Going "Up"

Kids are attracted to bright colors, balloons, adventure stories, animals (especially if they can talk), and the romance of flight and freedom. It's already been proven that they like cognizant toys, inventive insects, romantic robots, neurotic fish, epicurean rats, and enterprising automobiles. But maybe I'm being presumptuous. Would it be too presumptuous to say that, aside from our own elderly relatives and the sweet, old folks down the street, most of us adults tend not to like old people, or become stricken with anxiety at the thought of having to deal with them? We haters of slow drivers, coupon wielders, and the hearing deprived. If there's one thing I hope Pixar's new flick, "Up," can achieve in its theatrical run, and one thing that I'm sure they'll be more than able to considering their track record, it's popularizing the elderly. I'm of the many who freeze up when addressed by any individual over 60, and I already adore Carl Fredricksen and am completely smitten with the premise, not to mention colors, of this geriatric adventure movie. Call it another notch in Pixar's bedpost, a testament to their sublime ability to balance their characters and temper their comedic reaches.

But of course a talking dog doesn't hurt its case, either. Neither does the inclusion of some very arresting visuals and thrilling-looking chase sequences. Yahoo!'s unveiled the new trailer to swoon children and adults everywhere. And don't forget the old folks, too.


I've read some rather dull plot synopses out there for this film, a bad bedfellow to have when your movie is as risky as this one is (children's flick oriented around a ...grumpy old man!?) and found I rather like the one at Pixar's own promotional site, which is short and very sweet, and adds a nice tinge of sympathetic regret to this movie's emotional repertoire:

Carl Fredricksen is 78 years old. When Carl was a child, he met and eventually married a girl named Ellie who grew up in a small midwestern town. Ellie always dreamed of exploring the mountains, but she died before she got a chance. Now, when developers threaten to move him into an assisted living home, Carl decides to fulfill his promise to Ellie. To accomplish this, he uses a huge number of balloons to make the house fly - but unwittingly takes a chubby eight-year-old Wilderness Explorer named Russell with him. The two opposites match up for thrilling adventures as they encounter wild terrain, unexpected foes, and all the terrifying creatures that wait in the jungle.

With folks still in the process of convalescing from "WALL*E" fever after it hit us so hard last season, could this be yet another example of the neglected elderly, slumped in the corners of the neighborhood cineplex, repeating "I've fallen and can't get up"?

Will you be going "Up" on May 29th?


IMAGE from: Wikipedia
SCOOPED first by: Ain't It Cool