UP is the best film I've seen this year... and I'm counting The Shawshank Redemption, which I saw for the first time only last week.
I'll need another viewing and some time to gather my thoughts for a true review, but suffice to say, there is better storytelling in the first 15 minutes of this film than in 90% of movies made today (the newsreel section and the marriage montage are exceptional: the first visually and with use of a voice-over that gives exposition and foreshadowing, the second without dialogue but nevertheless telling a detailed story, one that is at turns funny, loving, nostalgic, and heartbreaking).
Even without a second viewing (and I do want to see it again in 3D on a big-ass screen), I can say pretty definitively that I think this is the best work Pixar has done (and I'm a HUGE fan of The Incredibles, Wall-E, and Toy Story 2 [not that I think any of the films fails to entertain (hell, I even tear up at the end of Cars)]).
The sad thing is, UP won't even get a SNIFF at an Oscar nomination next spring. Because of the ghetto-ization of animation into its own category, the members of the Academy can rationalize their decision... but it still isn't right (were Benjamin Button or The Reader really better films than Wall-E? seriously, I want to know, as I haven't seen either).
But more on UP later...
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
UP
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1 comment:
WALL-E is for sure Pixar's best, it's pretty much not even a matter of opinion at this point. But Up was pretty great too. Compare dogs lying airplanes and Russell riding a vacuum to WALL-E and EVE dancing in space, though? Yeah, not even a close comparison, WALL-E shows its beauty so clearly that it's hard to deny.
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