Friday, July 10, 2009

TBG (Finally) Sees: Up


Worth the Wait? (Y/N): Y

Three Things I Liked:

(1) After the introduction of young Ellie and Carl – a tomboy adventurer and her apprehensive new friend, respectively – there an absolutely bee-YOO-tiful sequence (without a lick of dialogue) that shows the two getting married, living their lives and constantly putting their biggest dream on hold. I can't remember ever seeing so much hope and heartbreak crammed into a minute-and-a-half, but there ya go.

(2) The "Russell" character hit all the right notes with me. His exuberant earnestness could've been written as the trite foil to the much older Carl, but he's given a bittersweet backstory that makes the words "My mom loves that game!" into one of the best lines of the movie.

(3) I'm a sucker for the "epilogue" sequence that follows most Disney/Pixar films. There are some especially satisfying payoffs here for those of you willing to stick around for a few minutes of closing credits.

Three Things I Didn't Like:

(1) There's a Pixar short film that runs before the feature presentation.
Partly Cloudy FINALLY answers the age-old question of "where do babies come from?", but not even the sticky sweet ending could save this unnecessarily abrasive piece of animation. And, this isn't one of those "hypersensitive parental reactions to cartoon violence". I just didn't dig it.

(2) OK…this is one of those "hypersensitive parental reactions to cartoon violence". Did we really need the villain chasing the good guys with a shotgun in the climactic sequence?

(3) Mrs. Bootleg and I are doing our best to ensure that Jalen does not grow up with his father's irrational fear of distaste for dogs. The good people at Disney/Pixar are NOT helping with the numerous scenes of snarling dogs cornering the heroes while the ominous score throbs in the background.

4 comments:

SHough610 said...

LOVED this movie, along with Star Trek my favorite of the summer so far. That sequence you described as well as the memory book scene almost brought my to tears. Then the fight scene between the two old men almost made my cry from laughing.

As someone who didn't like dogs for a while (had a couple of bad experiences with being bitten) I thought Dug was a great dog character.

Aaron C. said...

Oh, hell yeah. I should've mentioned "Dug" because that pooch slayed me. I have no idea why, but the "squirrel!" bit killed me everytime. And, the scrapbook sequence actually DID make me cr...er, uh...make my allergies kick in.

SHough610 said...

My favorite part with the squirrel bit is that it pays off at the end in hilarious fashion.

I just got the "Last Call Jalapeño Popper" doritos to try. They better be good!

Aaron C. said...

I am 0 for 2 amongst those I recommended the Jalapeno Popper chips to. I look forward to ruining your taste buds, as well!