Up

By most accounts Pixar are yet to make a bad film. 15 years ago it all began with the release of Toy Story and Pixar haven’t looked back. Each time we think they can’t surpass the previous years installments and year upon year they prove us wrong, Cars being the only anomaly (It’s the only Pixar film not to win Best Animated Feature since Monsters, Inc way back in 2001). They’ve tackled toys, superheroes, bugs, monsters, fish and cooking rats (or should that be rats which cook). In 2008 they released the spell-binding and unparalleled WALL-E, a film which takes it’s pride of place as my favourite animated film ever. They truly are masters of the genre and last year they released Up, their 10th film.
In Up we follow Carl Frederickson, an aging wannabe-explorer who promises to fulfill a wish he made to his wife once upon a time, and Russell, a young asian Wilderness Explorer stowaway on Carl’s flying house. After Carl’s wife passes away he decides to take his house to Paradise Falls as he had promised to take the both of them when they were just children. To do this he inflates thousands of balloons to simply float away.

 

Toy Story 3

Toy Story has been with me since childhood, the first 2 films setting the bar immeasurably high for future animation films and comedies aimed at children in general. Although we’ve seen a few films match the series for immediate crossover appeal between children and adults, they’ve fallen by the wayside with more recent outings (Shrek and Ice Age). Imagine my fear then when they announce the oft-rumoured Toy Story 3 as an addition to the series, what would they do to my beloved Woody, Buzz and Jessie?

If you were like me then have no fear! What has emerged from the genius of Pixar is not only a charming comedy, a fitting end to the toys who have been with us so many years but also a lament on what it is like for all of us to grow up and leave our childhood behind. A sobering thought and one that hangs heavy over the end of the film. Doubtless this is a melancholy film, a meditation on loss and love but jokes are abound as always, and even if you don’t get the side-splitting laughter that you expect, the end is sure to move you in ways you never thought possible.

Don’t get me wrong, this is still a children’s film at heart but that doesn’t limit it to 3-13 year olds, it’s aimed at the child that is still inside of all of us and reassures us that it is okay to let go of the past, just don’t ever forget it. Pixar, flawless with all of their output, never talk down to there audience and that is perhaps the reason for it’s massive appeal to new and old fans of the brand with each film building on the success of the last.

An unlikely triumph Toy Story 3 is heartwarming end to the series that I really can’t recommend enough, even if you haven’t seen the previous 2 installments or any animated film this will delight and charm anyone who is willing to watch.