Up, up and away…

I went in with my formulaic doubts, but loved every minute of Up.

It has a great love story, a huge sense of adventure, really neat characters, and fun little details my toddler girl laughed at.

My teen boy can be quoted saying “Doug was awesome!”

My 10 year old was enraptured. Asked his favorite thing about Up, his answer was “The irreverent humor throughout! Hehehe!”

I haven’t cried that much in a movie since well, it’s been a little while, and I am hormonal while nursing toddler and perimenopausal. It was tear-jerky in several different ways, but I didn’t feel conned into the tear-jerkiness. Granted, conning me in tear–jerk is easy, but did not apply here. I laughed out loud throughout, too.

I’ll tell you, I want to blow up a million balloons, attach them to my house and go on a grand adventure to South America.

And yes, Doug was awesome.

The soundtrack was excellent, too. The CGI rain was extremely realistic and other aspects of the CGI were wonderfully full of character. I was mesmerized by the details they managed to make so realistic. That’s right, no matter how much I can be transported in a movie, there is always that Art of Film student viewer watching from a different part of my brain. Excellent story, too. Love the kid’s crisis of faith moment. Well done, Disney-Pixar. And the opening short is cute, too.

I will add that on the ride home my teen said he was surprised that a G movie would be that brutal. I had to think about that until I asked what he meant. "All the blood in that scene where he hit the guy with the cane." I pointed out that Fredrickson's reaction after the incident was full of remorse and fear that he had hurt the guy unduly, therefore giving a good lesson in keeping control of your reactions. K thought there was a lot of blood in the scene. I didn't think it was much at all. However, keep in mind that I have worked a lot of playground duty and am highly aware of just how much a minor head wound can bleed. In the movie, by comparison, not much blood at all.