Up – Blu-Ray DVD 4-Pack Review

Long ago I mentioned that Pixar has a curious ability to make movies I find wonderful, but virtually no ability to get me excited for them. That hasn’t changed. Sure, now I’m just generally moved to anticipation because Pixar hasn’t really ever put together a movie I couldn’t stand, but it doesn’t go much past that. I mean, old guy’s house floats away on balloons sure, but what do I really know about the film?

Up begins with a young, and thoroughly goofy boy named Carl watching a theatrical newsreel circa… long ago days when there were theatrical newsreels. He’s watching footage of his hero Charles Muntz, super-explorer extraordinaire. Little Carl is enthralled. Heck, he’s already got his own goggles just like Muntz wears when he’s flying around the world in his giant zeppelin. But wait! It seems Muntz has been called out on his latest specimen! A skeleton he declares is the Beast of Paradise Falls, which he brought back from his trip to South America is coming under serious scrutiny! Scientists believe Muntz faked the skeleton! Muntz is stripped of his… whatever! But wait again! Muntz vows to return to Paradise Falls, and he won’t come back until he brings the Beast with him!

Unperturbed, young Carl “explores” his neighborhood, remaining true to his hero. He finds Muntz’ number one fan, Ellie, playing in an abandoned house, and is so agog to discover that he isn’t himself Muntz’ number one fan he can hardly speak.

We are almost immediately moved on to a montage sequence that is perhaps the best working of the idea ever to grace the silver screen. Carl and Ellie grow up, marry, and settle into the routine of life. Because of their childhood, they solidify their version of “dream” by tossing coins into a jar labeled “Paradise Falls.” Ellie has had a scrapbook with the majority of its pages reserved for what she will do once she finally makes it there since before the two met. Time rolls on, and the jar gets smashed in order to pay for life’s little whatnots, but we eventually start a new jar each time. One day, Carl looks around and discovers he’s really quite old, and he looks over at his wife with pangs of remorse. All those things we didn’t do…

Carl tries to make good, but Ellie becomes ill, and passes away before they have a chance to see Paradise Falls for themselves.

Then the movie starts.

When the forces that be conspire to remove Carl from the home which he holds onto as tightly as any other reminder of Ellie, he decides to go for broke. He may putter around his aging home chatting with his dead wife, but he’s got a lot of helium, and by God, he knows how to use it.

During the expedition, Carl is going to discover that he’s got a stowaway named Russell, who’s as much of a goof as Carl was at that tender age, though Russell aims his adventure-happy goofiness at Boy Scout knockoff Wilderness Explorers, or whatever it is. When we get to South America we also add a giant bird and a talking dog, and Carl is able to pinpoint his quest to the hauling of the house to a certain spot… but none of it matters a bit.

There’s a lot that’s fun and funny throughout the course of our adventure, there’s even some adventure, but all along we wonder about Carl, and what it is he’s doing.

In the end, two really old men look back at their lives… not with regret, and not really even trying to make sense of it all, but with a certain youthful bewilderment that says, “What the hell was that?” Carl finds something, and he didn’t even know he was looking for anything… though, of course, we did. That might sound strange considering he finds a new-era version of himself, a talking dog, his long lost hero, and an undiscovered species of bird… but, he doesn’t find any of those anyway.

The funny thing about life is that you somehow don’t quite feel right unless you’ve got a “dream,” but no one quite has them worked out. ”Going to Paradise Falls together,” is a nice dream, and a worthy placeholder for whatever dream you want to fill in, but the trick is that it only has two relevant words in it. As I’ve said before, and as every child knows, dreams do not “come to fruition.” The dream’s the thing.

There are a lot of technical things you can say about Up (and I think they’d all be positive), but bothering to mention them seems to me like finishing Les Miserables, and talking about sentence structure and verb choice. There are those who will say such things, and good luck to them. For me, those people feel the pull of the dream, have probably even affixed some manner of reference to it… but, they’re dreaming it wrong.

Rating:

DVD

The Blu-Ray package comes on four discs – The Blu-Ray feature with a few bonuses, A Blu-Ray disc that is all features, The standard DVD version with repeats of some special features, and the digital copy disc.

There’s a commentary track on the film by director Pete Docter and co-director Bob Peterson, and it’s actually a pretty worthwhile listen if you’re a fan. It’s a fairly unique effort, because only in such a film do you get this level of the main brains behind everything in the film, and rarely in other films would the director have spent several years working on it. More generally, you’ve got a couple of the guys who work for the company who are doing a lot of the best things in film today, animated or not. The track comes to you in what is here known as Cine-Explore which offers you clips, illustrations, and other additions for you to watch which enhance the discussion. If we’re talking about a certain point of the development of the scene, sketches may pop up from other versions and so on.

Dug’s Special Mission is an animated short that shows us just what “special mission” Dug was on, as referred to in the film. Not the best of Pixar’s short efforts, but a nice addition to the film.

The Many Endings of Muntz is a featurette that goes over the various ways Muntz almost left the film. It’s a nice treat to relive with the crew the possibilities that were explored, and learn why they were eventually rejected. It really lets you in on the behind-the-scenes workings of the story creation, and shows just how much they try to make everything just right.

Partly Cloudy is the animated short that preceded Up in theaters.

Adventure is Out There is a documentary featurette that shows the cast researching the locations for the film’s South American adventure. On the one hand, it’s incredibly interesting to see the places from the film. Places that very few people have ever been. On the other hand, there’s a little, grumpy, “Yeah, it sure sucks to work at Pixar,” demon that may crawl up on your shoulder. But, the mountains are absolutely amazing, and it’s a nice bonus to get a glimpse of just how accurate the movie is in recreating them, because when you watch the movie you may be hard-pressed to believe there is a place that looks exactly like that.

Geriatric Hero – A character study of Carl which is a fun bonus, as are the other explorations available. From concept to final product, you get a look at what went into perfecting the character.

Canine Companions, Russell: Wilderness Explorer, and Our Giant Flightless Friend, Kevin are similar explorations of the development of the characters. Fans will enjoy all of these, and added to the overall collection of bonus features that explore the behind-the-scenes world, it will probably amaze many just how much work these films are.

Homemakers of Pixar and Balloons of Flight are fairly similar featurettes, but focus on Carl and Ellie’s house as “character” in the one case, and on Muntz’ behemoth of a flying machine, and the house as flying vehicle in the other. These are actually among my favorites as far as the bonuses go, mainly because they’re unexpected. Not only is it simply cool to watch the very strange effort involved in trying to make a flying house look somewhat plausible, it’s just a bonus that you would never miss, and you those are the ones you really like to have.

Married Life is a featurette that takes us through the process of developing the intro Carl and Ellie segment. I especially like this one as well, because the final product is so brilliant, and we apparently very nearly went another way. Another way that might have worked, and that the people behind the film thought was a really good idea at the time, but another way that would not have been so perfect as what we ended up with.

Composing for Characters is an exploration of Michael Giacchino’s score and collaboration with the filmmakers. His third Pixar effort, he has a masterful touch, and it is worthwhile to see a bit on how that part of the film comes together.

Finally, the Global Guardian Badge Game is a geography game in which you can test your ability to find countries or capitol cities around the world. You can play in learning mode, and the correct answers will be shown to you when you miss one. It’s really pretty straight-forward. You get a map, and the name of a country or city comes up, use your remote to highlight the correct answer. Earn points and earn your explorer badge.

There’s a lot on there, and it’s really a must-own.