What makes UP becomes the inspiring cartoon? UP has a delightful prologue, set in the '30s, and the sort of slam-bang chase scene at the end. It's a delight pretty much throughout. The other thing is, though, is a sequence about five minutes in, where
Carl and Ellie, the kids at the very beginning of the film grow up,
get married and grow old. It's pure, visual filmmaking, without a word
spoken. The story has the elegant simplicity of a children's picture book, too. Forced to
leave his house, a lonely retiree decides simply to take it with him.
So, after tying thousands of balloons to it, he flies off to Peru not
realizing, unfortunately, that he has an 8-year-old stowaway on board,
intent on earning his Wilderness Explorer badge.
