A Late Movie Review for Up

Better late than never? Think again.

I watched the fresh release of the movie entitled UP three years ago. I was in Davao City that time, spending a weekend from my training in special education. Even if I really loved the movie that I wanted to pen a review, blogging wasn't a slice of my life that time yet.

What brought me into putting this movie review three years after is that I happened to watch it last Sunday on the idiot box. As I have always said, I'm not a movie buff. It was chance that the movie was featured and I was having my usual weekend online check, so I thought of writing this.

The movie was inspired from the creative geniuses behind the animated movies and it was not the usual spinning of the yarn. While the movie was all fantastical, it conveyed depths of human life. I laughed out loud. I cried a bucket. I thought in pensive.

Photo credit: www.hdwallpapers.in.

The movie tells the story of an old man named Carl, whose beloved better half Ellie has passed away. His frustration is that he was not able to fulfill taking his wife to visit her dream destination in South America. Willing to fix this broken dream whole, he fills his house full of helium balloons and deploys them out of his chimney, tearing his house from its foundation and bringing it southwards. 

However, on his way to his destination, he finds out that a young explorer named Russell slipped on board in an attempt to help him, as such win his boy scout “Assisting the Elderly” badge. Together, the two form a rough relationship as each of them reach their respective goals.

As a movie civilian, it was effective. There was never a scene that didn't excite or affect my strings. The animation was wizardly. The scenes were amazing in its own way in fantasy as it would in its own right in reality. And the music was also superb. It added life effectively to the movie, like making sad scenes sadder.

However, the movie was somewhat "bipolar" if this term is appropriate for what I mean.  At the prelude of the movie, one would relate to real emotions - the joys and sorrows of humanity. Then, one would be taken to the adventurous imaginations - the possibilities and weirdness of fantasy. In the end, the movie seemed depressive and manic in the swing of the story teller's mood.

Moreover, I would just suggest a parental guidance on underage viewers because of some violence and ferocity incorporated in the conflict of the movie plot. These must be usual elements for conflict development, but for a cartoon movie with children as huge market, just enough might be too much.

As a whole, I like UP more. It may have some downs but it is effective. It really gave me glimpses of both worlds of young and old, of reality and fantasy, of happiness and sorrow. And perhaps its greatest impact in me is the lesson it tells that: Life must always go on. 

With 10 as the highest, a brownie 9 for UP!