What dreams may come

Film review: Up

MANILA, Philippines - Up is the new Disney/Pixar animated film that comes to us in full 3D. At the spanking new Ayala Greenbelt 3 THX theater, the latest in 3D glasses were being utilized and must admit this current version of 3D eyewear is much more comfortable than previous versions. While I used to find wearing these glasses throughout a whole feature would at times result in slight migraine or eyestrain, my 10-year-old and myself enjoyed the film and didn’t feel the glasses a hindrance at all. In fact, given the more sensitive and touching moments of the film, the glasses came as a great disguise for when one was beginning to feel teary-eyed.

Up is a film about dreaming, holding on to those dreams, and not regretting decisions made in one’s life even if they seem a far cry from those dreams. It’s about defining adventure and fulfillment in one’s life and realizing it’s never too late to make the most of one’s time on earth. Karl and Ellie meet when they were just youngsters and they’re both enamored by the exploits of one Indiana Jones-type explorer/adventurer. While they end up loving each other and getting married, Karl and Ellie continue to play the game of one day hieing to South America and becoming true-to-life-explorers. Life has other things in store for them. Ellie can’t gift the marriage with children, and the realities of day-to-day living mean they continuously use up their savings for domestic necessities. Ellie passes away and Karl, now a curmudgeon, stubbornly holds on to their house, even when it’s smack in the middle of urban redevelopment. Russell, a Chinese-American boy scout wants to help Karl so that he earns his final “badge” for assisting elders, but Karl sends him on a wild goose/snipe chase.

Facing eviction and retirement at an Old Folk’s home, Karl takes matters into his own hands and takes his home “Up” into the stratosphere, with Russell as unwilling passenger. They end up in South America, where a pack of talking dogs is after a thought-extinct rare “bird,” and one ends up reacquainting oneself with an idol from one’s youth — and finding that people are often not what they seem.

As with Finding Nemo (and other Disney films), there is sadness and pathos in the first 20 minutes of the film — Ellie’s death mirroring how Nemo’s mother expires. And once that tragedy is relayed, we’re off on a wild, wooly adventure as only Disney provides. Children I caught watching the film at the screening seemed to take this first episode in stride, and immediately shifted to wonderment and suspension of disbelief as the story unfolded. Logic flies out the window in these Disney adventures and it’s all part of the magic that’s conjured, sustained and mined for enjoyment. The dodo/toucan/ostrich Kevin is a wonderful Disney creation; as is Doug the dog, the one underachieving “talking dog” who befriends Karl and Russell.

That a zillion balloons can take one’s home all the way to South America, that senior citizens can suddenly play Indiana Jones, and that there are “talking dogs,” are all made logical and plausible within the confines of this wonderfully rendered story. It is typical Disney feel-good, but given the high standards that Disney and Pixar have benchmarked for themselves, it is nice to report that Up gets my two thumbs up!