Captain Conroy's Pixar 40th Anniversary Marathon (Week 8)

Written by Captain Conroy

Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6 and Week 7 here.

This next movie is the classic example as to why one should never judge a book by its cover. I mean you look at that poster and it looks absolutely ludicrous doesn’t it? An old man using ballons to make his house fly, looks like it may be a generic silly kids’ film right? Well, if anyone comes to that assumption, I am pleased to say that they are 100% wrong. Up is genuinely one of Pixar’s masterpieces, and let me tell you on a rewatch it certainly whacks you right in the feels, but allow me to elucidate:

The story is the ultimate lesson of life and living the best one you can and our friend for this story Carl Fredrickson had certainly done that with his wife Ellie, no matter what twists and turns life threw at them while they were trying to save for the trip of their lifetime, Paradise Falls. But after Ellie passes away, what’s next for Carl? Well, after an incident which will have him move into the retirement village, he decides to grant Ellie’s wish and with the aid of balloons, it’s off to Paradise Falls! At least not without a friend in the form of Russell. So once they get there, they embark on the adventure of a lifetime facing many unexpected twists and turns along the way.

Like I say, it’s the ultimate lesson of living your best life and it even goes beyond that. It also shows you how every day is a new adventure and how even when one chapter ends, another begins. The story goes full out with its lesson and it certainly pulls no punches, I mean we all remember THAT montage right?

This is at the start of the movie and it’s already the ultimate tearjerker! And god bless it for it. What I mean by that is that a lot of properties aimed at kids nowadays is total brain-rot and I swear sometimes it dumbs them down. But actual quality entertainment like this on the other hand, this is the sort of thing kids deserve. I mean through this montage alone they do indeed live a happy life together but they could never collect enough for Paradise Falls and there was even one point where Ellie suffered a miscarriage. Yes, I’m serious, once again this montage clearly pulls no punches.

And furthermore the movie was even gutsy enough to show serious injury like when Carl hit the man with his cane and outright made him bleed and a bit of blood seeping through Kevin’s bandage after she was bitten by Alpha. Like jeez-louise this is one ballsy movie right?! But yet through all its serious moments, I love how the movie doesn’t suffer from being tone-deaf. It has a perfect balance between being serious and being funny, it can go from being happy and light-hearted from being emotionally weighty to silly and mature so easily and nothing at all feels out of place when it comes to the movie’s overall tone.

And even once Carl gets the house to Paradise Falls and he’s fulfilled his promise to Ellie, there’s still more to go like I said earlier about how every day is an adventure and how even if one chapter has closed, another begins. As Carl looks through Ellie’s old book, he finds pages that he didn’t know had been filled and as he looks through and sees many pictures of him and Ellie together with a message written for him by her, he realises he was the adventure for Ellie the entire time and then starts a new chapter with Russell and Dug – so brilliantly done! This movie really does have the perfect story and I feel I would once again have to resort to nit-picking to find anything wrong with it. Even if there is one thing, that’s not much with the story but more so characters, but we’ll get to that.

The animation is certainly a very interesting subject to talk about. Why do I say this? Well, the animation is Pixar’s usual high standard and it naturally does the best it can to make the scenery look great and it has proper realistic textures like water in the wilderness, fur on the dogs, feathers on Kevin and so many other different kinds of feels you’d expect from these animals. Different textures on character clothing and hair too is another thing that looks great. But yet compared to most other movies in Pixar’s library, especially for vehicles and character designs – there’s a strong emphasis on shapes.

What I mean by that is particularly the heads take a lot of shape, Carl for example has a pretty round head when he’s a boy and a squarish shape takes form the older he gets. I bet no-one wants to see a realistic version of a shape of head like that huh? You even see on the cars very roundish and squarish shapes, I mean even the Pizza Planet truck when you see it has a very square look and looks a little odd compared to how it usually looks. It’s almost like the animation found a pretty good way to look cartoony but yet realistic and somehow everything manages to fit well together and nothing looks at least too out of place.

But even so what of the weird shapes? I love the animation as a whole and it has a very unique style which helps it stand out and you can truly feel like you’re not looking at the same movie over and over again. Later Pixar movies especially are good at showing this. Not that the past ones weren’t, it’s just that it gets especially prominent later on. I especially love the way the animation made a very strong usage of its colours. From the city setting, to the wilderness, to some of the characters like Kevin and most definitely through all of the balloons keeping Carl’s house afloat. That alone is worth so much credit as it probably wasn’t super easy animating all of those balloons and making their colour reflections look so good – but they did it. Once again the animation just feels like the one thing that Pixar can never do wrong. And I hope they keep this up by the time I see Hoppers at the time of writing this.

The characters: More often than not the main character is young and thus it gives kids someone they can aspire to. At the same time it’s not unheard of for a lead character to be an old person and Carl is one of those shining examples. Let me tell you this guy is an absolute trooper. He goes to hell and back to make sure he gets to Paradise Falls and he takes many stumbles and trips along the way and yet he still keeps kicking. Half the stuff he goes through might well kill a man his age in real life but yet he’s solid as a rock. And his character development is just perfect too as he is of course a lonely fellow who misses his wife and especially once he realises about being Ellie’s adventure, he goes to great lengths to keep Russell safe despite having his goals set and initially seeing him as an annoyance. It’s not rushed, it’s gradual and by the time the movie ends, it’s clear to see how Russell is the next chapter in Carl’s life.

Russell himself, Carl may see him as a nuisance at first but I think he’s funny. I do admit he won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but hey, he did it for me. Especially with how deep it got when he was perfectly willing to rescue Kevin, even if it meant going it alone and he certainly had his moment of awesome as he initially wasn’t able to climb far up the hose pipe but was able to by the end when it came to helping Carl out. I especially like the scenes when they’re setting up camp under the house and talking while taking Kevin back home after escaping Muntz, they helped develop a lot about him and can even be left to your own interpretation. Like who even is Phylis for example if she’s not his mother? And for the animal characters, the most there is to say about Kevin is who says an animal character that can’t talk can’t be lovable? Let alone the twist was quite good about Kevin turning out to be a mother and it added a layer of depth to the story.

The dogs talk, albeit very differently and a very unique way too which I at least don’t think has ever been done before but regardless how they talk, it’s easy to see why Dug is so lovable and just about everyone loves him. But as for the dogs talking via their collars? Well, that’s what I was talking about earlier on when I said it would come down to character rather than story. Charles Muntz is an example as to why they say never meet your heroes. He is certainly a credible threat for our heroes and like a good villain he does go to the lengths to ensure he gets what he wants which is to show Kevin to the public after being accused of being a fraud all those years ago. You do have to admire his determination but it does beg the question that he has all of this technology for his dogs and he’s able to train them planes and cook meals and things like that and all of that fabulous airship and he doesn’t once think about becoming a billionaire through it all. I mean what else can he invent or train dogs to do? This man could have made himself so financially stable that he would never have to work another day in his life from all the things he could have invented for the world or trained dogs to do.

Yeah. That’s that one pretty much.

If there’s one way to describe Up, it’s definitely “Up” there with the many greats Pixar has given us over the years. Yes, I said it. Laugh. But seriously, With the gutsiest story of any in Pixar’s library at this point, animation which has a fine blend of cartoony styles and realistic textures and a wholesome cast of characters, Up was just a guaranteed hit for Pixar from start to finish. It was really pushing the creative boundaries and putting them to the test and they pulled off something as wonderful and as whimsical as this. And it can really show one’s suspension of disbelief as you could actually pull this off in real life with enough willpower and determination.

It may sound incredibly crazy but trust me, it’s out there, it’s being discussed and it’s even being proven by experts on this sort of thing. So yes, to think this is something that could be done in real life. Major extra credit for that guys! So that’s it on Up and there’s nothing more from me other than I highly recommend checking it out if you haven’t already.

So come 2012, Pixar decided to take us on a journey to the Scottish highlands and tell us a tale of a bold princess who sets out to change her fate, just not in a way she could have imagined however given that they decided to show their inner Disney and tackle a fairy tale. Yeah, quite unusual for Pixar isn’t it? Usually they take on more original and whimsical ideas but now they decided to take on a fairy tale and how do they handle it you may ask? Well, this is something of a mixed bag which leans a tad bit more on a positive side for me and here’s why:

The story is a fairy-tale setting taking place in the Scottish highlands. It’s about Merida, a young and rebellious princess who is nothing at all like a typical princess which causes an estranged relationship between her and her mother the Queen. After showing everything up at a betrothal ceremony which causes a major fallout, she encounters a witch and asks her for a spell to change her mother and she does… into a bear. So it’s now down to Merida to follow the witch’s clues to change her mother back. Sadly it’s not their most original story ever, but is it at least good? Well, yes – at least mostly.

The movie has plenty of bits which make me laugh, in fact on a rewatch it’s even funnier than I remembered it being. The conflict is at least set up well enough as Merida and her mother grow farther apart and we also have the demon bear Mor’du to worry about as well as he took the leg of Merida’s father and still threatens the peace of Scotland even now. But for how well it was set up, that’s sadly how quickly a few things fall apart during the film’s climax. Firstly, Merida ends up taking the tapestry in order to mend the bond with her. But yet she was insistent on sneaking her Mother up the stairs and into the room and doing it then and there. Given she took the tapestry with her anyway to catch up to them after she was found and chased out of the castle, why didn’t she find a safe place for her outside and bring the tapestry to her then? That might have been a bit more sensible. That, plus something my brother was quick to point out as we watched it is that a whole day went by and King Fergus didn’t think to check on his wife or go looking for Merida? Let alone locking her away saying he can’t risk losing her although he’s the one who encourages her to fight and use weapons? Man this guy sucks at being a husband and father!

Yeah, you did wrong boy! If anything something that might have worked better would be at least Merida finding a spot outside for her mother while she gets the tapestry but she still gets discovered and chased off that way. Or at the very least, the story could maybe have done with a couple more drafts to fix these problems. It doesn’t give me any genuine joy to have to say this because up until this point on my rewatch journey the story was always such a strong point of Pixar’s movies, but sadly this is not the case here. Those two weak points are just very hard to overlook even if the rest of the movie still has plenty for you to enjoy. Even so, I do like how even if the story is a little predictable, there are still some unique aspects like how Merida doesn’t marry after all.

The animation certainly makes up for a lot however. It beautifully captures the medieval Scottish highlands very nicely and every piece of the setting is just pure eye candy. The way the sunlight captures everything, the green hills, the extensive land and waterfalls and the glow of the Will-o'-the-wisps. All of these make for by far what is one of Pixar’s most beautiful looking movies to date in my humble opinion. All of these plus there’s the usual high standards of Pixar animation like the way textures are done, they really know how to animate speed during chase and fight scenes and the vibrant usage of colours and how each character has their own unique pallet so you have no problem telling who’s who. This even shows what with the Scottish setting how for each clan they created their own individual tartan for their clothing.

I at least think these were created specifically for the movie, if you know more please say otherwise in the comments below but if these were created for then movie, then I have to say they did a very good job at making them look like genuine authentic tartans. Even these close ups can give you some idea how good they are at making cloth look real. Times like this I can only say how it seems like at this point there is nothing that Pixar animators can’t do. Overall the animation is a true spectacle to behold and if eye candy within animation is very much your thing then this movie certainly a good option for you.

The characters: Our main character is another which people get a little bit wrong. Like Bonnie in Toy Story 4, people just don’t seem to get Merida for some reason and I mean, yeah Merida could be seen as selfish and was thinking for herself mostly when she asked for the spell, but she is quick to show regret once the spell doesn’t turn out exactly as she had hoped and shows genuine signs of caring for her mother and how quick she is to defend her from her father when he thinks she’s an actual bear. Not to mention her mother didn’t entirely help either at the start and while it’s easy to see things from Merida’s perspective, it’s easy to see things from Queen Elanor’s perspective too. No-one’s really a straw man here – or straw lady in this case. And what I like is while it was a very douche thing to do throwing Merida’s bow on the fire, she quickly takes it out again and starts to realise the error of her ways. This all makes for strong characters and how their resolve is certainly strengthened after this adventure.

Fergus is one tough king who seems like the usual brawn over brains but he has a good heart is truly is a family man. He truly cares for everything from his wife to his daughter to his kingdom. He’s one of those where either he’s brave or he’s foolish given how he seems to fear nothing, even when Mor’du took his leg off. Speaking of the latter, he sure is one menacing force of nature and an example as to how history could have repeated itself. But he really needed more screentime if he was to be the main villain as the movie’s antagonistic forces mostly seems to be the estranged relationship between Merida and her mother and the fragile peace between the clans before Merida steps in to stop them so Elinor can sneak up the stairs to her room. Characters like the clan leaders and the triplets provide most of the comic relief for the movie, as well as one character whose soul purposes are for suffering to create the comic relief to which all I can say about this one character:

Poor Maudie.

The cast of characters as a whole are a bit up and down as some of them are certainly a strong driving force and others are there for comic relief, but never the less at least it was good comic relief and they all at least share one thing, they all fit right into a Pixar movie.

In general, I sadly can’t recommend Brave as highly as I can the other movies I’ve looked at thus far, but it is worth at least one watch if you’re a Pixar fanatic like me. The story was up and down, the animation was drop-dead gorgeous and the characters may not hold that strong a candle compared to some of their other movies but are still nevertheless fun. Naturally I have said what I think but I still can’t influence the judgement of others, but as I say it’s at least worth one watch. And of course I can still invite you to join in within the comments section and have your say if you have enjoyed these two movies I’ve looked at this week or not. But that’s it from me and even if Brave was a mixed bag for me overall, next week it’s time for me to look back on the ones I consider my favourites and I’ll get to see if they still are my favourites. Inside Out and its sequel. Until that time, take care my friends!

By the way, why didn’t they keep the original title for this movie? It was such a good one!