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On Up

CRITICAL MASS: It’s Up and away at the Oscars

By Philip Martin

Tuesday, November 10, 2009
The animated film Up, directed by Pete Docter and Bob Peterson,features (from left) Kevin, Russell, Dug and Carl Fredricksen.

The animated film Up, directed by Pete Docter and Bob Peterson,features (from left) Kevin, Russell, Dug and Carl Fredricksen.

LITTLE ROCK — We are entering the time of year when moviegoers - or atleast movie critics - begin to compile their lists of the year’s best.Usually November and December are the prime months for the release ofwhat Hollywood considers its best shots at Academy Award glory.

But this year may be a strange one. Aside from Lee Daniel’s grittyPrecious, there’s little awards buzz surrounding any of the imminentreleases, a couple of which - Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island amongthem - have been pushed back to 2010. The consensus is that the Academyof Motion Picture Arts and Sciences picked a bad year to expand thenumber of Best Picture nominees from five to 10.

So it’s a little odd that one of the best films of the year is beingreleased on DVD before most of the presumptive “prestige” pictures haveeven hit theaters, but that’s the case with the latest Pixar/Disneyanimated feature, the remarkably soulful Up - an adventure story aboutan old man who ties balloons to his house and floats away.

For all its cutting edge computer-driven technology, Up is deeplyrooted in the humanist values of story and character. While it can passas light family entertainment, it deals with some remarkably profoundideas and poses serious questions about what constitutes a well-livedlife. Up is a well-written, subtle and painstakingly re-alized filmthat shames most award-seeking dramas.

“We approach our writing exactly as one would approach a live-actionscreenplay; the focus is on character and keeping the audienceengaged,” director Pete Docter says. “Our whole process is remarkablysimilar to liveaction; we have cinematographers, lighters, costumedesigners, etc. We use different tools to get there, but the creativeprocess is the same.”

The film’s first act is essentially the lifelong love story betweenCarl Fredricksen (voice of Ed Asner) and his wife, Ellie, who aschildren were awed by a Movietone newsreel (presented in magnificentlyfluttery black and white) about a disgraced explorer named CharlesMuntz (voice of Christopher Plummer). Muntz disappeared with hisdirigible into Venezuela while looking for mythical Paradise Falls andproof of the existence of an unlikely bird. Carl and Ellie dreamed offollowing Muntz, but the day-to-day demands of adult existence andmortality thwarted them.

A highlight of the film is a poignant, near-silent montage thatexplains how Carl morphed from a wide-eyed kid into a lonely oldcurmudgeon with a deep sentimental attachment to his home - whichrepresents his beloved, deceased wife.

“As we developed the story of this guy floating away in his house, andwe asked ourselves, ‘Why is he doing that?’” Docter says. “We figuredthere was some sort of loss or unfulfilled dream that he was trying tomake right, and so we came up with the back story of Carl and his wife.We initially constructed it as a compressed series of small shortscenes with dialogue and sound effects. Little snippets of life. Bob[Peterson] wrote it.

“When [story supervisor] Ronnie del Carmen started to storyboard it, wefelt like it would be nice to reduce it, simplify it and take thedialogue out. My parents shot a lot of Super 8 movies of our familygrowing up. Watching them now, there’s something really emotional aboutnot having any sound. That allows, I think, the audience to participatemore actively and kind of imagine, ‘What are they talking about there?’... and that feeling was all part of what went into that scene ...these really little beautiful real-life moments showing the highs andlows of life. Carl’s true adventure - their relationship together.”

“This love story was the spine of the whole movie,” co-directorPeterson adds.“When we develop these films we look for themes thatguide us in how we tell the story. As the process of writingprogressed, we realized that our main theme was, ‘How does a persondefine adventure?’ Is adventure out there in great deeds, or can italso be between people in the small moments that make up a life. Carland Ellie’s love story helped us tell that theme - that small momentslead to a life’s adventure.”

While all his neighbors have sold out to commercial developers, Carlsquats amidst the construction sites, an intransigent rebuke toprogress - not unlike Clint Eastwood’s character in Gran Torino (or HalHolbrooke’s in the forthcoming That Evening Sun).

But Carl draws the attention of an overachieving Junior WildernessScout named Russell (voice of Jordan Nagai) looking to complete hismerit badge collection by aiding the elderly. Carl sends the boy on afool’s errand. Then, after a harrowing incident with one of theconstruction workers, Carl decides to float his home DannyDeckchairstyle to Paradise Falls.

Only after he’s aloft does he discover the boy is an inadvertentstowaway; he has no choice but to take him along. Once they arrive inSouth America - on top of one of the mesa-like mountains called tepuis- a couple of other characters are introduced; an exotic bird thatRussell names Kevin and a talking dog (voiced by Peterson) named Dug.

“The reason for Dug being in the film is that we wanted to give Carl anew family after his wife passes on,” Peterson says. “We essentiallygave him a family dog, a grandson - and a 12-foot flightless bird. Youknow, a family! It is up to Carl to accept this new family in the bodyof the film, thus doing what his wife would have wanted - to move onand forge new relationships. Originally Dug and Kevin were with Carlalone (before Russell was created). Carl had no one to talk with so weinvented the talking dog collars.”

Peterson obviously had a deep identification with Dug.

“It was a thrill for me to voice him, mainly because I have been a dogowner and lover for my entire life,” he says. “This dog collar idea letus animate Dug with true dog behaviors. I crafted Dug’s voice aroundhow I talk to my dogs: ‘Hiii you dawgs,’ I’ll say with that Dug-likevoice. I also love how my dogs are interested in the simple things inlife - balls, treats, squirrels! Dogs to me have a soul - they’re veryemotional.”

Dug also serves as a kind of mentor for Carl, Petersonsays.

“Dug’s undying and immediate canine love - ‘I have just met you and Ilove you’ and ‘I was under your porch because I love you’ - is anindirect lesson for Carl that love is always around him, if he willonly accept it.”

Even the putative villain of the piece - the demented Muntz - plays animportant part in Carl’s arc.

“Charles Muntz in story terms is Carl Fredricksen at the end of theline,” Peterson says. “In other words, if Carl had made it to ParadiseFalls without accepting others into his life, then he would have gonecrazy, wallowing in his unfinished quest.” Up is available in severalconfigurations; as a single widescreen DVD ($29.99), in a double discdeluxe edition ($39.99) and a four disc Blu-ray edition ($45.99).

E-mail:

pmartin@arkansasonline.com

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