed in.
The film starts with the opening lives of two people who first become best friends and then the inevitable marriage and life that is so normal it hurts. The montage gives the rest of the film substance and meaning so you can understand why Carl does what he does through the rest of the film.
This is Oscar winning material and really has tears flowing for many and not just the female persuasion so get ready for a tear jerker if I ever saw one. The rest of the film is filled with quick and smart jokes flowing along with the great story of Russell haphazardly getting in the middle of Carl’s big adventure.
Up is a must see for everyone and will win at least some awards if not many so get ready for the rest of the Blu-ray features. Up in high definition is fantastic with some great colors and wonderful dark shadows that look as real as you’re going to get.
This is animation at its best and you really can see why the animators, producers and others actually went to South America themselves to see their subjects in person. They did a fantastic job and when they couldn’t get birds to cooperate in the wild had ostriches brought to the studio for subjects.
The animators really have an award winning movie here and audio is another great part of the film with the usual top notch Blu-ray DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround sound track. The music and voices are impeccable and just like video all the aspects from dialogue and LFE or bass is appropriately used.
Environments are fantastic with great rear speaker use and you would swear from the audio and video that you are in the jungle when you get to these wonderful scenes. Enough gushing and on to the bonus content with a couple of additional short films including one not related to the film and the other, Dug’s Special Mission, a tie in to the films plot but not a necessary part of the film and a few other features.
About an hour of extras come on the Blu-ray disc with the film and the second Blu-ray disc has over two hours’ worth of making of and alternate scenes along with a game for the environmentally conscious. The extras are really worth watching and not silly or irrelevant additions to the film which show the creation process and how they did some things like the balloons and flying the house.
The extra content is fully featured and well worth the cost of the Blu-ray edition which contains the DVD copy, the full high definition edition and the digital copy. Up is a fantastic film that sets the standard for animation once again for Pixar and is a must see film for the whole family.