What Do The Critics Say?

"One of the very best films of the year." Robbie Collin NEWS OF THE WORLD "A tremendous tale of unfulfilled dreams and fulfilling promises." Wesley Lovell OSCAR GUY "Pixar's stunning 3-D adventure is an upper for everyone." Sandie Angulo Chen COMMON SENSE MEDIA "A high stakes adventure like nothing else we’ve ever seen." Fred Topel CAN MAGAZINE "What a magical, marvellous movie." Kevin Williamson JAM! MAGAZINE "This is Pixar's most uplifting adventure yet!" Roger Tennis CINEMATIC CLIPS

"You gotta have a good story, and this one is a gem." Paul Chambers CNN RADIO "A triumph of animation and imagination." Andrew L Urban URBAN CINEFILE "One of Pixar's most emotionally satisfying creations." Dan Jardine APOLLO GUIDE "Beautifully made argument that dreamers can move mountains." Ian Freer EMPIRE MAGAZINE "It has heart and intelligence, beauty and excitement." Christopher Tookey UK DAILY MAIL "Tickles the funny bone and fires the imagination." Neil Smith TOTAL FILM

The Inside Story "I am so proud that 'Up' is Pixar’s 10th film," says Lasseter, executive producer and chief creative officer for Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios. "I think it’s the funniest film that we’ve ever made, and also one of the most beautiful. We have a main character that is an amazing hero. Carl Fredricksen is seventy eight years old and he travels the world in a flying machine of his own design and still has dinner at 3:30pm in the afternoon. He’s the most unlikely hero you can imagine in an action picture. He is a character who learns that the big adventures in life are all the small things that happen in everyday life. Russell is one of the most appealing and charming characters that we’ve ever created. Together with Carl, these two characters light up the screen." The film is directed by Pixar veteran Pete Docter, who joined the studio in 1990 as just the third animator to be brought on board. Along with Lasseter and Andrew Stanton, Docter developed the story and characters for "Toy Story" (Pixar’s first full-length feature film), on which he also served as supervising animator. He was a storyboard artist on "A Bug’s Life" and wrote the initial story treatment for "Toy Story 2". Docter made his debut as a director on "Monsters, Inc.". The film received an Academy Award ® nomination for Best Animated Feature Film and won the 2002 Oscar ® for Best Music Original Song ("If I Didn't Have You" by Randy Newman). As one of Pixar Animation Studios key creative contributors, Docter garnered another Academy Award nomination for his original story credit on Disney•Pixar’s Oscar ® winning "WALL•E". "For me personally, what makes a film worth watching is when you go home and you’re still thinking about it," says Docter. "You leave the theatre and you’re still thinking about it not only the next day, but the next year. In order to have a film affect you that way, it has to have real true emotion and resonate in some way with your own life. So even though the stars of the film may be monsters or bugs, you identify with those characters on the screen and you understand what they’re going through. It’s important to have that foundation of real truth and an emotional attachment to the characters." "Along with the humor, you have to have heart. Walt Disney always said, 'For every laugh, there should be a tear.' I believe in that." Filmmakers found a lot of heart in their latest adventure, exploring the love that Carl and his late wife shared and the friendship that develops between Carl and Russell. In fact, Carl discovers that life’s true adventure can be found not in travel or great accomplishments, but in the everyday relationships that we have with friends and family. It was after making his directorial debut on the 2001 blockbuster "Monsters, Inc.", that Docter began searching for his next project. The notion for Docter's first feature derived from his childhood curiosities and fears about the monsters under his bed. After spending some time developing the story for "WALL•E" and a few other projects, Docter once again turned to lessons from his own life to craft the idea for "Up". It was when his co-director and writer Bob Peterson on board, that the duo began playing with some fantastic new ideas. "Bob and I started having some fun thinking about an old man character like the ones we love from the George Booth cartoons and all those great Spencer Tracy and Walter Matthau type of guys who are grouchy but you still like them," says Docter. "We came up with this image of a floating house held aloft by balloons, and it just seemed to capture what we were after in terms of escaping the world. We quickly realized that the world is really about relationships, and that’s what Carl comes to discover." "Pete was the first one to put down on paper the idea of a grouchy old man holding a bunch of happy, fun, colorful balloons. We started brainstorming because we both liked the idea of having an older character. It’s something you don’t see very often, and we think that old people have great stories to tell," Peterson ("Finding Nemo") explained. Docter credits much of his creative influences to some real-life 'old men': animators who worked on the Disney classics. Though not one of the legendary 'nine old men', Joe Grant was part of the 1937 team that created "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" and has served as a source of inspiration to Docter who names Grant in the film’s dedication to the 'real life Carl and Ellie Fredricksens who inspired us to create our own Adventure Books.' "I got to know Joe when he was in his nineties. He was a friend of mine: this great old wise guy," Docter recalls. "Every time I would show him something we were working on he’d say 'what are you giving the audience to take home?' That was his way of telling me it’s the emotion; the character-based emotions, that people are going to remember." In order to prepare for their assignment on "Up", and the film’s premise of a journey to one of the most beautiful and mysterious places on earth; Docter and select members of his creative team embarked on their own adventure of a lifetime. At the suggestion of veteran Pixar production designer Ralph Eggleston ("Finding Nemo" & "WALL•E"), a with credits on the team headed to the jungles of South America (the intersection of Venezuela, Brazil and Guyana) to discover their own 'Lost World'. "Ralph gave us a documentary about the tepui mountains (mesas) in South America, and as soon as I popped in the DVD, my hair stood on end because I knew this was where we should set the movie," Docter recalls. "This was a fantastic weird world that I had never heard of. It was where Conan Doyle set his 1912 novel about prehistoric animals "“The Lost World". One of the biggest challenges on this film was to design a place that looked other worldly and yet was still believable enough that audiences would feel like the characters are actually there. We knew we had to go there because there’s something fundamentally different about experiencing a place versus just seeing pictures or film." Reaching their destination took three days, and required rides in airplanes, jeeps and helicopters. And then the fun began. The first tepui that the group explored was Mount Roraima in Guyana, the highest and most famous of the one hundred and fifteen table-top mesas. "This is the only tepui that you can actually climb," says story supervisor Ronnie Del Carmen. "There’s a natural outcropping on the side of it that you can traverse. The climb is one mile pretty much straight up. The rocks are loose, the vegetation is not stable and they can pull off very easily if you grab them. We make cartoons for a living, so the only thing we were used to traversing was one end of our building to the other. There was no way to prepare us for this adventure." "It was like your worst nightmare," says Peterson. "It was about a six or seven-hour climb to the top and I had on way too much gear. When we got to the top, we had to hike across uneven terrain for another hour and a half. It was already dark when we got to our camp. And suddenly, from out of the darkness, we saw this cave lit by candles and there was warm soup waiting for us. When we saw our tents, most of us just sat down and started crying. We were so happy to be there. And then in the morning, when we awoke, literally 50 feet from where we were camping was a drop one mile straight down." Angel Falls in Venezuela, the highest waterfall in the world, dropping three thousand two hundred and twelve feet from the summit of Auyantepui, proved to be the real-life inspiration for the film’s mythical Paradise Falls (which is three times taller than its real life counterpart or about nine thousand seven hundred feet high). The group climbed to the base of Angel Falls, where they endured slippery wet rocks and a constant spray of water. The "Up" filmmakers literally took thousands of photographs, along with home movies and copiously sketched their awe-inspiring surroundings. The images and vegetation they observed had a tremendous influence on the look of the film. Bonnetia trees, Stegolepis plants, and black rocks with beautiful pink flowers popping out in the middle, were all used in the film. Pixar’s team of technical wizards faced numerous challenges in giving the filmmakers the look and wide range of actions that they needed to tell their story in the style and scale that was required. "One of our toughest assignments on this film was creating the balloon canopy that carries Carl’s house to South America," says Steve May, the film’s supervising technical director. "It was important to the film to have fairly realistic balloon simulations. The balloons behave in a realistic way, although the notion of being able to fly a house with balloons is pretty preposterous. We’re not physicists but one of our technical directors calculated that it would take on the order of twenty to thirty million balloons to actually lift Carl’s house. We ended up using 10,297 for most of the floating scenes, and 20,622 when it actually lifts off. The number varies from shot to shot depending on the angle, the distance, and fine-tuning the size so that it feels interesting, believable and visually simple. "Up" adds a whole new dimension to experiencing a Pixar film by being the first feature from the studio to be released in Disney Digital 3D™. According to Docter, it was two time Oscar winner John Lasseter (1989 for "Tin Toy" & 1996 for "Toy Story") who suggested they make "Up" in 3D. A film that incorporates elements of great adventure, comedy and emotion calls for a great musical score, which is why the filmmakers called on Michael Giacchino ("Star Trek" 2009). "Those great scores for the Disney animated films taught me not to be afraid of being emotional with the music," the 2005 EMMY Award winner Giacchino (TV'S "Lost") says. "The legendary composers like Ollie Wallace and Frank Churchill weren’t afraid to be emotional when the story was emotional. They also showed me that it was okay to be thematic and actually have a melody that you can walk away with. It’s amazing how good those guys were. Listening to them really humbles you and makes you work harder and want to be better." Five time Golden Globe & EMMY Awards winner Ed Asner is the voice of Carl. With almost sixty years as one of theatre's most respected actors and as a veteran of over one hundred motion pictures, Montreal raised Christopher Plummer is the voice of long lost adventurer Charles Muntz. Jordan Nagai tagged along with his brother who was auditioning for a part in the film. The seven year old, who attends Japanese school on Saturday, found himself cast as the voice of Russell. Ten year old real-life tomboy and self-proclaimed world’s number one dog-lover Elie Docter (who enjoys reading Archie ® Comics and loves to swim) is the voice of younf Ellie. John Ratzenberger is probably best remembered as postman Cliff Clavin on TV's "Cheers". Raised in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the former carpenter, archery instructor, carnival performer and oyster boat crewman is the voice of construction foreman, Tom. Synopsis

Childhood sweethearts Carl and Ellie never quite manage to make their dream of a house at Paradise Falls in South America come true. After Ellie's death, Carl, now seventy years old and retired from his balloon selling job, is being bullied by developers to sell the home they built. Adamant not to sell but forced to leave, he ties thousands of balloons to the roof, lifting the house into the air, and sets off for South America, hoping to fulfill that old promise. Snubbing his nose at the developers he heads for the sky only to discover, that an overly optimistic eight year old Wilderness Explorer named Russell is clinging to the porch. But there's bigger surprises in store for both Carl and Russell: from extreme weather and treacherous terrain: to the strange and dangerous inhabitants of a lost world, including an obsessed adventurer famous in Carl's youth, but missing for many years: Charles Muntz.

The Verdict "Disney•Pixar continue to go from strength to strength and I for one doubt anyone but the most miserly scrooge could find one bad thing to say about their latest bigscreen animation adventure (and their first in Disney Digital 3D™), "Up". Everything about this production is, dare I say it: perfect. The story is captivating. The animation is crisp, colorful and at times. breath-taking spectacular. The voice cast fit their onscreen characters impeccably. As the Americans would say, it's hard not to 'root' for senior citizen Carl Fredricksen. He's battling greedy developers who want to knock down his home. When his house lifts-off, thanks to thousands of colorful helium filled balloons, you want to standup and yell: go Carl go. You show them old fellow. Carl soon faces the first hitch in his grand adventure into the wild blue yonder. No, not from McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet all-weather fighter and attack aircraft, but rather an eight year old named Russell who is clinging for dear life to Carls front porch. Carl and Russell are poised for a grand adventure and so are audiences. And it doesn't matter whether you're old or young: this is one animated adventure you need to get onboard. Enjoy it in Disney Digital 3D™ for maximum effect. Highest commendation 5 STARS." Who's Voice Is That?

Ed Asner Jordan Nagai Christopher Plummer Bob Peterson Delroy Lindo Jerome Ranft John Ratzenberger David Kaye Elie Docter Jeremy Leary Mickie McGowan Danny Mann Donald Fullilove Jess Harnell Josh Cooley Pete Docter

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Carl Fredricksen Russell Charles Muntz Dug / Alpha Beta Gamma Construction Foreman Tom Newsreel Announcer Young Ellie Young Carl Police Officer Edith Construction Worker Steve Nurse George Nurse AJ Omega Campmaster Strauch

The Crew

Directors Writers Story Producer Executive Producers Original Music Film Editor Production Designer

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Pete Docter & Bob Peterson Bob Peterson & Pete Docter by Pete Docter/Thomas McCarthy/Bob Peterson Jonas Rivera John Lasseter & Andrew Stanton Michael Giacchino Katherine Ringgold Ricky Nierva

Run Time 101 minutes Rated PG [AUST] Copyright ©2010 - Disney•Pixar - All Rights Reserved ©1999-2010 The Movie Pages & impact Internet Services. All Rights Reserved. Protected by Australian and International Copyright. Trademark Laws and Intellectual Property Rights apply.