Up

With the advent of the 'Digital Copy', I can now load the movie into my ipod touch, and take it with me. This takes the step of ripping the original DVD to back up my copy for personal use out of the equation, and I don't have to feel like I'm doing something illegal. (Backing up something you have paid for, and want to last, is only prudent) This review is twofold, in that I personally really enjoyed this film. Also I want to commend Amazon for resolving an issue, literally within a minute of my complaint. First: This film is both going to tug at your heart strings, as the depth of the film reaches into the universal inevitability that we all are going to die. That we all love someone who is going to pass, and that it is a painful process. It will bring tears to your eyes. At the same time, the promise of new, different, and rewarding relationships are possible throughout life, and that all we need do, is be open to them. What a wonderful, funny, entertaining, and fulfilling story. It's colorful animation will entertain the kids, and the underlying 'grown-up' content is there for Mom and Dad. You will not be disappointed. As for the second part of my review, this deals with the professional side of Amazon, and why this company continues to be the success that it is. I ordered this film as a gift for my wife, for Valentines day. I was remiss, and found I was looking for a gift way late in the process. However! Amazon, offering Saturday, (Next day in my case) delivery would get the gift to my home, with one day to spare. This service was of course at a premium. I'm a Prime Member, and feel the service is well worth it. So I paid the $6.99 to get the item here by Saturday. As you may have surmised already, it did not make it on time. I was disappointed with Amazon, who has served me so well, for better then 12 years. The package arrived, Tuesday the 16th. With Monday being a holiday, I could understand that it did not get here then. But it was still later then promised. I found the contact by email button within the 'My Order's' portion of my account, and sent an email to Amazon, explaining my situation. I kid you not, within One Minute, they sent an email back to me, indicating that I would be receiving a refund of the $6.99 I paid, back to my MasterCard. That's customer service. Thanks Amazon. Get this movie. It really is great! :-)

I'm not sure if this is the best movie I've ever seen, but for the life of me I can't think of one better. I'm not usually a watcher of Pixar stuff for some reason, indeed the last one I'd seen was the first Toy Story. No good reason why that's so, I just never got around to them. But something about the premise of Up grabbed me, so when I saw it in a used DVD bin, I snagged it. Two watchings in two days later, and I ordered this particular Blu-Ray copy of it, after bragging about Up to anyone and everyone I came across. What's great about it? Where do I start? First, there's the house made of balloons. It makes for amazing cover art, and arouses curiousity. Petty you think? Not really, the eye likes what the eye likes, and that's not to be discounted. The characters for another. Carl Frederickson isn't some to good to be true hero or precocious kid, he's a crotchety old man who actually behaves like an old man. Go figure eh? He doesn't look much like voice talent Ed Asner, but Asner's voice is letter perfect for the performance. His sidekick, Russell, voiced by Jordan Nagai, acts just like a little kid would act. He's very observant at times, but naive and obtuse a lot of the time as well, just like a real life version of Russell would be. The two of them make for a great team, even if Carl is a little slow to grasp that. And that's what's terrific about the roles, neither of them know everything, or instantly figure out what to do. They have to think, and the movie shows them thinking. Not a lot of movies have the patience, or the sense, to allow its characters to think. But Up does. The supporting characters, like Christopher Plummer's Charles Muntz, the dog Dug, and all the rest are excellently handled as well. The highlight of the supporting characters, for me, was the young/old versions of Ellie Frederickson. The young version is voiced by the director's daughter, and she has the right bit of spunk and adventure for the shy and callow Carl (they look to be about 8-10 years old in those scenes). The adult version, who marries Carl, is done without a voice, and is part of the most touching montage I've ever seen on screen. We watch 50 years of their lives in a few minutes, with no dialogue, yet it spoke volumes. This is why the cliche "A picture is worth a thousand words" is so relevant even today. I think I've watched it five or six times and I still tear up during it. The computer artistry is what one expects from Pixar, even someone like me who isn't a habitual watcher of their films. The balloon house, the airship, the dogs (don't laugh, they're a riot), all of it was done with amazing technical proficiency, and always adds to the story. But it really comes back to Carl and Russell in the end. I cared about them, what happened to them, and more importantly what they took out of those adventures. I've not heard anything about an Up sequel, and there's nothing on its Wikipedia page, but I would love to see another adventure with the two of them in it. Either way, Pixar has made a fan out of me for a long time, I hope they can keep it up. Five stars

GREAT MOVIE WATCH IT ONE SAD PART! BUT IT TELLS THE STORY

Although it's impossible for the physics of flying a house with balloons, to another country!!, that's NOT what UP is about. A really good story about loss, aging, and doing the right thing. And having some wonder in your life to believe in yourself and others. One of the reason I like most animated films is because the storytelling is so good. Do your self a favor and also watch the end credits, because the story continues.

Great video and audio. One of my family’s favorite Disney Pixar movies this Blue Ray crisp picture and sound are everything you expect from this disc.

Good movie

Arrived in great shape and in 2 days.

I seem to get more and more surprised with Pixar releases - the company continue to produce wonderfully imaginative films that are an alternative to the more standardised Disney-solo efforts these days. In my view, I feel that 'UP' represents the quality of film-making that Disney always used to aspire to back in the earlier hand-drawn days, though given a modern twist to appeal to a new audience which I think attracts both adults and children more equally. No doubt it is argued by many that both Pixar and Disney are responsible for some controversial decisions lately; more often than not, it was a minority of Americans that felt 'Wall-E' demonstrated environmental concerns, which was apparently a problem as were all supposed to sit on our backsides doing nothing, and that the protagonist in 'Princess and the Frog' has no right to be black, because Princess are supposed to be trim, pale figures with blonde hair (Courting a Prince with as much personality as a Prune. Sorry Walt!). The good news is that 'UP' has very little content for the P.C brigade to pick up on! After discussing the film with others, it was always the opening scenes of the film that came to conversation - a wonderful reel of sequences that fast-forwards the life of Karl Frederickson - a quiet young boy who aspires to venture out to the mystical Pleasure Island with his new friend, Ellie - both of them being avid explorers. But the Karl of the modern day is a grumpy old man who is in danger of being sent to an elderly folks home when the plots of land around his house are being developed for new buildings. Trust him to remember the joy he once had of having his own balloon stand in his younger days, eventually leading him to the quick conclusion that he could sail up, up and away with his beloved home and escape to the Island he always dreamed of... Despite my reluctance to give away more information, the film truly unfolds into an unexpected adventure. As to be expected from Pixar, the visuals are gorgeous and continue to exceed any films before it (possibly even Wall-E). The directing was noticeably very effective - key frames were well thought out, but the film never strays into a dizzying 3D environment, but rather having a more linear look in the layout terms which helps the travelling theme to the film. Whereas other CGI film companies tend to faff around with annoying camera angles and visual oddities, Pixar have always been careful to use the computer medium to its advantage - creating situations that would have been impossible with traditional animation techniques, yet never too far away to suggest we haven't learnt anything from the past 70 years. I also found the balance of 'Humour and Heart' perfect; granted, I read before writing this that many reviewers suggested their kids either cried too much or didn't laugh enough. Given that companies like Pixar will always be in the shadow of the Disney 'Golden Age', I can only laugh at such suggestions. Films like 'UP' are an incredible achievement when so many themes and standardisations have been run to ground in films over the years - to continue to produce such original content is what makes Pixar so special. The way they can balance Humour and Heart should be recognised as a fantastic quality, given how mushy and lifeless many "kids" TV/film content are these days (Hannah Montana? Yuck). If films like this are considered too distressing for 'darling children', I really don't recommend subjecting them to the wonderful morals demonstrated in films like Pinocchio (1940) - masterpieces of film-making. 'UP' possibly ranks as Pixars most adventurous outing, and no doubt one of their best along with the likes of Toy Story, Wall-E and Monsters Inc. In fact, the only issue I have with the product is that of Disney's incompetence regarding release schedules. I've found it quite frustrating that 'Fantasia' Diamond Edition has yet to be officially announced in the U.K, yet in the U.S, a trailer was released a month ago on their release of 'UP', available via BD Live, yet no trailer has even been put on this Blu-Ray/DVD. Whats even more puzzling is that the discs contain trailers from back in October! Come on Disney, all we want are dates... My only guess is that the trailer will be put on 'Dumbo', which is being released March 22nd if you're interested. That is currently available to Pre-Order, why not go check it out? To try and summarise though, I think 'UP' is just a genuinely heart-warming film that, granted, simple in plot, proves you can pack a lot of entertainment in to such a basic concept. The Blu-Ray is, as usual, of amazing quality and far more so than the DVD - bear in mind however that, as with any Blu-Ray, you are really only going to see the benefits to a good degree on a 30-inch and bigger Television. This is the point at which DVD's really become 'softer' and Blu-Rays only start to show how detailed they can be. To be fair however, our TV is only 26-inches and the difference is still wonderful. God help us when Green-Ray comes out! Then Purple... Regarding the other version of 'UP' that includes a "Digital Copy Disc", all that means is that it includes a disc that allows you to copy the film to your Computer so you can transfer it to an MP3 player with video play-back, or anything similar. Given that their are 'various' ways of easily ripping a DVD to ones computer anyway, the fact you could just 'place' the DVD in your computers drive to watch it (radical huh), and of course the fact that once you've used the Digital Disc its completely useless, I feel its poor value and wasteful on Disney's part. Never the less, I'm done ranting.

Aun no abro mi pelicula pero todo se llevo acabo muy rapido y bien. Todo seguro. Y lo mejor buenos precios.

je n'avais pas vu ce film au cinéma et étant une adulte adepte des disney (qui ont berçé mon enfance et sont restent pour moi des chef d'oeuvre à faire découvrir aux enfants pour qu'ils puissent rever), j'ai acheté ce DVD par pure curiosité (poussée également par les bons commentaires).. J'avoue que je suis plus fan des anciens disney (peut être plus habituée aussi) avec leurs graphismes: belle et la bête, cendrillon, etc... ayant vu récemment Rebelle pour la première fois, j'avais été assez déçue par Pixar sur ce coup la (scénario, visages (je trouve les personnages pas très beaux) et j'avais trouvé que cétait assez sombre).. bon j'ai regardé la Haut et j'ai été touchée... c'est le fim d'animation à voir et ce pour plusieurs raisons: pour les enfants, c'est plein d'aventure et d'humour avec des personnages attachants, haut en couleurs et c'est plein de magie aussi (le moment où la maison décole pour la première fois est de toute beauté, tant sur le plan visuel que symbolique... ) pour les grands: c'esr une réflexion subtile sur le temps qui passe, la mort donc la vie, la vie après la perte de l'être aimé (c'est aussi une magnifique histoire d'amour) et la réalisation des rèves (tout ce que l'on a raté dans sa jeunesse aussi= c'est assez poignant de voir que le projet qu'il avait en commun avec sa femme a été maintes fois remis en question en fonction des aléas de la vie... on peut lire des commentaires critiques sur ce film (il y en a quand même) disant que c'est invraissemlable qu'un papi qui se déplace à peine au début puisse vivre de telles aventures! mais ne peut on réver un peu et se dire que la réalisation de ses rêves ou de ceux de l'être aimé (ainsi que le combat pour sauver des êtres devenus chers) peuvent transcender? N'est ce pas le miracle de la vie? c'est aussi une réflexion sur les personnes agées dont la sollitude et le chagrin ne font pas le poids face à notre société d'aujourd'hui attirée par le profit, et que l'on envoie comme cela en maison de retraite, les déracinant à leurs souvenirs, intactes dans leur maison (c'est émouvant et courageux pour un Disney Pixar d'aborder un tel sujet). Enfin, j'ai trouvé que c'était un film d'animation plein de finesse quant on voit l'évolution du rapport que le papi a vis à vis de sa maison: quand il parvient à s'en libérer (ne faut il pas en retenir que quoi qu on fasse, la perte de l'être aimé n'est jamais définitive car sa femme vit dans son coeur, peut importe qu'il perde les objets lui ayant appartenu) c'est très fort en émotion (les deux fauteuils qui restent la...) la musique est très belle et le film, non pollué par des chansons, ce qui est appréciable! en bref, peu importe notre avis, c'est le film d'animation QU'IL FAUT VOIR! ou la rencontre de deux personnes symbolisant les écarts de génération ayant tous les deux un manque et qui partent pour réaliser leurs rêves! a recommander pour petits et grands!

„Oben“ hat es noch einmal bestätigt: Ich liebe Animationsfilme! Und ganz besonders die von Disney Pixar! :-) Wieder haben die Macher ein liebevolles, herzergreifendes und extrem unterhaltsames Stück Filmgeschichte geschrieben. Hier steckt unendlich viel Herzblut drin. Taschentücher sollte man auf alle Fälle bereitlegen. Es geht um einen alternden Mann namens Carl, der den Lebenstraum seiner verstorbenen Frau Ellie verwirklichen will: Nach Südamerika reisen! Von der Zeit der Moderne überrollt und vom Altersheim regelrecht verfolgt, fliegt er mit seinem kleinen Häuschen davon. Tausende von bunten Luftballons tragen sein trautes Heim und führen ihn nahe ans Ziel. Doch während der Reise stellt er fest, dass er nicht allein an Bord ist: Der junge Pfadfinder Russel hat sich an Bord geschlichen und sucht nach Anerkennung. Außerdem sammelt er Abzeichen für bestimmte „gute Taten“ und eines fehlt ihm noch: Einer alten Person helfen. Zusammen gelangen sie also nach Südamerika, wo sie einigen „schrägen Vögeln“ (u. a. im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes) begegnen und das Abenteuer nimmt langsam aber sicher seinen Lauf… Die Geschichte ist sehr liebevoll durchdacht und trotz der Tatsache, dass sogar der Tod Thematik in diesem Film ist, besitzt er eine ganz klare Kindertauglichkeit. Es ist einfach genial zu sehen, wie gut Animationsfilme funktionieren, um wichtige Botschaften zu vermitteln. In „Oben“ gibt es einige, z. T. sehr anrührende. Einfach toll. Auch den Charakteren wurde viel Leben eingehaucht und es ist interessant zu beobachten, welch große emotionale Wandlung der zu Anfang noch sehr muffelige Carl durchlebt. Der kleine Russel wächst einem auch schnell an’s Herz. Hier hat Disney mal wieder alles richtig gemacht. Die verstehen ihr Handwerk. Optisch bleibt sich Pixar ebenfalls treu. Liebe zum Detail. Das ist alles, was ich dazu sagen kann. Schlichtweg umwerfend!!! Der Film ist einfach schön :-) Und ich würde ihn fast als kleines Meisterwerk bezeichnen, denn nicht nur der Spaßfaktor ist extrem hoch, sondern auch die emotionale Tiefe. In diesem Animationsfilm ist wirklich für jeden was dabei, nicht nur für Kinder. Auch der Soundtrack ist wunderbar. Verblüfft mich immer wieder, wie es Komponisten schaffen, die Musik genau auf die Atmosphäre abzustimmen. Oder wird die Atmosphäre durch die Musik überhaupt erst erzeugt? Egal. Der Film stimmt von vorne bis hinten! Fazit: Liebevoll, toll animiert und sogar zu Tränen rührend. Disney kann es einfach.