When his beloved wife passes away, cantankerous septuagenarian Carl Fredricksen (voiced by Ed Asner) rigs his house with several hundred balloons and sets off for South America, hoping to finally bring their shared dream of visiting a fabled jungle paradise to fruition. Unbeknownst to Carl, a precocious Wilderness Explorer named Russell (Jordan Nagai), who’s desperately trying to earn his final merit badge, was hiding under his porch; by the time Carl has a chance to ditch the kid, the house has reached its destination.

After hooking up with a giant flightless bird named Kevin and a talking dog named Dug (Bob Peterson), Carl and Russell run afoul of Charles Muntz (Christopher Plummer), a disgraced adventurer who was Carl’s boyhood hero. Hoping to get back in good with the scientific community, Muntz is on a quest to capture--dead or alive--a species of bird no one else believes exists. Unfortunately for Carl, Russell, and Dug, that bird turns out to be Kevin.

CRITIQUE

Another day, another great Pixar flick. Okay, so they haven’t all been great. Monsters, Inc. is merely good, and Wall∙E goes limp whenever the human characters become the focus, but most of the studio’s output is great. And you can add Up to that list. The brainchild of co-writers/-directors Pete Docter (who helmed Monsters, Inc.) and Bob Peterson (they devised the story with Tom McCarthy, the man behind The Station Agent and The Visitor), Up is a terrific action/adventure flick, a very funny comedy, a touching romance, and a wise exploration of longing and regret all rolled into one. How’s that for an ambitious undertaking?

Like the best of Pixar’s feature-length output, Up (which I’d put right under Toy Story 2 and Finding Nemo on the studio’s quality totem pole) takes a simple story and raises it to the level of art; this movie works as what it appears to be on its surface and also offers a deeper resonance.

Younger audiences will enjoy the action and the antics of the squirrel-obsessed dogs, the wacky bird, the chubby little kid, and the cranky old, but audience members of a certain age will likely find relevance in Carl’s situation and mindset. Here’s a guy who started life with a certain set of beliefs, hopes, and expectations, and when he gets older he and finds himself alone he starts to believe life got in the way of his dreams and ambitions.

He eventually comes to realize that the life he shared with the woman he loved (a condensed version of which is presented in a dialogue-free sequence that could very well go down as 2009’s greatest stretch of cinematic storytelling) was itself an adventure, and while the whole “life’s an adventure” notion isn’t exactly new, it is truthful.

But if you don’t give a flying flip about that, don’t worry. I know I just said that kids will enjoy all of the straightforward fun, but you’ll enjoy it too. The bird (which resembles a cross between Marty Feldman and Rod Hull’s emu puppet) is funny, the talking dog is funny (heck, all the dogs--who really do sit around and play poker--are funny), the chubby kid is funny, and the cranky old man (who lets loose with the best “hippie” crack I’ve heard in a long time) is funny.

The story allows the filmmakers to supply a never-ending flow of wonderfully inventive ideas, the action set-pieces are brilliantly handled, the animation is dazzling (the characters’ tongues move accordingly as they speak!), the visuals are never short of astonishing (there’s a photorealism to the jungle locations that is staggering), and the pacing is breathless.

Truth be told, though, I actually wish the movie were a bit longer, specifically one sequence. It takes no time for Muntz to go from gracious host to paranoid psycho, and in this case no time is too short a time. To me it seems unnecessarily rushed; even just a few more minutes could have helped flesh out this part of the story better.

But if it’s not perfect, so be it. Aside from a certain revamp of a ‘60s sci-fi television series, Up is the most enjoyable, entertaining movie I’ve seen so far this year. (Take that, genre haters.) And someone should definitely start making room in the Pixar trophy case. If this movie doesn’t clean up come award season, then said awards will once again prove just how ridiculously stupid they are.

THE VIDEO

I guess at this point it goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway: Pixar has delivered another perfect Blu-ray presentation. This release’s 1.78:1/1080p transfer--encoded with AVC onto a 50GB disc--is absolutely flawless. It’s vivid, colorful, and richly detailed, with a three-dimensional quality that is simply stunning. And that’s all I’m going to say (and really all you need to know), because me droning on about it can’t compare to you seeing it for yourself.

THE AUDIO

If I told you this disc’s DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track (which my receiver decoded as a Matrix-ES track) was also perfect, would you be surprised? Didn’t think so.

As usual, a meticulous mix has been created, and the audio here brings out every nuance. It’s atmospheric, expansive and enveloping, with a completely organic quality that will make you forget you’re listening to something that was created entirely from scratch. Dialogue sounds completely natural, and Michael Giacchino’s wonderful score (describing it as such is an understatement on my part) is given a beautiful presentation. And be prepared for some very, very deep bass.

English 2.0 DTS-HD and English Descriptive Service tracks are also included, as are French and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 dubs; English SDH, French, and Spanish subtitles are available.

THE EXTRAS

All of the extras here are presented in full 1080p high-def.

The extras on Disc One of this four-disc set kick off with a Cine-Explore track, which combines an excellent audio commentary from Docter and Peterson with a bevy of picture-in-picture material, including animation tests, production sketches and paintings, storyboards, and character models. (Quite a bit of this nonstop stream of visual material comes from very early on in the creative process, offering a look at how much the story and characters evolved.)

Adventure is Out There! (23 minutes) offers a look at the research trip the filmmakers made to the jungles of South America, combining videotaped footage from the trip with interview clips.

Dug’s Special Mission (4 minutes) is a new animated short that explains what Dug was doing moments before he encountered Carl and Russell. Audio is presented in an excellent (and thunderous) Dolby Digital 5.1-EX track.

Partly Cloudy (5 minutes) is the animated short that played before the movie during its theatrical run. If you’ve ever wondered about the delivery stork who drew the short end of the stick, all of your questions will be answered. Audio for this short is also presented in an excellent (and thunderous) Dolby Digital 5.1-EX track.

The Many Endings of Muntz (5 minutes) offers a glimpse at the various possible endings that were devised for the movie. 

The real meat of Disc Two comes in the form of seven featurettes, most of them covering the painstaking detail that went into creating the movie. They break down like this:

Geriatric Hero (8 minutes) covers the lengths the filmmakers and animators went to in order to ensure Carl’s movements and behavior were grounded in reality. 

Canine Companions (8 minutes) covers the lengths the filmmakers and animators went to in order to ensure Dug and his brethren’s movements and behavior had at least some basis in reality.

Russell: Wilderness Explorer (9 minutes) looks at the creation and evolution of Russell.

Our Flightless Friend Kevin (5 minutes) explores the creation of Kevin.

Homemakers of Pixar (5 minutes) concentrates on the design of Carl’s house.

Balloons and Dirigibles (6 minutes) focuses on the adherence to physics (or as much as was possible or feasible) while animating the characters’ primary methods of transportation.

Composing for Characters (8 minutes) looks at the creation of the movie’s wonderful (did I say that already?) score.

Married Life (9 minutes) covers the evolution of the sequences charting the relationship between Carl and his late wife. (As much as I love what Docter and Peterson finally settled on, I think the punch-filled version of the relationship would have been great.)

Promo Montage (6 minutes) is a compilation of short promotional spots--many of them very entertaining--for the movie. 

You can forget the name, because what’s been dubbed Worldwide Trailers is nothing more than two of the movie’s North American theatrical trailers.  

The Global Guardian Badge Game is an interactive BD Java geography game.

BD-Live connectivity will give you access to Disney’s standard slate of online material.

Disc Three is a standard-def DVD of the movie, which comes complete with an audio commentary (the same found on the Cine-Explore track) and the abovementioned animated shorts. Disc Four is a digital copy of the movie.

FINAL THOUGHT

One day the folks at Pixar are going to fail. Today is not that day.