What Goes Up: Pixar Grows Up in New Animated Feature

The "Toy Story" Company Delves into Deeper Waters with the Complex Up

Life isn't a bowl of cherries. Life is like a box of chocolates. Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans. And, with Pixar's animated "Up", life is a buddy film. And that's if you're lucky. Really lucky.

"Up" begins with a whirlwind tour of the life of Carl Fredricksen (voiced by Ed Asner, in possibly his best career work to date) from an adventure-seeking boy, his marriage to an adventure-seeking girl and then life, which prevents them from making good on their dream of heading to South America and a location (curiously) named Paradise Falls. By the time the film slows down, Carl is a widower and about to be shipped off to a nursing facility. Carl sits next to his late wife's empty chair and talks to her picture. And then he pulls a fast one and attaches millions of balloons to his house and takes flight - and sets sail - for South America.

Fantasy, adventure, comedy and melancholia dance together in "Up" so naturally and believably, that it almost strikes a viewer as a completely new idea. For movies, it may be. But anyone who has lived life will recognize that these elements are always at play, around us each moment. And that's what makes "Up" such an artistic feat: more than most live-action films, this animated gem actually reflects what live-action life is frequently all about.

In addition to the dance of ambitions mentioned above, the ever-elusive 'perfect' world we seek - and fail to achieve - is addressed beautifully. Along for the ride is a stowaway - a young boy named Russell, a Boy Scout of sorts who sees himself an adventurer. Clinging to the airborne porch in horrific fear, Russell pleads with Carl, "Can... I come in?" Carl, a lifetime worth of experience under his belt, snaps, "no", and closes the door. But of course Russell soon joins Carl, navigating the ship from the house's living room.