Hollywood Reporter
"Winsome, touching and arguably the funniest Pixar effort ever, the gorgeously rendered, high-flying adventure is a tidy 90-minute distillation of all the signature touches that came before it." 05/13/2009Box Office
5 stars out of 5 -- "Breakneck speedy, hysterically funny and appropriately lithe, UP handles itself in action with the same intensity as with comedy..." 05/13/2009 USA Today
4 stars out of 4 -- "Adventure comes in many forms and can happen at any stage of life. Disney/Pixar's UP conveys that message through an artful blend of exhilaration and poignancy." 05/29/2009 Los Angeles Times
"UP is the purest pleasure....Rarely has any film, let alone an animated one powered by the logic of dream and fantasy, been able to move so successfully -- and so effortlessly -- through so many different kinds of cinematic territory." 05/29/2009 New York Times
"In its opening stretch the new Pixar movie UP flies high, borne aloft by a sense of creative flight and a flawlessly realized love story." 05/29/2009 Washington Post
"[A] soaring, touching, funny and altogether buoyant movie that lives up to its title in spirit and form." 05/29/2009 A.V. Club
"UP is challenging, emotionally and narratively, but it trusts viewers to keep up; Pixar has never been interested in talking down to children or their parents..." -- Grade: B 05/28/2009 Chicago Sun-Times
4 stars out of 4 -- "UP is a wonderful film....This is another masterwork from Pixar, which is leading the charge in modern animation." 05/27/2009 ReelViews 8 of 10
A film like Up makes it clear that Pixar has moved beyond the point where it feels the need to pander to children. Unlike its main animation competitor, Dreamworks, Pixar allows sophisticated themes and ideas to seep into its movies. Everything does not have to be simplified so that a seven-year old can understand what's going on. That's not to say that Pixar films should be seen as family unfriendly art films. Up, for example, includes plenty of jokes that kids will get and several unremarkable action scenes have been included with younger viewers in mind, but there's material of real substance - something increasingly lacking in animated films not tagged with the "Disney" label. Up is not as transcendent as last year's WALL-E, and doesn't rank near the top of Pixar's pantheon of great features, but it's a solid (and in some ways innovative) fantasy adventure that mixes comedy, action, and drama into a satisfying whole that is likely to please all but the most cantankerous curmudgeons...Up is not my favorite Pixar movie, but I welcome its arrival. I'd rather see dozens of movies like this than one more ugly sequel to Shrek or Madagascar or Ice Age. Pixar views their films as creative and artistic endeavors; Dreamworks and Fox see theirs as products. With Pixar, it's about the movie. With most other animated features, it's about the marketing. There are some great moments in Up, and it may be the funniest thing Pixar has done in a long time, but even the aspects of Up that lack greatness are not bad, and that's worth applauding. - James Berardinelli
Rolling Stone 9 of 10
A grumpy old coot, a chubby kid and a house hoisted by helium balloons -- if you're thinking that Up sounds like a shortcut to sugar shock, snap out of it. Pandering to ninnies is not on the agenda for this latest landmark in Pixar animation. With Pete Docter and Bob Peterson sharing the directing and writing, Up is a breathtaking ride into the realm of pure imagination. Up shames the pap that now passes for family entertainment (yes, Night at the Museum 2, I'm talking to you)...You can feel balls-out creativity whooshing through every frame. Darkness and its cousin loss also intrude, as they do in Pixar's best films (The Incredibles, WALL-E, Finding Nemo). Up sees the world as real, full of life and pain. Some theaters are showing Up in 3-D, which dims the color a bit, but the dimensions that count are in the movie's mind and heart. The opening sequence is touched by genius. A young Depression-era boy named Carl goes to the movies and watches a newsreel about Charles Muntz (a complex portrait in voice by the great Christopher Plummer), an explorer who takes off for South America in a dirigible to track a giant bird at Paradise Falls. Quiet Carl wants to explore as well. He meets an exciting, motor-mouthed girl, Ellie, who shares his feelings. They grow up, marry and grow old without fulfilling their dreams of children or adventure. This near-silent prelude is Pixar perfection. Up achieves literal liftoff when the widowed Carl (eloquently growled by Ed Asner) takes the balloons he used to sell pre-retirement, ties them to his house and takes off for Paradise Falls. He doesn't know he has a stowaway, eight-year-old Russell (voiced by Jordan Nagai). And he doesn't know the perils of his journey will include Muntz's pack of attack dogs with electronic collars that enable them to talk...The movie is wonderfully funny and touching (props to the gawky hero of a bird Russell names Kevin), but what's really exhilarating are the risks it takes, all set to Michael Giacchino's ardent, award-caliber score. Up may be the first animated kiddie crowd-pleaser to feature dentures and an hommage to Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo, as old man and boy drag a house and the burden of dreams through the jungle. Up works miracles. Just sit back and watch it fly. - Peter Travers
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