Friday, May 29, 2009

Up Discussion

Sam and Jordan discuss Up, its effect on their tear ducts (or its effect on the reviewer WITH tearducts, anyway), and the seeming infallibility of Pixar in the comments section. Enjoy!
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12 comments:

  1. Reviewer to be namedMay 29, 2009 at 5:58 PM

    Sam,
    I had a feeling you and I might agree on this one, simply because I couldn't imagine you giving it anything less than an A. I agree with your assessment that its hard to find something not to like about it. The movie was simply too heartwarming to even allow me to nitpick. Any potential flaw I saw could easily be dismissed through suspension of disbelief (it is a kids movie after all), but frankly I didn't care either way. Something I wanted to bring up with you: Prior to the movie, I saw a preview for the first Disney animated film in years, The princess and the frog, which made me think, "Wow. An entire generation of kids has grown up without Disney movies..." Of course, that's simply because I don't count Pixar films as Disney movies (Disney provides funding and merchandising, Pixar provides the awesome). What can be said of the non-Pixar Disney movies of the last decade? Where would Disney be without Pixar? Also, will Pixar ever make a bad movie (clearly its inevitable, but we agree and I'm trying to spark discussion here!)?-Jordan

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  2. Reviewer to be namedMay 29, 2009 at 6:05 PM

    Jordan,
    I was thinking about mentioning the princess and the frog in my review when i was talking about the previews but i think it has a chance to be good unlike all the other previews i saw. It looked like it could bring back that ol' disney magic. the animation provided a bit of nostalgia for me with the swirling smoke and cackling villain. you know what i think the movie's got a 50-50 shot of being good. but i have faith because john lasseter (spelling?) is now running disney's animation shit and he wants to give 2-d a resurgance from what i hear, and if the man behind toy story (and pixar for that matter) says its good i believe him. as i was leaving i was wondering if there were any points in the movie that were jordan moments where he says, "If I could cry I would"

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  3. Reviewer to be namedMay 29, 2009 at 6:08 PM

    I thought the same of The Princess and the Frog. An earlier trailer was underwhelming, but this one actually had me nostalgic and hopeful that it will be goos. As for moments when I would have cried, Ellie's death was sad, but the closest moment for me was definitely when he looked through the adventure book and it was filled with pictures from their lives together, and then he found the note from her at the end, telling him to go have his own adventure...so beautiful and sad and wonderful and moving I have no qualms about disregarding dramatic structure as I just did.-Jordan

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  4. Reviewer to be namedMay 29, 2009 at 6:13 PM

    a great moment watching the movie was when you see the house on the top of the ridge at the end a little girl in audience said out loud, "that's where ellie wanted the house". that's what its all about and i know that my kids will have a huge stack of pixars to watch and i will not let them see anything like g-force or cloudy with a chance of meatballs (loved the book a ton, but a movie adaptation makes zero sense)

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  5. Reviewer to be namedMay 29, 2009 at 6:15 PM

    Agreed. I'm actually hoping for a Pixar blu-ray box set...-Jordan

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  6. Reviewer to be namedMay 29, 2009 at 6:16 PM

    the problem with that is all the new pixar movies are coming out on blu ray. if they did that with all the old pixars that would be great but if they do that in five years i dont want to rebuy wall-e, ratatouille, and UP when it comes out on blu ray

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  7. Reviewer to be namedMay 29, 2009 at 6:18 PM

    I'm holding out hope for one through wall-e, or maybe even up...-
    jordan

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  8. Reviewer to be namedMay 29, 2009 at 6:20 PM

    which pixar u think will look best with blu ray that is not already on it? my pick is finding nemo.

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  9. Reviewer to be namedMay 29, 2009 at 6:21 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  10. Reviewer to be namedMay 29, 2009 at 6:22 PM

    Yeah,that's the one I'm most excited about. Though Up was beautiful...-Jordam

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  11. Reviewer to be namedMay 29, 2009 at 6:44 PM

    I went to rottentomatoes, looking for a negative review to see what about this movie was not likable to anyone. It curently has a 98% with only 3 rotten reviews, from Salon.com, the prestigious New York Press, and the movie lovers over at the Wall Street Journal.

    The reviewer over at Salon said that Up left her cold, and she felt it was manufactured to play with your emotions (which means shes a heartless shrew without a hint of a soul in my book). She also said, "Up is unapologetically life-affirming, for those who like to have life-affirmed." Either she's mocking people who enjoy being happy with their live, or the atmosphere at Salon magazine os so bleak she's contemplating suicide, and writing about it in a review for a kids movie! "Everyone at Pixar [...]knows exactly what they're doing, and that show...too much." So, wait. You're critique is they are TOO good at making movies? I'm done with you.

    Over at the New York Press, the issue with Up seems to be that Pixar is too popular. There's a "we're so intellectual" analogy to the mid-20th century GM slogan, "What's good for GM is good for the U.S.A." Sorry, New York Press, but you aren't the New York Times. Leave intellectualism to the people who know how to do it right. Also, just because Pixar is popular doesn't mean it doesn't make good movies, just as the opposite holds true. Then, the reviewer calls the story "uninteresting." And, I'm done with you too.

    Finally, at the Wall Street Journal, bastion of film reviewers everywhere actually made some concessions. Admitting to "admiring the movie more than I enjoyed it" he points out that the opening montage is very affecting, and agrees with me that the lady over at Salon must be made of stone (though he, being more polite, refrains from referring to her personally). He then calls the film "derivative" because of the movie Danny Deckchair already dealing with a man being lifted by balloons. First off, everything has already been done, so I'm not sure that's valid, but more importantly, in terms of flying through the air due to balloons stories, or even movies, the example he comes up with is Danny Deckchair? Really? Surely there must be a better example. James and the Giant Peach comes to mind, though the titular citrus was floated by seagulls, not balloons. Either way, deritivity isn't a solid argument for me.

    Try as I might, I couldn't find a single solid criticism of Up out there. What do you think, Sam? Did any of these reviewers make any salient points?-Jordan

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  12. Reviewer to be namedMay 29, 2009 at 6:48 PM

    no. its a good movie they should fucking deal with it

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