What is there left to say about Pixar? Up is brilliant, another one hit clear out of the park. It's the latest feature to come out of the studio that brought us pretty much every great 3D animation ever.
As with all the previous Pixar offerings, they've spent just as much time on story, theme and screen-craft as they have on the seamless animation. This is why they're leagues ahead of almost every Dreamworks animation - Kung-Fu Panda being the notable exception. This story of a lonely old man, Carl (voiced by Edward Asner) who still clings to a spirit of adventure, hits every beat with perfect precision. We get the slow and nearly dialogue-free explanation of the loss of his wife, which carries a sad poignancy that would make even Clint Eastwood's bottom lip quiver. Then it's an extended repartee between Carl and Russell (voiced by Jordan Nagai) as they fly off in the old man's house, lifted by a mass of helium balloons.
These filmmakers know what they're doing. Rather than trying to draw adult audiences in by using jokes which go over kids' heads, they simply work to bring the kid out in every adult. All we can do is sit back and enjoy the adventure.
Up is slightly too dark for the very young but Pixar's broad-ranging appeal is always going to risk losing one extreme demographic. But it's fun, funny, perfectly voiced and will hold you in its grip from beginning to end.
The short film preceding it, Partly Cloudy, further showcases the studio's incredible ability to tell a children's story without using dialogue.
