Today I am enjoying a quality animated flick Up. Pixar has yet to disappoint me in film form and Up is no exception. I love this movie. It is just so sweet. Ellie and Carl are the sweetest and in a famously dialogless scene they tell all of us about their love. I am not ashamed to admit I cry each and every time I see this movie. Especially in the scene towards the end with Ellie's adventure book is revisited.
As Carl becomes Mr. Fredricksen and helps out Russell you come to love him even more. He seems like a mean old man but melts faster than an ice cream cone in Phoenix. Their relationship is just the best. The characters in this movie are all lovable, Kevin, Dug, even Alpha is lovable. I could do without Charles Muntz but all movies need a bad guy right?
It is kind of odd that Charles Muntz has so many dogs and all of them seem to be male. How did he continue to make more dogs? Did Pixar forget that female dogs are essential to making new dogs? Maybe the Pixar people were trying to say something about women in general in this movie. Carl, Russell, the construction guys are all men, the nurses that come to take him to Shady Pines, both male. Only Ellie, Russell's mom and Kevin are female. Wait a minute- there might be real significance to this, please hold while I Google...well I have never been good at keyword searching on Google, no luck. Well I will let that one go for today, but I am onto you Pixar and I will continue to purchase all of your movies so I can investigate this theory. Oh you clever Pixar, that is what you wanted all along isn't it? That must be Steve Jobs' influence.
You know all of those dogs have smart collars that help them speak so we humans can understand them and clearly so they can understand us as well. They speak English and if they were native species (as we have already established since there were no females does to continue the species) we could expect that they would speak a language native to South America, like Spanish or Portuguese (or English, French or Dutch if count all of the dominant languages- I learned that today). But maybe those fancy collars can translate too. Or I am possibly over thinking the quirks of this delightful film.
Mr. Muntz turns out to be so nasty and really makes the second half of the movie hard to enjoy. There is so much suspense as they fight in the skies and Russell almost falls to his doom. We all remember that horrible noise as his face was wiped along the window of the blimp. And the sword fighting! Oh my goodness. I was sweating during this part and forever grateful for the company that manufactured Carl's cane as it saved his life many a time.
Let us lighten the mood, remember when Dug tells his funny joke: "A squirrel walks up to a tree and says 'Oh no I have forgotten to stores nuts for the winter and now I am dead,' it is funny because the squirrel is dead." Who writes this stuff!? It is gold, pure gold! I am always amazed at Pixar's ability to animate hair so well but also how they have story lines that are so full of emotion that keeps the viewers attention for the entire film. I am sure the thousands of you who are now reading and subscribing to my blog cannot wait to find out if any other Pixar films are included in my illustrious movie collection. I will leave you in suspense.
RAs could have a field day with an adventurous film like this one. While the scavenger hunt is over done on College campuses, it can be useful in times like this. For example, it might be fun to have a semester long adventure scavenger hunt. The places to find could be things like:
- Visiting the nurse like Ellie and Carl visited the doctor many times in the film
- Learning how to splint a sprain like Russel did with Kevin
- Eating chocolate on walk around campus
- Sitting outside in the rain
- Hanging out with a dog
- Sitting on the curb to watch for red cars
- Saving money in a glass jar for bigger adventures
- Trying to fly with just balloons (although helium is expensive these days so that might have to be an optional one, imagine if Carl had to pay for all that helium!)
- Picnicing under a tree
There are lots of options, but when your floor is finished with their hunts you can give them Ellie badges and treat them to ice cream. Wow, this program is good. I want to participate in this one!
I only saw this movie one time. I think I will rent it soon you make me want to see it again. I do remember loving the beginning also introducing us to Elli and Carl. I cried too. There's a short movie at the beginning of Reckem Ralf. That was very well done very romantic. If you get a chance check it out. Lil.
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