Up 2009

     When Carl Fredricksen was a boy, he wanted to explore South America.  He wanted to find the forbidden Paradise Falls.  About 64 years later he begins his journey.  Along with Boy scout Russell, Carl lifts his house by using thousands of balloons.  They make many new friends on their journey.  They meet a talking dog and they discover that someone has evil plans.  Carl realizes that this evildoer is his childhood idol?

     There are a few potentially frightening scenes with a band of talking dogs, characters almost fall from the floating house and some guns are fired.  There is a discussion about a wife dying, a man is kicked out of his home, there is depression, greed and death.  Some viewers thought this is too adult and scary for kids but too simple for adults?  I thought this move was very good!!  Good animation, story line and characters. 5* ( I really liked this movie)  

96 min, Animation directed and written by Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, Tom McCarthy with the voices of Edward Asner, Christopher Plummer, Jordan Nagai, Bob Peterson, Delroy Lindo, Jerome Ranft, John Ratzenberger, David Kaye, Elie Docter, Jeremy Leary, Mickie McGowan, Danny Mann, Donald Fullilove, Jess Harnell, Josh Cooley.

Note:  Imdb 8.2* out of 10* with 917,299 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes, 98% with 296 critics 9% with 1,204,012 audience scores, Common Sense Media, Sandie Angulo Chen, age 6+, 5*, 1* educational, 4* positive, 4* role models, 2* violence, 3* consumerism, 1* drinking, drugs & smoking 1*, Roger Ebert 4*, Letterboxd 4.1* out of 5* with 1.3K reviews, Amazon 4.8* out of 5* with 10,325 reviews, Metacritic 88 out of 100 with 37 critics (34 positive 3 Mixed 0 negative) 8.8 out of 10 with 1351 ratings (1252 positive 73 mixed 26 negative), Rolling Stone 4* Peter Travers.

Special Note:  This is the only Best Picture nominee to have just two letters in the title.  But, the record for shortest Best Picture nominee title belongs to the film Z of 1969.  Before the release of this film, Pixar let 10-year-old Colby Curtin see the film before she died from cancer.  A Pixar employee flew to Colby’s home and screened a DVD for the family.  All the characters are based upon circles and rectangles, except for the villains.  They are triangles.  Objects around them are also based on their shape