We've got two reviews for Pixar's latest smash: below, you can check out Andrea Tuccillo's original review, and then if you keep reading or CLICK HERE you can find Ryan Hamelin's "Up in 3D" review.

Up

Review By: Andrea Tuccillo
AndreaTuccillo@TheCinemaSource.com

Movie Grade: A

Pixar has done it again – as if you had any doubt. Up has all the warmth, heart and hilarity you’ve come to expect from such a flick, buoyed by a little extra shot of originality. (An old guy floats his house away with thousands of helium balloons. It doesn’t really get more original than that!) It’s a soaring tale of life’s adventures, no matter how big or how small.

I don’t want to give too much away. I barely knew anything about it before I saw it, and I think that’s best. (The trailers don’t really reflect what the movie’s about anyway.) What it boils down to is an old balloon salesman named Carl Fredricksen (Ed Asner) who’s just lost the love of his life, Ellie. A brilliant and poignant silent montage in the film’s beginning chronicles Carl and Ellie’s childhood friendship (they bonded over their love of adventure) all the way through their long marriage. As Wall-E proved last year, silence can be golden. If I may be so bold, the first 15 minutes of Up are perhaps the most powerful, and decidedly most “grown-up,” of any Pixar film. Right off the bat Up has you laughing and crying.

The sad truth is Carl doesn’t much know what to do with himself since Ellie passed. The two always dreamed of going on exotic adventures together, but everyday life always seemed to get in the way. As if that wasn’t enough loss for poor Carl, he’s also about to loose his prized home to a group of inconsiderate high-rise developers.

In a final act of desperation, and liberation, Carl hitches his house to thousands of helium balloons and promptly floats away, thus avoiding selling his house and the bleak prospect of a nursing home future. But he’s not just floating away from his problems; he’s fulfilling a promise to his late wife. As a couple, they always vowed to one day move to South America, so that’s exactly where Carl is headed.

But just when the curmudgeonly Carl thinks he’s left the world behind, he discovers that a young, ambitious boy scout named Russell has accidentally stowed away on his flying house. At first, Carl is unwelcoming to the talkative little stranger, but Russell is eager to earn his “helping the elderly” badge and proves a worthy companion.

A bonafide South American adventure ensues when the Carl and Russell come across a rare and coveted bird. Russell hilariously names it Kevin, and the name sticks even after they find out Kevin’s a female. The two realize they must protect Kevin against a ruthless old explorer (and Carl’s boyhood hero) named Charles Muntz (Christopher Plummer), and Muntz’s pack of well-trained dogs equipped with voice-translating ...