Up
Some critic said that you must be heartless if your heart is not moved by “Up”. This is just so true. Tears were streaming down my face during the scene that showed Carl and Ellie aging together. It was just that beautiful and honestly I doubt that children would not be able to understand it – or would feel it to be too sad. This is how normal life is, and personally I think it’s a rather sweet way for a child to learn about the world. In fact, the sadness in “Up” that comes with the grief for a beloved person’s death is not so much of a depressing one but feels natural and acceptable because death is unavoidable. There is something extraordinarily beautiful to the grief of this old man, and refreshing to see how he deals with it. It’s a Disney movie after all, and perhaps the best ever.
Grieving over the death of a beloved person, making a child’s dream come true – all these issues in “Up” don’t sound all that complex, but it hits us to the core. Its depth lies in how incredibly human the film is, how much it tells us about ourselves. Most people are going to grow old, and “Up” gives us quite a good picture of how we see ourselves as old people. Of course “Up” was made by hip Pixar employees who probably use iPhones and barely look like 30. But most likely they also have grandparents and some of us younger people might even have seen how crushed old people are when somebody important passes away, and this makes us reflect upon ourselves. After all, it’s not that Ellie died that we feel sad, it’s because we were shown what a great relationship Carl and Ellie had together. Just from how they were sitting together in harmony in their respective chairs, we get a feeling how close they were to each other. That was what I found truly touching.
As for myself, I do not have any children’s dreams except for the Nobel prize, but I also do not have any regrets about it. This brings us to the perhaps most beautiful part of the story, when Carl read Ellie’s adventure book full of pictures of the two of together which says at the end: “Thank you for the adventure. Now go and have a new one!” She wanted him to go on and didn’t regret that her adventures in life turned out to be different from what she dreamt of. It sounds so simple yet feels so meaningful, and it was at that point that Carl was able to let go and finally open himself up to Russell.
Personally I found “Up” to be greater than “Wall-E”. Sure, “Wall-E” had a cute, happy love story and was, in general, very cute. Apart from the superficial cuteness factor though, “Up” is my perfect Disney movie. It has an engaging story, an adventure filled with drama and action, and finally characters who became friends and are absolutely hilarious and lovely in their interaction. Even more than “Wall-E” with its Japanese style cuteness and shady environmental message, I think “Up” is the kind of film that everybody would like, and by that, I include everybody I could possibly know. Or rather, let me know if there is anything that one could potentially not like about “Up”!