Up

When you get the meanness of the old grandpa, the cuteness of the little boy, and the charming Kevin into the movie, it's something to watch! Plus, the atmosphere was soooo awesome in the theater, where I was probably the oldest one there. It was only at the beginning of the second half of the movie that the kids started suspiciously excusing themselves to the toilet... there were a few minutes of boredom. (23/04/2011)

Gran Torino meets Indy in escapades à la Pixar. Some parts are great, but altogether it seems so inconsistent that it’s bothering. However, Carl is a really nice guy and his only blemish is that he’s not dubbed by Clint. The real “hero" and the dog do their CGI best to make this movie work. And they had to try hard, because this movie was moving alarmingly near to the shameful average (quite normal for Pixar). (23/08/2009)

There is no point in expecting it: you will not find the great truths of life here again in a form other than those which are very trivial, but that is also not what Pixar is all about. This studio matures with every film and dazzles kids with narrative action and a great ability to bring timeless children's dreams to the screen. The story of Carl and his strange retinue is captivated by emotions in some places (particularly the introductory retrospective is divine) and sometimes the first signal amuses (it’s probably too infantile for some people, but so be it). There is no denying that this is once more a compilation of several shorts, the level of which is not exactly stable, but the overall impression is clearly "Up". (12/08/2009)

When I get bored of Pixar movies, you better shoot me as a precaution - I probably won't be okay, and who knows, it might even be contagious! Up is a near-perfect thing - near-perfect because I was missing two little things in it. Firstly, a scene, even a very short one, in which you could see how Carl prepared all those balloons, inflated them and so on, and then the building of the tent. Otherwise, it amounts to great satisfaction. The senior walker vs. sword fight brought me to tears :-) (26/08/2009)

Not only proof that it is never too late for an adventure, but also confirmation that in the right hands of a director and animator, a pearl can be made even from an unusual combination of several favorite clichés. Until now, I am amazed that a drama about unfulfilled dreams does not contradict the adventurous spectacle, but perfectly adds a deeper dimension to it. (21/08/2009)