Up

A

Up won a lot of critical raves when it came out, but I never got around to seeing it at the theaters. Instead, I blindly bought the Blu-ray DVD, which is almost always a mistake. But in this case, I was very happy with the results. First of all, the movie is very good. But the Blu-ray DVD has a regular DVD version to lend out or play on non-Blu-ray players, as well as a digital version that can be unlocked and put on some portables. It also included some very good extras about the animators, including one who looks suspiciously like the little kid in the movie.

The movie itself has a lot of sad parts, starting just about from the beginning with a flashback into the life of a bitter old man. But that isn't the end of it. I'm not sure I like this tendency to show gratuitously sad scenes, but I will admit that it gives the movie more depth. Apart from the sadness, the story is pretty good with a lot of imagination put into the making of the movie and especially the rich characters. Though there is a big action scene towards the end, it isn't quite the crazy action that so many animated movies have a hard time laying off of.

Anyway, somehow Pixar is able to continue its run of first-rate action movies with Up, and it is well worth seeing. I could take off a few points for the wanton pulling of heartstrings, but that seems kind of nit-picky, so I will give it an A.

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