Jesus christ.

I'm not slagging the movie, it's obviously amazing.

I'm just saying that I find it a wee bit different that people would goto see a cartoon without kids?

Sorority Row and G.I. Joe are targeted towards 16-25 year olds, not just children, so you missed the point Libs. I'm not saying Up is bad or stupid in any way.

having seen the trailer for gi joe I think it's more targeted towards people that ride the short bus

I don't think anyone is bothered because they think you are dissing Up. I know I don't care. The problem is your backward way of thinking about animated movies, as valid an artform as any of the rest.

10/10 -> A

Beautiful and moving.

Party Cloudy is awesome as hell too.

I haven't had this much fun (and tears) in theater in quite some time.

Really really nice. Hated just that one "save the bird or house" moment, but what you gonna do...

Much bigger fan of Wall-E though.

Bi plas.

A.
Great film by Pixar yet again.
Right up there with Ratatouille, Nemo and Incredibles.
Better than Wall-E which is pretty overrated here.
Finally got to see it though. Only the second time I've seen a Pixar movie in cinemas.
Going to see it again on Saturday.

About what KrissyKins stated, yes, I have no idea why people think like that. It's animation not a kids movie or a cartoon.
So many people are like that. It doesn't have to be live action to be great.
I do however remember the time I thought Pixar was just any other studio, slating the Incredibles. But that movie was the one that made me a Pixar fan through and through and also embracing animation as an artform. Still after I found the movies were great did I then decide that a cinema experience was worthy and I did go see Dreamworks movies etc because even if they weren't as good as Pixar they're all pretty fun since most are comedies. So, not sure why KrissyKins still doesn't but as long as you watch it it's okay I guess.

Also Partly Cloudy was quite fantastic as well.

A very good watch on its own, but for a Pixar film that felt like a DW CG flick at times, that's bad.

B+

Second time around the humour remains great.
The villain takes a hit though.
It doesn't feel like a DW flick though.

I was actually pretty disapointed with Up. While the first few minutes are really good, most of the time it was nothing more than your average animated film. Among Pixar films this ranks near the bottom for me. Don't get me wrong, I liked it but I expected so much more. Libs is right about the best line in the movie. And 3D was completely useless in this case. B

Riggs, what do you think of Wall-e.

Loved it. One of my favorites from last year. Straight A.

I agree, but that also explains why you weren't a huge fan of Up, or helps explain it.

....how, exactly?

Up is an adventure and joy focused animated film that, while emotional, was mostly meant for entertainment. Smart, in-depth entertainment, but entertainment nonetheless.

Wall-e was designed to challenge the idea of animation being entertaining. It did have some childish and comical moments, but it was much less about adventure and more about making a point.

So clearly in this case Riggs was looking for something more artistic and not "just" fun.

The dichotomy between art and entertainment you've constructed there (and the way you've applied it) is pretty bullshit.

Have a cookie.

lol

You are so far from being correct, JS.

errr..

Art and entertainment are not mutually exclusive, BM.

I'm going to quit a losing argument.
I realize art and entertainment are not mutually exclusive, I just failed at my point.

I never get tired of reading this post!

It's KJ gold!!!

Oh, Up. What happened?!

Imagine fifty minutes of the most beautiful and touching animation ever. Then imagine that this footage suddenly gets interrupted by a pleasant enough (but ultimately quite forgettable) cartoon romp, which pits these characters against a truly underwhelming villain. The end result is Up: a terrific (if unbalanced) film that, while very good, could have easily been the brightest jewel in the crown of feature animation - had Pixar been able to jettison their key demographic for once.

The first half of the film is world-beating. The montage of Carl's life with Ellie deserves all the praise it gets. Investing that time in gentle scene-setting was bold for a kids' film, but it paid off for me, because when he appealed to her later in the film ("What do we do now, Ellie?") I really felt his appeal.

I think it's easy to underestimate how clever Pixar were with Carl's character. It's easy to make the grumpy old guy a widower merely to explain why he lives alone, but Up had the vision to do more than that. The story is bookended by flashes of Carl's childhood (including the recurring motif of a childhood scrapbook), and numerous nice touches make this the story of a man's whole life, rather than his old age.

There's some real beauty in this film. My favourite scene is when the house, having escaped from the building site, rises briefly past a girl's window. The sun shines through hundreds of balloons, filling her room with fleeting colours.

On a more mundane (but equally impressive) note, the household textures are so lifelike that they almost become distracting. I often found myself marvelling at (e.g.) the wood of a picture frame, the snakeskin casing on some binoculars, or the crushed velvet of Carl's armchair. The furniture of the film shows CGI at its best.

The use of 3D (I'm a sucker for good 3D) is also brilliant - especially during those early scenes when the house takes off. The sense of space, open air, blue haze and vertigo are unparalleled. As with real life, the 3D is at its best when used to create heartstopping views. Sadly, once Carl and Russell (whom I found quite endearing) reach South America, such flashes of brilliance are largely confined to a small number of memorable wideshots.

It's just a shame that those dogs and the enormous bird - whose Looney Tunes antics seemed hopelessly out of place here - and, well, the entire plot turned up to dillute the undeniable brilliance of the first half.

Obviously, Pixar knew what they were doing here, because the cinema (which was packed) really came to life once the animals showed up. The children loved them. And even I managed to laugh at Alpha's squeaky voice. There wasn't anything bad about the conflict/resolution bits, as such - they just didn't live up to the vision of the first. The aerial "dog fight", for instance, was just too far from the tone that had been so carefully established in the first act, and so seemed silly rather than exciting.

Only occasionally did the third act manage to recapture the emotional depth of the first forty minutes. Carl finding a surpise in the scrapbook, for instance, was one such moment. So was the the revelation that the lost house had settled by chance exactly where Ellie had intended: right by the top of Paradise Falls.

Ultimately, hats off to Pixar for giving the kids what they wanted in the form of action and funny animals, but I honestly wish they had decided to forget about the kids. Because this was so close to being a true, genre-defining classic that it literally hurts to have to give it an A-.

(For clarity, that A- is my stab at a "mean average" of A+ for the first half and B for the second.)

I'm very surprised to hear that people didn't enjoy the 3D by the way. There's so much space and depth and height in this film that I think it would really lose something for me in 2D. But then, I guess each of us enjoys different things.

I've thought about the colour problem a couple of times. Is it me, or would a no-brainer solution be to increase the colour for the 3D showings? Seems like they leave the colour the same as they do for the 2D version, which means everything looks darker. Surely it can't be rocket science to fiddle with the levels so it looks as vivid through the polarised lenses as it does in the normal version...?

I caught the trailer for Terra - the 3D was far more prominent, almost to the point of exaggeration.

That's apparently exactly what Cameron is aiming for with Avatar.

Yes, The depth in the movie was easily the best one yet I saw and by now I have seen a lot of 3D movies in theaters.