Fortunately, "Up" is not that movie. I just got back from the theater (regular format because 3D makes my visual cortex cry after a while) and here are my disjointed thoughts about "Up" and the whole experience:
* - The first twenty minutes made my eyes rain. I wasn't alone. You could hear a pin drop in this matinee full of seven-year-olds and their adults.
* - Hooray for Chuck Jones' obvious influence on Pete Docter! Note the shapes of the rocks during the chase sequences, Kevin's somewhat familiar character design, and the dead-on characterization of Dug. Speaking of...
* - Dug is not only one of the best characters ever, he's a triumph of animal characterization. I kept thinking of what James Gurney talks about in this blog post: the best animal characters are the ones allowed to be themselves.
* - And as a Miyazaki fangirl, I am obliged to go "yay" at the "Laputa: Castle in the Sky" shout-outs as well. Generally speaking, animated films about things that shouldn't be able to fly but do so anyway are awesome.
* - It's a little eerie how much I related to Carl more than any other character...
* - "The Princess and the Frog" trailer got a pretty enthusiastic reaction, which is good given that the other trailers included everything from "Shorties" to "G-Force" (but not, curiously, "Toy Story 3" or "Ponyo on a Cliff".) That gets my hope up.
* - RE: "Shorties". It amuses me to no end that Robert Rodriguez can go from "Sin City" to a crazy "What If" movie for little kids.
* - RE: "G-Force". If this "Not Another Talking Rodent Movie" outgrosses "Ponyo" and "Princess", I may have to say "f*** it" and start studying to be a dentist.
* - I'm a chick, so "Partly Cloudy", which I knew nothing about going in, made me go "SQUEEE!!!" Props to Pixar for seeing the cuteness in Knifefish.
* - As I said before, I'll talk about the Pixar Needs Women debacle later.
All told, "Up" is excellent, go see it.
Also, it is hilarious that Direct-To-Video/DVD companies are still doing stuff like this.
