Up Analysis

Up

Directed by: Pete Doctor

A Pixar film

This film takes hardly a few minutes to get us emotional and into the world of the characters. It shows us a small kid who doesn't talk much, who meets a girl who is excited to be with him. They end up getting married, they can't have kids and all they live for is each other and they get old and she dies. Now the film begins. What a way to start telling a story, we are already rooting for this person now in spite of he being a grumpy old man. He is Mr. Fredricksen as everyone calls him and when he hates his current life, he takes up a journey to fulfill the adventure dreams of his wife Ellie. The film is about finding a purpose in life through meeting new people or by doing anything at any point in our lives. Fredricksen wouldn't have much to look forward to, in his life after his wife dies. But he meets a kid named Russell and when Russell turns out to be something, he is the one who stands up for him. He finds his purpose through caring for people, caring for their problems, owning them and trying to solve them. If he doesn't care about anything else and stays a grumpy old man, there wouldn't be much purpose to his life. What the film is saying is so heart warming and profound. 

One of the writers of Inside Out, Meg LeFauve explained the process of writing at Pixar. They apparently have a writer's room called Braintrust and all the people work on all the projects together there. They do a lot of screening of films and they say that all of their films suck at the beginning and the work they do at Braintrust is to ensure that they don't. This process is inspiring because it indicates that hard work and trying can make things work, which resonate with a lot of films of Pixar and the way they write their characters as well. I read somewhere about Pixar's characters that, we don't love them because they win, we love them because they try.

I think one of the biggest problems with films is the age of the actors, that problem isn't there in animated films. They could effortlessly show a character growing up, getting married and getting old. These are the films that kids should be watching, these inspiring, heart warming stories. The parts in between where they meet different characters, weren't so engaging for me but as a whole it made a lot of sense and gave me a satisfactory feeling, especially when Carl lets go of their house. I'm amazed by how them make us feel things for their characters so effortlessly, of course a lot of effort must be going in there. I'm so curious to catch up on all of Pixar's work now.