UP (DVD Review)
By Sasha Wyatt-Minter*
A still from the movie 'Up'
If you missed this on the big screen, then you’ve got to get the DVD release of Up, recent winner of the Golden Globe award for best animated picture…..
From the creators of Finding Nemo and Monsters Inc., comes a delightful story of friendship, loyalty and what’s really important in life
The film tells the story of an elderly widower named Carl Fredricksen who planned to embark on the adventure of a lifetime to Paradise Falls in South America with his wife (and childheart sweetheart) Ellie.
Ellie dies before they can realise their dream and Carl becomes a disillusioned and bitter old man. Until he meets Russell.
Russell is a young, overeager “wilderness explorer” who is intent on earning his final merit badge for “assisting the elderly”and chooses the reluctant Mr. Fredricksen as his target.
The sky is no longer the limit with a floating house suspended from helium balloons
When Carl ends up in a tussle with a construction worker over his broken mailbox, and is forced by court order to move into a retirement home, he decides to keep his promise to Ellie: by turning his house into a makeshift airship, using tens of thousands of helium balloons.
But unbeknown to Carl, he has a stowaway: Russell is hiding on the porch.
Up, up and away… and the adventure begins
You get to meet Kevin, the flightless bird – who is really a female (hence her love for chocolate) and Dug the dog, as Russell and Mr. Fredricksen face fear and danger – and make new friends along the way.
Up is an uplifting and hilarious adventure story but it is also a tale of friendship and the unlikely places we can find it, as well as a lesson in what is really important and worth hanging on to – and it’s not material “stuff”.
Up won Golden Globe Awards for Best Animated Feature Film and Best Original Score from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. More recently, the film received five Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, making Up only the second animated film in history to receive such a nomination, following Beauty and the Beast in 1991.
Together with Avatar, the two films are the first 3D films ever nominated for Best Picture Oscar. The film has grossed over $723 million worldwide, making it Pixar’s second most commercially successful film, behind Finding Nemo.
*Author info: Sasha Wyatt-Minter
Sasha is one of the editors of www.all4women.co.za and is also a 30-something, work-from-home married mom with a passion for writing, reading, good food and wine. She’s obsessed with healthy eating and experimenting with alternative health therapies. Her best reward at the end of a busy day – a good book, a massage and some dark chocolate!
