It all begins very much like It's A Wonderful Life. Young Carl Fredricksen and friend Ellie have a shared passion: adventure. Specifically, they both idolize adventurer Charles Muntz (Christopher Plummer), who travels the world in his gigantic airship, the Spirit of Adventure. But when Muntz can't prove that a unique skeleton he brought back from South America's Paradise Falls isn't a fake, he is publicly disgraced. Vowing to go back and find the proof to clear his name, he boards his airship in anger and disappears into the clouds.

Meanwhile, Ellie tells Carl that she wants a house on top of Paradise Falls, and Carl innocently crosses his heart in promise to give it to her. When they grow up, Carl and Ellie marry, and, as in It's A Wonderful Life, they move into the rickety old house they once played in. They fix it up and live there for many happy years until Ellie passes away. Carl ends up as a crotchety old widower with an enormous building project going up all around him - and they want him out. So, remembering his promise to Ellie, and to escape his gloomy fate, he ties a zillion helium balloons to his house and takes off for South America and Paradise Falls.

This is an adventure par excellence, very European in feel, with the charm of Ratatouille. But it is an odd assortment of characters. Besides Carl, who looks very much like Spencer Tracy and is played by Ed Asner (The Mary Tyler Moore Show), there's a stowaway: boy Wilderness Explorer, Russell (Jordan Nagai), who's working on his Helping Old People merit badge; a canine named Dug (Bob Peterson) that they meet in South America, and who has an electronic collar that allows him to talk; and Kevin... There are a pack of dogs, all with talking collars, but three main ones besides Dug: Alpha (again, Bob Peterson), Beta (Delroy Lindo) and Gamma (Jerome Ranft). Alpha has trouble with his collar, so that it produces a very high-pitched voice, which for an alpha dog is very embarrassing.

Pete Docter (Monsters, Inc., story for WALL-E et al) and Bob Peterson (screenplay for Finding Nemo, story artist for Toy Story 2 and A Bug's Life) co-directed this tale from a script by Peterson. It's a very sweet and funny story, full of poignant reminders that, while we need to seek adventures in life, the most important adventures are the ones we go on in our daily lives: such as marriage and parenting. The importance of fatherhood resonates in the relationship between Carl and Russell. Then there's Kevin...

I think the biggest laugh comes when Russell's face is slammed against the window of Muntz's airship, and then is dragged across it making a streaking sound, while Muntz's eyes follow it inside. Of course, Russell is funny in general, being so naive. Then there are the dogs, who refer to Russell as "the small mailman" because of his Explorer uniform. Just about every dogism is used, from their love of balls and hatred of squirrels, to the dreaded "cone of shame." Dug is especially enjoyable because he is the quintessential dog every kid loves.

Visually, the film is stylized in a very lovable way, similar to a children's book. My favorite part are the balloons - they're terrific. This type of imagination and adventure builds strong values in kids. Contrast it with the previews that precede the movie of Disney fare that do little more than teach kids to live in out-of-touch dream worlds. It's hard to understand how Pixar and Disney joined forces. Disney doesn't seem to have a clue, and Pixar has every clue. I thank God for Pixar. They are just about the only bastion of good-quality, family-oriented movie-making left. Walden Media, who is so into books, should borrow a page from Pixar's. May Pixar's tribe increase.



Waitsel Smith, June 1, 2009

Text © 2009 Waitsel Smith. Images © 2009 Disney-Pixar. All Rights Reserved.