Call me incurably sentimental. Tell me I’m just hyper-sensitized because my wife’s been gone for two weeks. Tell me I’m just a wimp. Go ahead. Just don’t tell my eight-year old whom I took to see Up tonight that I was sitting next to him sobbing because of an animated movie. He doesn’t know it, so we’ll just keep that as our little secret.
But if you want to know what I’m talking about, go see the thing. The first fifteen minutes or so are some of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. The NY Times review nails this film in saying that after that beautiful opening (“…this is filmmaking at its purest.”), there is a drop off. It becomes for a while a cartoon action flick. A beautifully executed cartoon action flick, mind you. The PG rating is given for what is called ‘mild peril’. Mild peril? It is silly enough to get worked up over a regular movie, knowing that all the characters are actors who are in no real danger. But there I was worried about CARTOON characters. Mild peril? I thought my heart would stop.
What the Times does not get is that the film’s end lifts it up from action movie mediocrity, reconnects with the opening sequence, and restores the wonder.
See it. In the dark. And pretend your eyes itch when you wipe them. No one will know.
Or at least make sure the one you love is not out of town when you watch it.
Gail and Keith
Keith and I saw this movie and loved it. It is a tender love story, funny, heart stopping, action filled, sad, with panoramic scenery and you find yourself caring about the characters. I noticed the story was not lost on the young movie attenders as more than once we heard an “awwwww” breathed from some young voice in the darkened theater. G
Anonymous
What a movie. What a movie. What a movie. I could go on and on but I wouldn't do it justice. And yes, I cried. A couple times. Staci
Randy Greenwald
Awh, another softy.