Up (and down)

I would have written about the movie Up earlier, but it's taken me a couple of weeks to be able to think, talk, write about it at length without bursting in to tears (only a slight exaggeration). RE: my post about EW's Summer Movie Preview, I previously would have followed Pixar wherever they might lead me. I have agreed with the premise of each and every movie they've released: toys should be well-loved and never discarded; monster's should incorporate; robots and their pet cockroaches need love too. I cried during Toy Story 2, Jay cried during Meet the Robinsons, I cried again during Wall-e. It was a "good cry" and did not detract from our love of these movies. I own them all and have watched them multiple times. They are among my favorite of the Pixar films.

Then there was Up. I went to see Up with my husband and two of our guy friends. All three men bawled their way through most of the movie. I, myself, got so tired of crying that I just took off my 3-D glasses and sighed my way through the rest of the movie. If my belief system didn't prevent me from leaving a movie theatre half-way through a movie, I would have left. SPOILER ALERT. In the first 10 minutes of the movie, Carl (voiced by the wonderful Ed Asner) befriends a quirky young girl when they are both small children, shares with her the same childhood hero, grows up, marries her, finds out that they can't have children of their own, and then she dies from cancer. ARE YOU KIDDING ME, PIXAR???? Why beat me over the head with how much they loved each other and what a wonderful couple they were just to kill her off 7 minutes into the movie??? And that was just the tip of the iceberg. Their childhood hero, Charles Muntz turns out to be a mass-murdering psychopath. Russell, a young boy scout who inadvertently joins Carl on his trip to South America, has an indominable spirit --- did I mention that his father is a dead-beat and Charles Muntz tries to kill Russell multiple times in multiple ways?? Oh, and the happy ending? A photo montage of all the adorable things that Carl and Russell do together once they return from South America. Too little, too late.

As for the message of life after death, all the advetures that a widower can have once his wife is dead, I'll take "fish are friends, not food" over this crap any day. This premise was far worse than let's have a bunch of rats cooking in a French kitchen.

In the future, Pixar, I'll be more extensively reading the reviews before blindly assuming that this movie will be another home run.

All that being said, this is the sweetest movie screening story that I have ever heard. It confirms that Pixar is still my ideal employer.