Call me crazy, but UP was not my favorite movie ever. It was, quite frankly, a little disappointing.
I’ll be the first to admit that my reaction might be due to high expectations. People that I highly respect gave it very positive reviews, and I understand why: it had a positive role model, a beautiful picture of marriage and children, good lessons galore, etc. I couldn’t wait to see it.
warning: possible spoiler alert
I really enjoyed the opening scenes in which we learn how the main character and his future wife first met. I loved the way their characters, relationship and marriage were developed. I loved the soundtrack. I loved the quiet, understated humor. I loved the way we saw time pass as they grew old together. I felt deeply for the couple when tragedy struck, and again for the old man when tragedy struck once more. I felt his frustration loneliness and even hopelessness with the difficult people and situations he faced later. I rejoiced with him when his grand plan unfolded.
Carl may have been a computer generated character, but he was real.
The boy Russell was real. The way they interacted was real.
And then the storyline took a silly, cartoonish twist, followed by the appearance of a comic-book bad guy.
From the point that the bird appeared, I thought the story felt rather disconnected from the beginning. Most of the charm was replaced with cuteness. There were plenty of humorous moments with memorable dialogue, but the flavor had changed. The nostalgic feel was gone. It was subtle but unmistakable, and I found myself feeling vaguely guilty while I watched the clock and waited for the credits to roll.
This was supposed to be a great movie – or at least a thoroughly good one. I’ll go out on a limb and say I thought it was a charming but disjointed movie. It was cute and funny and full of positive talking points and I’m glad I watched it once, but I don’t intend to watch it again. The worldview was surprisingly good considering the origin, but there was a little something missing in the craft.
Did you see it? Am I crazy? Tell me I’m not alone in my opinion.
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I just watched this with the kids I baby sit for. I fell asleep once they met “kevin”. It was all a little too silly like you said. The moral was good but you are right it kind of took a turn to make it funny. I am sure they could have made it funny in a more real way. Then again Disney is not real.
I agree almost completely– except that I wasn’t waiting around for the credits to roll.
I still enjoyed the end, but the middle fell flat. And yes, when they brought in that bird, I was like “have we entered a completely different movie?”
My favorite part was also the character development and the story of the couple’s life.
Wow, I’m glad to know that someone else didn’t think this was the greatest movie ever. Our whole family was eagerly anticipating the DVD release since we had heard so many good things about it, but, like you, we were all disappointed. Perhaps our expectations were just too high based on the hype…
I personally thought the whole story felt a little slow and less-than-captivating. I’ve been wondering if it’s one of those films you have to watch several times to really gauge the depth of the story – you know, maybe we just didn’t “get it” the first time.
Oh well, I can’t see bringing myself to watch it a second time either.
Thanks for posting your impressions, Kim. I always enjoy your posts!
You have voiced my vague thoughts. I never took the time to put it into words. I knew I liked the beginning because it led to a wonderful and rewarding conversation with my spouse. I also enjoyed the talking dog but that was because my husband and I love to articulate what we think animals would say if they could talk. But, it was most certainly a disjointed movie and we too are not likely to ever watch it again.
Yes, I totally agree and have no intention of watching it again. People loved it, but I agree, disjointed is the perfect word for it.
I totally agree and so does my 7yo son. He loved the movie until the bad guy showed up. Then he hated it. As a matter of fact he demanded LOUDLY to be removed from the theater. I haven’t seen the end and from what I hear, it isn’t worth it.
I agree! I had such high expectations from it because of the rave reviews, and I felt let down.
I do think there were a few holes in the plot that could have been filled.
It was a big “meh” for me. Oh well, we had a free code from Redbox, so no money lost. Only time.
My sentiments exactly. I fell asleep as soon as they met the dogs. From that point on I was gone ~ and then woke myself up (by snoring too loud) for the very ending
) Not going to buy this one!
I loved the movie watched it twice allready. I never really analyze movies too much, I watch them for pure entertainment purposes. This one made me laugh out loud a couple times (probobly because the boy was a Scout and I related him to my son) and that is always a good thing.
I actually loved it too, but can see your points.
My dad let me borrow it, saying it was the best movie he had saw in a long time. We loved the beginning, just like you said. I, too, was totally lost as to why the story went one great way, then totally switched to something silly. I told my husband, “it got so fake and unbelievable”. He replied, “it IS a cartoon, Kimberly.” Well, after that great beginning, I just expected more. Glad to hear I was not the only one with these thoughts.
I totally agree with you. I had never heard of it before seeing it, and I thought it was pretty bad. I’m glad I’m not the only one to think so!
I agree with what you say about the movie being disjointed, but it is still the best children’s movie I’ve seen put out in a long time. From an adult’s point of view I was let down, but my children (under the age of 5) loved the movie, and the positive features — the music, clean humor, and a positive display of marriage make this a movie I am ok with my children watching. Too many movies put out today reflect too much of the negative features in our culture.
Well then, Christimas Eve should be interesting for our family. “UP” is our family Christmas Eve gift. My husband bought it and neither he, I or the kids have seen it yet. I hope he didn’t waste our money. Sounds like I may get a nice Christmas Eve nap!
How funny, DH and I watched this movie last night!
We felt that while it was cute, it wasn’t really appropriate for younger viewers (under 12), because of the things it deals with (without directly stating them). We watch for a lot of the undertones and undercurrents and lessons that can be found in the movies, and this one deals a lot with the social stigmas/positions of the elderly and honestly… it deals with a very tough topic– death of a SPOUSE, and the guilt that he felt due to the fact that they didn’t do the things he’d promised her.
I didn’t find the whole bird thing to be disconnected from the rest of the film, because it was set up at the very beginning in the little film that Carl was watching, but the dogs were a little… bad-guy/comic book style as you said. The explorer who went to clear his name seemed to be a little too “evil” as well– why not get video cameras and regular cameras and film what’s happening instead of capturing the creature? Find it’s home and bring people to it. Seriously… anyway, that was the only “comic-y” part we found in it, and even that has a few good lessons in it, but again a little above the heads of little ones, in our opinion.
I’m with Maryjo. I could’ve written what she said (minus the scout connection).
I think this post is funny because I really liked the movie, but kinda for the same reason you DIDN’T. I had NO desire to see it. I thought it looked lame…so my expectations were really low. That’s probably why I was so pleasantly surprised. I, too, loved the first 15 minutes! I know what you mean; it’s hard to ever enjoy a movie as much as you expect to when you’re all worked UP about it.
We all loved this movie! My husband, 8-year old, 5-year old, and me! We don’t get to see a lot of new movies (too many of them are just not appropriate for families, unfortunately.), so we really enjoyed this one. We’d like to buy it, eventually. I almost didn’t post because I saw so many negative comments, but then I noticed a few who liked it, so I decided it would be ok to say I liked it, too.
I really disliked this movie, but not for the same reasons. I’m struggling to get pregnant, so I was just devastated by that part of the movie. I also don’t deal well with death. I cried so much during the movie.
We agreed with you!!! Loved the story of the man and his wife, loved the part with the boy. They just didn’t have anything for them to do. I was disappointed. Won’t watch it again, won’t buy the toys.
I totally agree. We were expecting what we were told was “the best Pixar film yet”, and we all were disappointed. It went from being “real” to totally unrealistic and silly. There were good things in it, but we won’t buy it, and I wouldnt’ be interested in watching it again. My kids all agree that they would watch it again, but that there are other Pixars that are WAY better.
I gotta say all these negative comments totally suprise me
I thought it was good, but like you said, too silly and disjointed. Everyone I know who had seen it played it up to be the best ever too, so maybe it seems like more of a letdown because of that. It doesn’t even compare to the Pixars like Cars, Bolt, etc. I thought it was a cute movie though.
I took my two little ones to see this in the theater on a Wednesday afternoon about 2 weeks after it came out. There was only one other family there, but about midway through my 1 year old was getting ansy. I knew that it was a gamble taking her, so we quietly got up and left. I didn’t want the other family to have to deal with a 1 year old that was being rather loud.
All that said, just to say that I only saw the first part of the movie. I loved the first part, and I’m disppointed to hear that the ending isn’t better. I’ll still probably rent it to see the rest of the movie, but it sounds like I won’t be as enchanted as I’d thought.
I think you hit this movie spot on. Pixar, in general, seems to be going this way. The last movie that my family loved was “The incredibles.” We haven’t seen another good one since (no have we bought them. Pixar are the only movies we own.) I think “Toy Story 3″ is coming out this summer but I am not as excited about it. The preview doesn’t tell us much. I guess time will tell. They sold the company to Disney but the Disney hired the original owner/director to work for them. But if this is what they are going to keep producing, it might be the end of good movies unless someone else steps up to take over.
oh, sad…I really enjoyed this movie as did our entire family. We thought it was fabulous. I guess we aren’t looking for to much “real” stuff when we are watching cartoons…probably from so many years of watching the entire Land Before Time series with my kids over and over and over…. I was just happy to see something other than talking dinosaurs.
I think expectations make a big difference. High expectations most often lead to disappointment. It is almost inevitable. Expect a lot: be disappointed. Expect nothing or little: be pleasantly surprised and enjoy yourself more.
Anyway, I knew nothing about UP beforehand. My husband had read a review on pluggedinonline, but all I knew was that there were balloons and that Focus on the Family had given it a good rating.
The beginning montage blew me away. Definitely not what I was expecting. I loved it! The ending was also great in that it showed a lot of growth in the old man – he learned to get outside of himself and start to feed into someone else who needed love, mentoring, and a friend – perhaps more than he did. (A lot of the details about Carl’s friendship with Russell were shown in the end credits, so I recommend watching the credits until they end.)
The middle did include some cartoonish “silly” aspects, but really they were pretty harmless. One thing that surprised me was the intensity of the action in the film. I thought that might be a little too much for kids. Did you find that to be the case for your kids?
Anyway, I would say it is an A movie, perhaps short of A+ because it was not perfection. All in all, I recommend this film! Of course, do not expect too much
, but definitely give this movie a chance.
Katie,
Our children are used to intense movies. For the most part, we’re not a sensitive lot, so that wasn’t a problem for us.
I couldn’t put my finger on it either. From the moment the bird entered I kept getting up and doing other things, because I was no longer attached to the movie. I loved the opening, but from the moment of the bird I was shut off, but I have to say the kids were the opposite. They like the beginning ok, but they were waiting for it to get good.
My kids hated it, especially my 10 year old. He said it was the saddest movie he’s ever seen. My 8 year old sobbed when the lady died. Definitely not a move we will buy.
Our whole family loved it. We saw it first in the theater and couldn’t wait for it to come out on dvd. We’ve watched it a few more times since. It’s a great movie. Now every time we see a Golden Retriever we revert to Dug mode and start voicing his lines like this one: “I have just met you and I love you!” lol Isn’t that just like a Golden?
We couldn’t help but laugh at Dug – especially since we have a Golden too. We didn’t hate the movie; I think most of the children loved it. I just thought it was disappointing because the middle and end didn’t live up to the opening scenes.
Hmm…I really liked it. I didn’t see it as disjointed at all – it was just a continuation of the explorer stuff at the very beginning of the movie. I loved the dogs – they made me laugh so much!
I’ve watched it 3 times so far and will probably watch it many more. But that’s the way I am…rewatch and reread everything!
Kim, do you think you will watch “A Christmas Carol” (animated new movie with the voice of Jim Carrey)? It got a good review on the Christian site Plugged In. I am only concerned about the scary-factor for little ones. Do you ever check Plugged In reviews from Focus on the Family? They let you know whether or not there are spiritual elements, postive and negative aspects, profane language including taking the Lord’s name in vain, and a conclusion that gives you the BOTTOM LINE. Check it out, if you haven’t already!
It would be interesting to see what Plugged In had to say about “Up.” I have not seen it.
I agree with you–I saw Up with some kids I was babysitting. I was wonderfully surprised by the beginning of the movie, but around the time the bird and the dog came in, I started to be less impressed. I would have been happy had the movie ended with Carl (Karl?) going off to fulfill his promise to his wife.
Yes! I totally agree! We thought it was going to be a lot more….something. I liked Carl and Russell, but I am with you about the whole “bad guy” plot. It was shallow and very silly. Oh well.
Yeah, I agree..it was less than I expected………
I would have to say that I liked the beginning best and was disappointed when it ended. I mean, I was almost hoping that the whole part with the construction workers went longer.
I think part of the problem with the second half was the believability aspect. It was one thing to suspend disbelief that the house would fly. The bird really wasn’t a problem for me. I could even go with dragging the house still having balloons in the sky.
Once you got to the talking dogs that could cook, the whole battle in the air (and having a hose be strong enough to bring back the house) it stopped being something that was believable and went back to make believe.
Which, I think, is the same problem you’re mentioning. The beginning was so believable and the second have so unbelievable.
But I enjoyed it, and went in knowing nothing. I think that expectations can influence reception of the actual thing.
I saw this is the theater and was unhappy about it then and I’m still unhappy with this movie. The funeral home didn’t need to be shown, the retirement center was made to be like a loony bin or punishment and burning the house was not needed. My daughter and the other kids I went with were all scared at that part and that is not OK with me. Boo on Pixar for this one.