Going up

If you’ve ever wondered how, after what had seemed to be perfect, one can find some other kind of perfect, UP is the film to see. I’m hoping it gives you the same takeaway it gave me: that if you live with the spirit of adventure, there is, indeed, always no way to go but up.

Change has been on my mind lately. It’s not entirely unexpected, since August has been a month of upheavals. To begin with, the first of August quickly ushered us into a post-Cory era, surprising us with an explosion of hope and a renewal of Filipino patriotism. Then, August met us with the disappointment that was the 2009 National Artist Awards, leading us to question the very hands we’ve entrusted to shape national consciousness. This month, too, the literary circle, already small to begin with, has gotten smaller and smaller with the tragic passing of two young and talented writers, Winton Lou Ynion and Astrid Mae Tobias. Toss in some personal and professional disturbances into the mix, and you’ve got a month that never seems to end.

So what does one do? I do what I do best: I hide out in the movies and pick what seems to be the most escapist film showing. And what, pray tell, is more escapist than an old man tying a bazillion, brightly colored helium balloons to his house to fly away? As it turned out, however, the newest Pixar film UP threw me right into the middle of my personal tempest. And yes, Universe, it was exactly what I needed.

In UP, curmudgeonly seventy-something widower Carl Fredricksen decides to turn his house into a makeshift airship to fulfill the childhood dream of his wife Ellie to live in South America. Husband and wife had both dreamed of adventure, but, like what usually happens, “real life” got in the way. When Ellie dies, Mr. Fredricksen finds himself looking back at the joy that was his marriage and regretting that it hadn’t been made even more perfect by the fulfillment of their shared dream to go to Paradise Falls.

While he would have probably been content to just sit around and mull over this one big regret, circumstances suddenly force Mr. Fredricksen to make that one big decision to just go. And how! In what I believe is one of the most powerful moments of the animated film—and the same scene that almost had me choking on my Doritos as I broke into silent sobs—Mr. Fredricksen unleashes the thousands of multi-colored balloons he had spent all night inflating and sets his house afloat, bidding the startled nursing home attendants that had come to take him away goodbye with a naughty laugh.

Of course, when you venture out into the unknown, that’s exactly what you get huge doses of. It doesn’t take long for Mr. Fredricksen to realize his adventure is continuously spiraling out of his control. He finds out he’d accidentally brought with him Russell, a young boy scout out to earn his Assisting the Elderly badge. Soon after, two other characters interrupt his journey, the rare multi-colored South African giant bird Kevin and a talking dog Dug who tells him, “I just met you but I love you.” Ultimately, Mr. Fredricksen discovers that not all childhood dreams are meant to be fulfilled in the exact same way, but it’s always good to try.

I don’t want to say more, because I want Mr. Fredricksen’s helium balloons to completely cast their bright colors on you, but if you’ve ever wondered how, after what had seemed to be perfect, one can find some other kind of perfect, UP is the film to see.

I’m hoping it gives you the same takeaway it gave me: that if you live with the spirit of adventure—shifting accordingly with the onslaught of changes, always turning the page, unloading what no longer matters without forgetting what does—there is, indeed, always no way to go but up.

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