I know that most of these picks are fanboy picks, but that’s just the way it goes.  I’m a fanboy.  Sure I don’t have critically acclaimed films making up my list, but I don’t care.  These are the movies I liked the best from the last ten years.

10. Minority Report (2002)

Spielberg really outdid himself with this modern sci-fi classic about a crime unit which uses seers to stop murders before they happen. This is a wonderfully crafted film with some very interesting ideas inside a great chase movie.

9. The Dark Knight (2008)

I know that I see like a fanboy for including this on my list, but my higher choices will make me seem like more of a fanboy, so I’m not bothered by this. Batman Begins was the Batman movie I have always waited for, and The Dark Knight took it up a notch, creating a great atmosphere and wonderful performances along the board.

8. Wall*E (2008)

WallE may be my all-time favourite animated film. I was blown away when I saw this movie. I did not expect to fall in love with these characters and become so engrossed in the story and moral background. But I did. WallE is amazing, through and through.

7. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)

Martial arts films have never reached this level of artistic and literary brilliance. This film transcended genres and languages and became one of the most emotionally gripping films of the last ten years. The cinematography was absolutely beautiful, the story was enrapturing, and the over-all style was just incredible.

6. Children of Men (2006)

Its hard for me to pinpoint what I love about this movie so much. It might be the unyielding vision of the director, the fascinating psychological ideas and questions which arise from this situation, or the intensity of the action throughout. What a brilliant film.

5. The Passion of The Christ (2004)

Mel Gibson set out to make a massive, gripping, emotional religious epic, and he succeeded in every way. The Passion tells the story of Jesus’ last day without holding anything back, bringing the full weight of his suffering and sacrifice to the screen.

4. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)

The Lord of the Rings trilogy is a major milestone in movie history. The Tow Towers, as the middle piece, suffers from certain downfalls that the middle has, yet still succeeds on a very epic and visual level. The Battle of Helm’s Deep is one of the great battle scenes, which the ongoing struggles of the fellowship held us to our seats.

3. Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith (2005)

I just can’t justify not having a Star Wars movie on this list. I am too big of a fan for that. Sure I had my problems with the first two prequels, however the third gave me exactly what I hoped for from the final installment of the Star Wars Saga. I was moved visually, cinematically, and emotionally.

2. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

The final piece int he Lord of the Rings trilogy saw all of the story lines come together for one great climax. Sure there were parts which bothered me as an avid fan of the books, but the massive scope of the picture and the hard-hitting emotional punches left me awed.

1. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

The Lord of the Rings trilogy came onto the screen late 2001 and conquered the movie-going world. The epic scope and huge vision for these films was apparent to all who saw it. The quality of production was at the highest levels that film can reach, and Tolkien’s story and characters entranced audiences everywhere. Fellowship of the Ring is the best of the trilogy and set a new standard for movie-making which in my opinion has yet to be surpassed since its release.

10. Toy Story (1995)

To be honest, most of the reason that Toy Story is in this top ten is its status as a milestone of animation. Toy Story truly is the most influential animated film since Snow White, ringing in the new trend of computer animation. However, that is not the only reason it made the list. Toy Story is really a delightful movie with colourful characters and a timeless essence which I believe will preserve this movie as a classic for kids of all ages.

9. Spirited Away (2001)

Hayao Miyazaki is the master of animation, and Spirited Away is one of his masterpieces. Spirited Away proves that there are things that can be done with animation which probably could never be pulled off in live-action movie making. Spirited away is pure, unadulterated child’s imagination laid out for us on screen, and it blew audiences away, even becoming the highest grossing film in Japanese history.

8. The Iron Giant (1999)

Over the past decade, non-Disney animated films have really taken hold and found a niche of their own. However, before this explosion of new animation, non-Disney cartoon movies were few and far between. And really good non-Disney animated movies were even harder to find. However, hidden between the Toy Storys and Lion Kings and Shreks is a wonderful little movie called The Iron Giant.
The Iron Giant may seem like a simple tale, but it is handled brilliantly, complete with real character relationships, themes which may be a little hard-edged, and a wonderful emotional core. If you have not yet seen The Iron Giant, do yourself a favour and watch it.

7. Shrek (2001)

Now, lets be straight here: I am not talking about the ridiculously over-commercialized sequels. I truly believe that the very name of Shrek has been muddied by the greed of the studio and filmmakers involved, and that the magic of this original first movie has been hidden from view.
Shrek was a movie which defied the regular story tale approach that most animated movies (Disney especially) had been taking. The computer animation itself was very refreshing at the time, and the sharp humour mixed with the emotional impact made for one fantastic film. Its too bad that when we see the lovable green ogre we no longer see this great movie, but instead we see the dollar signs of greed, the Burger King promotions, and the terrible sequels riddled with pop culture junk. Just don’t forget; Shrek at one time did mean something.

6. Wall*E (2008)

It may seem presumptuous to put a movie which is still so new onto this list. However, Pixar has been the powerhouse of animation over this last decade, and this story of a funny little robot who would find the lost human race is their absolute masterpiece. Fro the nearly-silent and brilliant opening to the exciting conclusion, WallE has some really deep themes sinking in, which remaining very light-hearted at its center. An absolutely brilliant piece of work.

5. Fantasia (1940)

Fantasia seems like it was really an experiment on the blending of animation with music, with audio and visual swirling together in one harmoniously package. Well, it worked. And now Disney’s cartoon opera has a firm hold in the history of film-making and is a landmark in animated feature films.

4. Princess Mononoke (1997)

Perhaps the most inventive country in animation is Japan, and there is none greater than Hayao Miyazaki. Miyazaki hand draws each frame by himself, an incredible feat in this age of production-lines. Princess Mononoke is Miyazaki’s masterpiece; an epic full of adventure, romance, fantasy, heroes and villains. It has a heavy theme involving the conflict of the industrial age and the need for ecological balance with nature. It is a brilliant film in almost every regard, and perhaps the greatest from the most imaginative and daring country in animation today.

3. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1938)

Snow White is the Birth of a Nation for animated films. Walt Disney’s landmark film brought full-scale, feature-length animation to the forefront, and he then reigned on the animation throne for many decades to come. Snow White is beloved by many and has a unique place in the annals of film history. It was a spectacular achievement of its time, opening to doors to what animation can truly do to the movies.

2. Beauty and the Beat (1991)

In the late 80s/ early 90s, Disney was undergoing a new renaissance. They had found new life in a series of high quality stories amidst great-looking animation. The Little Mermaid kicked off this new golden era, but it was Beauty and the Beast where it hit its peak. The art in this movie looked amazing, while the characters were fully realized and the story flowed perfectly. Beauty and the Beast was the first, and so far still the only, animated movie to be nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, and for good reason.

1. Pinocchio (1940)

Snow White may have started off Disney’s reign on the throne of animation, but Pinocchio was his crowning achievement. Many film critics around the world recognize this movie as the best that animated feature films has to offer. It was able to take what worked from Snow White and fix everything that didn’t work. And think about how iconic some of the themes and parts of that movie are now, especially the song “When you wish upon a star” and Jiminy Cricket, the physical representation of Pinocchio’s conscience which has become a song of inspiration for many people over the years. The tale is a classic morality tale played out through wonderful storytelling and fantasy.

Story:
Bought myself some posters to add to the collection, large ones worth mentioning are:
Watchmen, New York City Streets, The Saturdays, Up, FLY53 and Miike Snow.

Had all but the Up and Saturday’s poster up for about 4 weeks now, put up these two and get called a childish gay, getting some real abuse for no reason. I like the Saturdays so what, Keep Her is the most played song in my iTunes and they sit top 8 on Last.FM played artists, good music, good live and i like them. Back up it doesn’t make me gay, i’ll a picture of the poster up in a few mins, it’s as manly as possible without being porn.

Up is also not childish. It’s one of the best Disney films created, up there with Wall-E, Toy Story and Monsters Inc. As much as Disney is targeted at teeny boppers they have many adult themes and jokes in them, Shrek is practically a 12A. Up, amazing film. Good stuff.

Not gay, not childish, just a passionate fan. You wish you had these posters, make my room look amazing! Top 5 student room ever! I called it.

from July 6, 2008

La primera que vi vez Toy Story caí rendido ante la genialidad de una panda de locos americanos capitaneados por John Lasseter. Pixar hacía su entrada en el mundo del cine por la puerta grande y la verdad es que, desde entonces, no han dejado de sorprendernos. Después de los juguetes llegaron los Bichos, protagonistas de una película realmente divertida. Más tarde nos reencontramos con Woody y Buzz en Toy Story 2, mejor aún que la primera (a ver qué pasa con la tercera). Entonces nos topamos con los Monstruos y, apenas un año después, acompañamos a un pez payaso que estaba Buscando a Nemo, su hijo. Ambas películas son graciosas y emotivas, y ganan con cada revisión. Después llegó Cars, para muchos una  obra menor, aunque yo disfruté como un enano viéndola. Igual que disfrute comiendo Ratatouille en un restaurante parisino. Y es que una rata cocinera como Remy hace las delicias de cualquiera. Algo así como Wall-E, el último superviviente en la tierra, un robot capaz de expresar con una mirada más que muchos de nosotros con cientos de palabras. El año pasado, cuando muchos pensaban que Pixar había tocado techo, la compañía propiedad de Disney fue capaz de sorprendernos de nuevo y liarnos para volar en una casa tirada por globos y pilotada por un viejo cascarrabias. Hoy, Up, que así se llama la última maravilla de Pixar, puede convertirse en la segunda película animada de la historia, la otra fue La Bella y la Bestia, nominada al Oscar a mejor película. Sólo el tiempo dirá qué pasa, pero lo cierto es que para mí toda película de Pixar forma parte de las mejores. Aunque su genialidad no es lo único que tienen en común, pues todas empiezan con una pequeña animación de un pequeño flexo llamado Luxo. Y, precisamente, el vídeo que he querido colgar hoy parodia el corto de la mascota de la casa. Lo encontré hace un par de días en El Confidencial y la verdad es que me resulta cuando menos original.

When I finally saw Pixar’s 2008 hit WallE, I was blown away.

It seems like such a simple film at first, with a little robot filled with curiosity in an empty planet. But the arrival of Eve changes his world, and he eventually finds the last f the human race in outer space, who are now the epitome of fat and lazy.
The film strikes our emotions at many levels, dealing with the importance of ecology, the value of human ambition, and the wonder of diversity.

But at the movies heart is the love story between WallE and Eve. It is incredibly sweet and touching, especially when WallE is caring for her while she is in hibernation state. I love the scene when they are zoming around together outside of the ship. It is one of those moments that tells you that this movie si something special.

On the technical side, the animation is the best I have ever seen in movies, ever; taking the title from Pixar’s modern day classic Finding Nemo. The landscapes are rich, the beginning views of earth are eerily haunting, the space scenes are magnificent, and the characters, especially our title hero, are complex and real.

WallE himself is a lovable character who changes the lives of everyone he comes into contact with for the better. He is truly a wonderful character who is full of personality, just like this movie itself.  It is the best f the year.

10/10

Siguiendo con los posts graciosos, ahora vemos otro de los tipicos anuncios de I’m a PC & I’m a Mac pero con dos de los personajes mas tiernos en las peliculas de Disney: WALL·E y Eve:

WALL·E: I'm a PC | Eve: I'm a Mac

Via: Fubiz <- Encontrado por las recomendaciones de mi Google Reader

OK, I know this film was out in The States over the summer, but it’s only just arriving in cinemas over here in Britain. I went to see it last night.  Today’s great thing is yesterday’s great thing for some many of my fellow Americans:
103. Pixar’s Up

Pixar's Up

You know, when I first saw Wall*E last year, I couldn’t get over how amazing and touching and original it was. What a movie! What a message!  Pixar, in all their success, makes me proud to be an American.  As a film fanatic living in Britain, I’m all too often reminded what a copycat factory Hollywood typically is.  We produce cheesy romantic comedies, brash and violent films based on toy company properties, and the occasional overwrought melodrama.  Don’t get me wrong, I usually lap up all that crap happily.  But whilst I can usually defend American movies on the basis of being wholly entertaining, I could never rightfully argue that much of it is ‘artful’.  Pixar though…they just make me so patriotic.  They are proof that not everyone in the American film-making business is a brain-dead hack.  People in fricking France could watch Up and be impressed by its beauty.

Anyway, around a year ago was when Pixar first announced that filmmaker Pete Docter’s Up was to be Pixar’s 2009 release.  (Usually, when Pixar releases one film, they let you know a wee bit about what is next on the slate.)  After seeing Wall*E and then subsequently reading about this challenger to the throne–a film about an old codger and his house tied to balloons, I thought–”No way, man!  This film is bound to suck in comparison.  Nothing can top Wall*E.  Wall*E forever!”.  (That’s pretty much verbatim what went through my head when I first saw the production article for Up in Total Film magazine.

This is Pixar’s tenth film and Docter is a Pixar veteran having directed Monster’s Inc. (another one of my faves) and contributed to last year’s absolutely amazing Wall*E.  I still think that Wall*E should have taken the award for best picture last year…but it seems that now that Animated Films have their own category, they’ll never be nominated for the main prize.  It’s a bit unfair, really.  Why not just create a genre category for everything?  That way, the standard tear-jerking drama that ALWAYS wins the top honor at the Oscars can stop bumping other worthy and ground-breaking films out of the way.

Dug. I just met him and I love him.

As most readers are already aware, Up is the story of an old man, Carl Fredericksen, who makes a grand attempt at fulfilling his lifelong dream of following adventurer hero–Charles F. Muntz–into the South American jungle.  He does this by fixing millions of helium-filled balloons to his house.

Let me just say that I spent the first fifteen minutes of this film crying so hard that my neck was wet from the tears falling down from behind my 3D glasses and spent the remainder of the film hysterically laughing.  One of the prime sources of mirth is talking dog character–Dug.  A golden retriever wearing a special language collar that translates his thoughts into spoken language.  Peterson voices this character and admits to adapting the hilarious ‘I have just met you and I love you” line from something a child once said to him when he was a camp counselor.  Awww.

Without giving too much away, let’s just say that another hefty majority of the laughs belong to Alpha, a Doberman Pinscher with the same ability to communicate but with his ‘voice’ on a different setting.

I think my initial reaction to the announcement of this film–that of  “you’ll never be better than Wall*E” was partially born out of my resentment that an old white man should get to be the center of attention–yet again!!!  Let me explain.  I spend an hour every night watching a political news broadcast from back home.  So, I spend a lot of time seething at old white men who are far too entitled and spend their days and powers stopping American progress.  I suppose it’s a bit unfair to generalize the situation to apply to every single old white man.  Additionally, as a woman–I’m constantly disappointed by how few vehicles are created with women as the central characters.  Take for instance “The Simpsons”, one of my favorite shows by a mile.  Still, how many female characters can you think of that are regulars on that show?  There are over a hundred regularly occurring characters.  Let’s take a tally (of only the regularly featured characters) that are female:  Marge, Lisa, Maggie, Krabapple, Mrs. Skinner, Sherri and Terri, Patty, Selma, Crazy Cat Lady, Mrs. Hoover…that’s about it.  Yeah yeah, I know…there’s Mrs. Lovejoy and Mrs. Hibbert and some other Mrs.’s to count–but honestly, Crazy Cat Lady probably appears more than any of them…and has more to say.  My point is, there’s not a lot of consideration for making women more prominent in film and television.  So, I guess that sort of rubbed me the wrong way too.  I was just not in the mood to hear that yet again, our hero would be another middle-aged to old white guy.  But, what can I say, I’m glad I put my knee-jerk liberal feminism aside and went and saw this movie anyway.  (As if I wouldn’t have gone to see the latest Pixar…).

It’s a beautiful HUMAN story, much more rooted in earthly bi-ped reality than most other feature-length toons and it shouldn’t be missed.  (And as far as my PC policing goes–it at least features on of animations first Asian-American lead characters in Russel…the good intentioned and loquacious Wilderness Guide.)

Also, the lead-in cartoon Partly Cloudy is one of the best shorts I’ve seen in a looong time.  It’s actually written and directed by the gentleman whose jubilant personality inspired Docter in creating the character of Russel.

Partly Cloudy

In doing a bit of background reading for this entry, I came across this story of a 10-year-old girl from Hntington Beach whose last wish was to see this film before she died from vascular cancer.  It’s nice to know that Pixar made such an effort to help that happen but it’s still a tearful story to read. article

Here’s a glimpse of why this movie is so special.  Meet Dug:

I saw Bolt the other day, you know, the Pixar movie. It wasn’t the worst movie, but it wasn’t very good either. I thought the premise was interesting, but it was just another cliche kids’ movie in the end. It certainly doesn’t measure up to the standard set by WALL-E.

Counterstrike is one of those games that isn’t like you other FPS shooters. You don’t often just go rambo and kill. Although you can do that if you want to, but you’d end up sitting most of the round waiting for it to end.

My brother plays clan matches, and there is incredible amount of strategy, communication and intelligence required many times to win a round and beat the opponents. Am sure a lot of y’all are probably saying, “Yeeeeesh! It’s a game! What the hell are you talking about!”.

But sometimes you don’t need to shoot anyone to win a round, and many times you need to shoot everyone to give your team that 1 point.

So I came across a couple of videos, from the scores of CS videos out there that shows how intelligent play and nerves of steel can make you win a round in CS. This post is for all the CS players out there! Cheers to a wonderful game.

• SPAWN NINJA DEFUSE DE_CBBLE

  This is by far my favourite CS video. Anyone who has ever played CS, will appreciate the brilliance of this video. Mind you, this clip is from a professional game. So the guys in terrorists are professional CS players, and not your average CS n00b.

  Sadly the reason why he couldn’t defuse the bomb was because the crowd started cheering, and the opposing team found out looking at their reaction (or this is what has been written on forums)

• SK-WALLE VS PENTAGRAM AT DE_TRAIN

  The next clip is from WCG Grand Final. It’s like the world cup of counter strike. The best of the best come here to play and win the grand prize. There is insane amounts of sponsorship and media coverage.

  So this final is between Pentagram and SK. SK were the leading team upto the finals, and they needed to beat the Polish giants to win the prize. Being 3-0 down, the 4th round was a very crucial round, since the Ts bought the guns that round having saved money the previous rounds. Watch this, this is genius in it’s own way.

  Needless to say this clutch is the best out there. I have never seen anyone win a round single handedly with such brilliance.

I hope you guys liked this. If you are reading this post, and you haven’t played counterstrike yet, you wont understand a word I am talking about. If you have played CS before, enjoy!
Cheers

I am working on Wall-E now, its a personal project for portfolio\reel. I love this cute little guy (Viva la PIXAR!), so i though it will be cool to make my version of Wall-E. Now i working on geometry, i got a few Wall-E meshes from Google 3D Warehouse for reference, i’d like to use some parts of them but its a problem, because they are heavily triangulated. Anyway, my main goal in this project its not modeling but texturing\shading, and then lighting\rendering\compositing. I have a few nice ideas about final comp, i’ll see if i can do something pretty with it. Hint: Apollo shots from NASA I’ll post my WIPs here, check back soon!

Hello everybody,

I will have a blogging-break for 3 days, but I will come back new and shiny. I’m going to be watching a lot of movies in those 3 days and I’ll review everyone of them for you, and of course, where possible, I’ll post a link with the review so you can watch it for free, streaming online.

If you want to be notified when a blog, movie review or free to watch movie is coming on than follow me on Twitter. If you don’t have twitter, you can make a free account in five minutes.
http://twitter.com/JacobTribiani

some of the films I will try to put on for free, and which I will definatly review are:
Hancock
Austin Powers international man of mystery (1)
Austin Powers the spy who shagged me (2)
Austin Powers Goldmember (3)
Wall-E
Righteous Kill
When Harry met Sally
Copycat
The Proposal
The Curious case of Benjamin Button
Public Enemies
Surfer, dude
Ice Age Dawn of the dinosaurs (3) 

Stick Around!

Godínez intenta impresionar al departamento de fotocopiado asegurándoles que no sabe quien es Brad Pitt ya que él ve puras de Kieslowski y tiene un tatuaje de Tetsuo en la espalada baja.

Acepta la invitación de Godínez para que te meta mano en lo oscurito de la cineteca; cortesía de su abono que no incluye palomitas.

Duración: 75 minutos 13 segundos / 34.4 MB

Canciones:

• The Jam / A Town called Malice [Billy Elliot]
• Michael Jackson / Ease on down the road [The Wiz]
• Gavin Friday / Wig Wam Bam [Breakfast on Pluto]
• Goran Bregovic / Mesecina [Underground]
• Antonio Banderas / Bella María de mi alma [The Mambo Kings]
• Marc Anthony / Mi Gente [El Cantante]
• Richard Berry / Louie, Louie [Animal House]
• The George Baker Selection / Little Green Bag [Resorvoir dogs]
• Bob Dylan / The man in me [The Big Lebowski]
• Underworld / Born Slippy [Trainspotting]
• Roxy Music / Virginia Plain [Velvet Goldmine]
• M.I.A. / Paper Planes [Slumdog Millionaire]
• Curtis Mayfield / P.S. I love You [Superbad]
• Elton John / Tiny Dancer [Almost Famous]
• Louis Armstrong / La vie en Rose [WALL*E]
• Slim Whitman / Indian Love Call [Mars Attacks!]
• La que debes ver antes de morir. El luchador.

Arte: Folder para tu Pc / imprime, recorta y arma el empaque.

Descarga: Godínez va al cine. 16 canciones remezcladas en el rancho de George Lucas que se recomienda escuchar en sonido Surround envolvente.

Escucha en línea:

this post is dedicated to my good friend cheyne colin who is a wash’d up 1.6 player that wont stop frag’n till the day he dies. hopefully this video will give him the inspiration he needs to never give up on his dreams of becoming the most fear’d frag’er from the pacific northeast. LOL <3

the commentators in this video always make me laff. walle’s 1vs5 clutch during WCG Grand Finals is pretty amazing too, ha. almost a justin vs diago equivalent? hehe enjoy~

-kmrkkh

* * * * * * * * * * 84%

This movie really did a lot for me. When I first saw this movie I believed that I was at the age in my life where I would no longer enjoy animated films, but this one really got my interest. The visual effects in this movie are mind blowing, and it amazes me how a feature length movie of this quality can be made using only CGI. WALL•E is a robot with the task of cleaning up the polluted Earth while humans lounge around on a space-ship waiting for his job to be completed. The humans periodically send “EVE Probes” to test the planet’s cleanliness, and they mostly always return negative, until WALL•E finds a plant for EVE. EVE is then captured by the ship and taken back to the ship with WALL•E following along into the vastness of space. This movie was so good because the robots are never given a voice. WALL•E and EVE only speak each others names or one word phrases throughout the movie. This is probably the best Pixar movie created to date. See this movie.

… a busy JT week … It started out with him losing his first tooth!! After seeing his big sis getting all that money from the Tooth Fairy for the past 2 years, he was so excited to finally to be getting in on the action. Of course, he was very surprised to wake up & find an envelope under his pillow, & I was woken up to the sound of the question, “The Tooth Fairy left me a bill?”. Just goes to show you what usually shows up in envelopes at our house LOL. Of course, the Tooth Fairy did not leave him a bill, she left him a gold dollar inside of that big bill looking envelope He went back to being excited as soon as he realized there was money inside, & he’s super psyched to see what she leaves him next time (he already has his second loose tooth! it’s right next to the first!) The next big thing was his 5th birthday yesterday!!! Man, where does the time go?? It seems like just yesterday he was this tiny 4lb 11oz babe coming home from the hospital. Now he’s this full fledged kid! It’s almost too much to take! My 3 guys are growing up on me so fast. He was very lucky to go down to Staten Island last weekend & share his birthday with his cousins (2 of his cousins are June boys too), & that was really cool. Then, yesterday morning, first thing, he got to open up his presents from us. Laura (my helper with the kiddies for the summer) was here yesterday & she brought him these really cool go kart toys (I do not need to tell you about the thing with boys & wheels do I? LOL – he loves ‘em). She stayed for cake last night. We had ordered him (at his request) a Wall•E cake – chocolate cake with buttercream icing & fresh strawberry filling. It was soooo good! My boy’s got good taste Then the 6 of us went out to Wendy’s for dinner. Yes, we did cake first – he just could not wait. We always let the birthday kiddo pick out dinner on their special day, & he’s been looking forward to Wendy’s all week. So, we started out the week with a little boy, & ended it with a gap toothed kid What’s going to happen next???

A clumsy and often formulaic story drags Pixar’s new adventure down.

At the risk of stating the obvious, after last year’s masterful Wall*E probably anything Pixar produced next would suffer in comparison. With Up, the studio’s tenth feature film, co-directors and screenwriters Pete Docter and Bob Peterson have instead made a frequently uninspired, sometimes dragging jungle adventure that too often bears comparisons to one of rival studio Dreamworks’ dreary marketing centerpeieces.  Too long in the middle and too predictable by half, the new film is the studio’s least achievement since the little-loved Cars. Sadly, it’s also seldom fun to watch.

To its credit, the film begins well, with the kind of sweet nostalgia that has infused depth and pathos to the studio’s previous The Incredibles, Ratatouille, and of course Wall*E (that robot casts a long shadow.) As a youth growing up sometime in the era of movie serials and dirigibles, plodding and  uncoordinated Carl Fredricksen (voiced by Ed Asner) dreams of following in the footsteps of his hero, the explorer and big game hunter Charles Muntz (Christopher Plummer). When he stumbles upon Ellie (Elie Docter), a neighborhood girl who shares his romantic wanderlust, the two kindred spirits grow up together and get married instead.

The montage showing their long and contented life together (despite their inability to have children) is the highlight of the film. Set entirely to Michael Giacchino’s lovely score and without dialogue, the sequence fills in a flurry of details with grace and sincere emotion (a good example: notice the subtle class distinction in evidence at the wedding) After Elie passes away and the home they shared becomes surrounded by high-rise construction projects, a 78-year old Carl attaches thousands of balloons to his house’s fireplace as a means of transporting it to Paradise Falls, the Venezuelan jungle (and home to Muntz) that was Ellie’s unrealized dream. The plan goes fine until Carl realizes the house has a stowaway in the form of chubby, cherubic Wilderness Explorer scout Russell (Jordan Nagai).

Despite Russell’s earnest bumbling, Carl gets the house close to the falls, landing just three days hike from the ideal spot Ellie wanted it to go. The trek through the surrounding jungle forms the second act, and that’s where the film gets lost in several different ways. Russell discovers a rare (and eminently merchandise-friendly) rainbow-colored ostrich thing that, unknown to them, is being pursued by the talking dogs bred by Muntz to patrol the jungle for interlopers. The old explorer, it seems, is determined to capture the bird after scientists dubbed his previous specimen a fake. Helped by the simpleminded but loyal hound Dug (Peterson), Russell convinces Carl to help get the bird to safety after Muntz and his dog pack turn on the hapless newcomers.

The chase from Muntz’s dirigible encampment and through the jungle, towards the bird’s – whom Russell names Kevin, for no discernible reason – sanctuary goes on too long, absorbing time that would better serve the story if used to flesh out the characters. Russell especially remains static throughout, all dim-witted enthusiasm and wide-eyed gusto that’s not as effective a counterpoint to the glum, rickety Carl’s grief-fueled determination as it needs to be. The product of a broken home and quietly despondent over an apathetic father, Russell in his own way is as desperate for escape as Carl. But in dumping his entire backstory into a single scene Docter and Peterson instead seem content merely to get his motivation over with. To quote Diana Rigg in The Great Muppet Caper, “It’s plot exposition. It has to go somewhere.”

Likewise the one-dimensional Muntz, who suffers for lack of depth in comparison to other Pixar antagonists such as The Incredible’s Syndrome or for the kind of freewheeling snarl demonstrated by Monsters, Inc.’s Randall Boggs. Muntz is ostensibly obsessed with bringing Kevin back to the world for his own glory, but doesn’t do much beside point and shout orders to his canine goon squad. Plummer’s rich voice, full of Old World patrician authority, isn’t really utilized to its potential as a result. Asner, an underrated character actor in the 70s and largely forgotten since the 80s, gives his performance a full range of emotions despite the repetitive situations into which Carl is flung.

Ultimately, all the running around has to lead somewhere, but a plot point involving Carl revisiting his battered house/ship for a last encounter with Ellie’s memory only leads in turn to more chasing, as situations dovetail tidily towards a conclusion. That’s fine, but it suggests Docter and Peterson know the film’s heart is its strength, and cash in on that warmth to move the plot forward. Worse, the chasing includes some pretty intense violence, including a beating given Dug by the pack’s domineering leader Alpha, fiery airplane collisions, and Muntz’s long fall to his death. Creating animation that holds adult audiences’ attention is a laudable goal, but getting there through the use of violence is an awful lot like cheating.

Fortunately the film comes to its senses near the end, with a lovely denouement that puts all the characters happily together while only seeming a little forced. The closing credits are clever as well, presented as a family album that, like Wall*E again, moves the characters’ story forward in a nice “bonus scenes” kind of way. Finally, the short film before the feature, a weird and high-concept fable entitled Partly Cloudy, is strictly hit or miss. I found it didactic and meanspirited, but the audience surrounding me seemed to enjoy it.

Up is the kind of film that you might love coming out of the theatre and esteem less each time you think about it. It is not Pixar’s best work, but given its many flaws in comparison to their previous accomplishments it’s hard not to think maybe they weren’t trying to outdo themselves after all. In this summer of disappointments, how sad to think that in making Up such gifted creators might have been aiming low all along.

- Michael Kabel

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