Up

Up is a 2009 computer-animated adventure film produced by Pixar Animation Studios, distributed by Walt Disney Pictures and presented in Disney Digital 3-D. The film premiered on May 29, 2009 in North America and opened the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, becoming the first animated or 3D film to do so. Up is director Pete Docter's second feature-length film, after Monsters, Inc., and features the voices of Edward Asner, Christopher Plummer, Bob Peterson, and Jordan Nagai. It is Pixar's tenth feature film and the studio's first to be presented in Disney Digital 3-D, and is accompanied in theaters by the short film Partly Cloudy. The film was also shown in Dolby 3D in selected theaters. The film centers around an elderly widower named Carl Fredricksen and an earnest young Wilderness Explorer named Russell who fly to South America in a house suspended by helium balloons. The film has received overwhelmingly positive reviews, with a rating of 98% on Rotten Tomatoes (the best reviewed film of 2009 on the site), and grossed over $731 million worldwide, making it Pixar's second-most commercially successful film, behind Finding Nemo. Up won Golden Globe Awards for Best Animated Feature Film and Best Original Score from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. More recently, the film received five Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, making Up only the second animated film in history to receive such a nomination, following Beauty and the Beast in 1991. It was awarded with two Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Score in 2010.

Plot

Carl Fredricksen (Jeremy Leary) is a shy and quiet boy who idolizes renowned explorer Charles F. Muntz (Christopher Plummer). He learns, however, that Muntz has been accused of fabricating the skeleton of a giant bird he had discovered in Paradise Falls, South America. Muntz vows to return there to capture one alive. One day, Carl befriends an energetic tomboy named Ellie (Elizabeth Docter), who is also a Muntz fan. Detailing her ambitions in her personal scrapbook, she tells Carl of her ambition to move her clubhouse to a cliff overlooking Paradise Falls, making him promise to help her. Carl and Ellie eventually get married and grow old together in the house where they first met, working as a toy balloon vendor and a zookeeper, respectively. Unable to have children, they repeatedly try to save up for a trip to Paradise Falls, but something always seems to come up that requires their savings. One day, Carl finally buys tickets to South America, but before he can tell Ellie, she becomes ill and dies. As the years pass, the city grows around Carl's (Edward Asner) house. A developer buys all the surrounding land, but Carl refuses to sell. When a construction worker accidentally damages his mailbox, Carl strikes him on the head with his walker. The developer seizes the opportunity to get a court order to force Carl into a retirement home. However, Carl comes up with a scheme to keep his promise to Ellie: he turns his house into a makeshift airship, using numerous helium balloons to lift it off its foundations. A young Wilderness Explorer named Russell (Jordan Nagai), who had pestered Carl in an attempt to earn his final merit badge for "assisting the elderly", becomes an accidental passenger. After surviving a thunderstorm, the house lands near a large ravine facing Paradise Falls. Carl and Russell harness themselves to the still-buoyant house and begin to walk it around the ravine, hoping to reach the falls before the balloons deflate. Russell later befriends a tall, colorful flightless bird, who is trying to return to her chicks. Russell names the bird Kevin and makes Carl promise to help return her safely to her brood. The group then meets a dog named Dug (Bob Peterson), who wears a special collar that allows him to speak. Later, Carl and Russell are brought by a pack of dogs to Dug's master, an elderly Charles Muntz. Muntz explains that he has spent the years since his disgrace searching Paradise Falls for the giant bird. Muntz invites Carl and Russell aboard his dirigible for dinner. When Russell innocently reveals his friendship with Kevin, the obsessed Muntz becomes disturbingly hostile. Carl and Russell flee, chased by Muntz's army of dogs; Kevin is bitten on the leg in the escape. Muntz eventually catches up with them and ensnares Kevin. He then starts a fire beneath Carl's house, forcing Carl to choose between saving it or Kevin. Carl rushes to put out the fire, allowing Muntz to take the bird. Carl and Russell eventually reach the falls, but Russell is angry with Carl over his abandonment of Kevin. Settling into his home, Carl is sadly poring over Ellie's childhood scrapbook when, to his surprise, he discovers photos of their married life added in the formerly blank pages, and a final note from Ellie, thanking him for their adventure together and encouraging him to go on a new one. Reinvigorated, he goes to find Russell, only to see him using some balloons to go to Kevin's rescue. Carl refloats his house by dumping many of his possessions and gives chase. Russell gets captured, but Carl frees him and Kevin. Armed with a hunting rifle, Muntz pursues them around the airship, finally cornering Dug, Kevin, and Russell inside Carl's house. Carl then lures Kevin out through a window with a chocolate bar, with Dug and Russell clinging to her back, just as Muntz is about to break in. Muntz leaps after them, only to snag his foot on some balloon lines and fall to his death. Freed from its tether, the house descends below the clouds and out of sight. Carl reunites Kevin with her chicks, then flies the dirigible back to the city. When Russell's father misses the ceremony promoting his son to Senior Explorer, Carl takes over and proudly presents Russell with his final badge: the grape soda cap badge that Ellie gave to Carl when they first met. The house is shown to have landed perfectly on the cliff beside Paradise Falls.