Top 100 Movies of All Time Up. I think we are up to the 8th entry in this 100 entry list? Think we’ve done The Seven Samurai, Bonnie and Clyde, Reservoir Dogs, Airplane!, Pan’s Labyrinth, Doctor Zhivago, Deer Hunter, Close Encounters of the Third Kind… I guess with Up, we are at number nine. Nine down, and only 91 to go. When I do something, I do it.
The point was to grow THiNC. up a bit and look at movies beyond the stand mindjob movie fare. Try and learn something from the “100 Best Movies of all time.” No idea if it’s working or not… but so far, I think about half of them I hadn’t seen before. So, in that regard, it’s been illuminating. Maybe in 91 more entries we will hit some great epiphany of sort, but only time will tell.
Top 100 Movies of All Time Up
I gotta say, I wasn’t excited about watching Up, again. But I really think Up could really be rated as the #1 animated film of all time without a stretch. For example, the opening backstory setup is one of the most brilliant setups in movie history, animated or not. I may, or may not, have shed a tear or two the first time I watched it. We watch as a couple meets, marry, have a miscarriage, grow older together, and the wife dies. It’s sad! But it also sets up the entire movie. A grumpy old man who has calcified into a loner who dislikes everyone. But we get it, it makes sense, all because of that amazing opening.
The other key detail in the opening is how Carl Fredricksen idolizes the famous explorer Charles F. Muntz. But when he is accused of making up a skeleton he brought back from South America, Muntz bails on life and vows never to return. We’ll get back to Muntz in a bit.
Carl, years later, decides he’s not going to sell his house to the giga-construction firm set on building skyscrapers throughout his neighborhood. He won’t ever give his house up. But when he hits a construction worker, he’s forced to move to an old folk’s home. However, before they can do that, he converts the home into an airship by using thousands and thousands of helium balloons. And right before he launches his maiden voyage in his house, he’s visited by Russell, a boy scout in need of his merit badge. Thinking Russell is gone, Carl launches, and the two of them start their adventure towards South America.
The house lands in Tepui, near Paradise Falls, and Carl and Russell pull the house along with them across the top of the mesa. Which is where Russell find a giant flightless bird. “Kevin.” Next, a gold retriever named Dug who has a collar that let’s him speak. Eventually they find Muntz, and his massive blimp. Which is when we learn that he’s been seeking another bird to prove himself all these years. And when Russell mentions how the skeleton looks like Kevin, Muntz wigs completely out. Why? Because Russell and Carl are going to steal the bird for themselves. So the trio run for it, chased by Muntz’s dogs. And when Muntz sets a fire under the house, Carl saves the house and Russell.
Later, Russell takes off in the house using a leaf blower and some balloons in order to get back to Kevin, who they left behind earlier. Carl, ditches tons of ballast in the house so that he can follow Russell in the house. And Muntz chases behind them in his dirigible. Muntz catches Russell, but Carl and Dug get on board as well and free Russell and Kevin. As far as dirigible/house chases go this one rates right up there and Muntz falls to his death. Then Carl and Russell get Kevin reunited with her chicks, and they fly the dirigible back home. Russell gets his merit badge. And ultimately the house lands on the cliff beside Paradise Falls – completing his promise to Carl’s wife years ago.
Thoughts on the Movie Up
Up is basically the Odd Couple reinvented. The clever bit is how Carl melts his hardened heart, and allows a space for Russell in it. It’s a bit too saccharine sweet the twelfth time. But it is a master class in story telling and character development/progression. The Pixar screenplay writers definitely know how to craft a story, wind it up, and set it all in motion. It would be interesting to see what they could do with a live action story and $50k in funding. Maybe they’d craft the next Primer?
Want to see the other movies I’ve already covered in the top 100 list… check them out right here.
Edited by: CY