I Went On A Great Journey With Up

Carl Fredricksen (Ed Asner), a 78-year-old balloon salesman, finally fulfills his lifelong dream of a great adventure when he ties thousands of balloons to his house and flies away to the wilds of South America. But he discovers all too late that his biggest nightmare has stowed away on the trip: an overly optimistic 8-year-old Wilderness Explorer named Russell (Jordan Nagai). From the Academy Award nominated director Pete Docter, Disney Pixar’s Up invites you on a hilarious journey into a lost world, with the least likely duo on Earth. Up will be presented in Disney Digital 3-D in select theaters.

Little Carl Fredricksen idolizes explorer Charles Muntz. His dream to be just like him and explore South America is his destiny, but it's not just his dream. He soon meets Ellie, a spunky girl who longs to travel to South America and wants to have a home built at the top of Paradise Falls. Like all little kids do, they dream big, but they also fall in love and get married. Over the years they continue to plan for their trip to South America, but life takes its toll and Ellie passes away. Now Carl is all alone at the age of 78 in the house that he and Ellie built, all the while new buildings are popping up all around him. He refuses to sell his house to the developers. One morning a Junior Wilderness Explorer named Russell arrives on his doorstep looking to help an elderly person to get his last wilderness badge. When Carl turns down help of any kind from Russell he then decides to send him on his own journey to find the elusive Snipe. Soon after there is an incident where Carl is forced out of his house and into a retirement home. Instead of going, he decides to fufill his promise to his wife of going to South America by tying thousands of balloons to his roof. He's in the air and ready for his journey when he hears an unexpected knock at his door. He finds out that he has a stowaway, the optimistic and overly eager Russell. While searching for the snipe he ended up under Carl's porch at the point of liftoff. Carl is reluctant to have Russell on this journey and his first reaction is to send him home until they are caught in a thunderstorm. Carl jumps to protect his precious belongings and when he gets tired and falls asleep Russell is left to steer. When he finally wakes Carl up they find out that they have made it to their destination, albeit a few miles away from the top of Paradise Falls. With the help of Russell, Carl makes his journey to take his and Ellie's house to the correct spot. Still being held up with balloons, Carl and Russell weigh it down and make their journey to the spot right next to the waterfall. During their trek they meet a rare bird. The same bird that Charles Muntz is looking for. Muntz has sent dogs out to search for this bird with limited results. The bird instantly takes a liking to Russell who finds out that he likes chocolate. Russell names it Kevin and asks if he could keep it. Carl doesn't want it with them, but it follows anyway. Soon, they come across a dog with a weird collar and they find out that with this collar he has the ability to talk. He is one of Muntz's trained dogs that are out looking for the bird. His name is Dug and he wants to take Kevin as his prisoner. Dug takes a liking to Carl because he treats him a little better than Muntz and the leader of the pack Alpha. He's pretty much the outcast because he's not the smartest out of the bunch. When Alpha contacts Dug and finds out that he has the bird in custody he along with Beta and Gamma go after the bird and Dug. When the bird gets away Alpha gets infuriated with Dug and puts him in the Cone of Shame and at the same time we found out that Muntz is alive and well is still searching for the elusive bird. Kevin is back with Carl and Russell until Alpha goes after the bird again. When he runs Alpha leads Carl and Russell to Muntz and Carl is excited to see his long time hero. Muntz is very hospitable until he finds out that the very bird that he's looking for has been following Carl. He instructs Alpha to capture the bird at all costs and when he succeeds it's up to Russell and Carl to come to the rescue. I won't give away the ending, but with it being a Disney Pixar movie you can expect a happy ending. This movie was very fun to watch, even though the beginning was a bit sad. The animation and voice acting was incredible. Some scenes may be too scary for the youngest of the young, but otherwise its a treat for all. The combination of young and old was done nicely. The overly enthusiastic kid and the grumpy old man, despite the age difference go great together. Take your kids and enjoy this journey along with them. You will not be disappointed. A joyous 4 on my "Go See" scale.

WTF? Moment : When Carl launches his balloons and takes off we see a shot of the front of the house, but awhile after liftoff we hear a knock at the door and it's Russell. Where did he come from? He WAS NOT on the porch when the house took off. How is it explained? He claims that he was under the porch chasing what he thought was a snipe. It's highly unlikely that he was under the porch and made it to the front door after liftoff.