In one of the best lines of 1997's As Good as it Gets, Jack Nicholson's character Melvin Udall utters to Helen Hunt's Carol, “You make me want to be a better man.”
Throughout their years of filmmaking, Pixar has had that exact same effect on me. I walk away from the films assessing my relationships and analyzing just what I can do to improve myself. I know some may scoff at my taking life advice from animated characters, but it saves me a truckload of therapy money.
As a writer, I find Pixar equally as inspirational. Their latest release Up hits levels of creativity and compassion that can force us to dig deeper into our well of superlatives and not rely on the usual adjectives to describe what transpires. It's not that the film reaches some saintly level of adoration, but rather it serves as a challenge to raise the game creatively.
The film does so not with a bang, but a whisper. The premise alone should clue you into that: a cranky man in his 70s (not totally unlike Udall), after losing his wife and lifetime love, leaves his little patch of Earth via a bouquet of balloons tethered to his house's chimney to visit their dream locale that had eluded them during their life together.
It's not the typical sort of Saturday afternoon matinee fodder for the kiddies these days. Yet, Up still floats far above maddening crowd, both literally and at the box office, creating yet another cinematic milestone for a company that seems to have an endless knack for exceeding already high expectations.
Carl Fredrickson, our protagonist, is joined by 8-year-old scout Russell (voiced by Jordan Nagai), who mistakenly stows away under the house, not realizing that it would become airborne. This portly little ball of enthusiasm is the Dennis the Menace to Carl's Mr. Wilson. The boy looks beyond the crusty exterior in an impassioned desire to help the old man, of which Carl wants none.
The film does include the requisite anthropomorphic animal, but not in the traditional sense. Dug is a charismatic, devoted, bouncing sack of slobber under the fur of what appears to be a golden retriever. Dug’s thoughts are processed into a voice on his collar, and a premise that provides some of the film's biggest laughs, but also adds to its oversized heart. Dug may be a tad dim, but he is achingly loyal.
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