Baum Reviews

AVATAR running time = 161 minutes

TRANSFORMERS 2 running time = 140 minutes

UP running time = 96 minutes

I do this to make a point.  Pixar’s recent release UP is one of the best paced films I have seen in recent memory.  Here is a touching animated flick that has not one wasted scene in it and cruises by at the perfect viewing time for what it is about.  Not to say that long running times are bad (see classics like SCHINDLER’s LIST, BRAVEHEART and from what I hear from my old man EL CID), but nowadays I get the feeling like the director’s of most films are pushing for longer run times to give audiences the most “bang for their buck” and we all pay for this in one way or another and not in a good way.

UP is a simple tale about an old man whose whole life was exciting thanks solely to his childhood friend/sweetheart/wife and when she passes on, he is left in a dead end. After some quick plot points he is left with no choice but to leave his house (which in a way would mean leaving the memory of his wife) and as a last ditch effort to save the home and kick-start his life again he ties hundreds of baloons to it and fly’s to South America to a remote fantasy-like location.

Without telling the whole story, let’s just say that he has a kid who accidentally takes off with him by being in the wrong place at the wrong time and hi-jinks ensue.

UP peppers in some fun villains and action scenes but I couldn’t help but think that this was the first time in a while that I have seen a movie explain things so vaguely.  For instance how did old man get all the balloons?  Why is a good guy bad all of a sudden? Why are the henchmen-like dogs there and where did they come from?  Then I realized the point of this movie is to come across like a quick tale like the kind you would read your kid to go to sleep.  This again is why the pacing works so well.  Why explain things and make them complicated when the point is really about enjoying what’s in front of you just BECAUSE.

Our main hero learns to just enjoy the ride that is life and thanks to Pixar’s UP I have learned this too!