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This topic comprises 5 pages: 1 2 3 4 5
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Topic: Disney/Pixar "UP"
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 06-05-2009 11:40 PM
Location: Carmike 8, Lawton, OK
Auditorium: #4
Format: Christie 2K DLP, RealD 3-D
Rating: 3.75 stars out of 4
This review is a few days overdue, I watched Up Monday night and picked the 9:55pm showtime hoping that would minimize the number of people, especially noisy kids, in the auditorium. Not to be. One couple sat nearby with two kids, one an infant in a baby stroller and the other a little girl who was crying like hell in the lobby. Thank God she didn't make any noise during the show. But the asshole sitting the row ahead of me took two cellphone calls and made a couple calls during the show. I really wanted to scissor kick him in the back of the head.
Aside from the usual audience problems, the movie itself and its presentation quality was really good. I don't understand the difference between RealD and RealD XL. However, the projector had a different Z-screen setup where it rotated down in front of the lens when the 3D started to play. The 3D with this show was noticeably brighter and more consistently bright from center to edge than what I had seen with previous RealD shows. Just to be fair, I was sitting in the center of the auditorium.
Why does Disney need to promote "Disney Digital 3D"? Who do they think they are fooling? The friggin movie was being shown in RealD. There is no Disney branded hardware in the projection booth. Nevertheless they stick their "Disney Digital 3D" trailer on the front of the movie, despite the fact we just saw a RealD format trailer a few minutes earlier when all the 3D movie trailers started playing. I think DreamworksSKG has some similar bullshit 3D thing they put on movie posters too. Wouldn't it have been funny as hell back in the early 1990s if various movie studios threw in their own "super phiggidy digital 5.1 surround" brand thing along with the DTS, DD, SDDS alphabet soup already on the movie poster and end credits?
Is Disney trying to explode speaker drivers with their "Disney Digital 3D" trailer? That trailer is mixed really loud, actually to an unpleasant degree. Even the original Dolby Stereo Digital trailer didn't act quite like this. I have the same problem with Disney's "Home Theater Enhanced" trailer they stuck on certain DVDs in the past. Their phoney baloney 3D format trailer was loud enough to cause the little girl sitting nearby to pout and cry a little bit. But she shut up, thankfully.
Anyway, onto the movie itself.
As I said earlier, I liked Up a lot. I can't give it a perfect 4 star rating (like Roger Ebert did) because of some of the more preposterous things in the movie like:
Spoiler Alert - Click to Toggle
taking the talking dogs thing well past them just being able to talk and instead carry out complex problem solving intelligence tasks only humans can do -like flying planes in a "dogfight." Ha ha. Yeah, I got that joke. Shit, only a small percentage of people have the skills to fly planes much less "Man's best friend" being able to do it."
Still, Up has a surprising amount of heart to it. Carl Frederickson is a more complex character than the grumpy old fart I thought he was going to be. I was really surprised at how serious this movie could be at times, particularly during the first act. The movie fearlessly wades into some deep territory, and I applaud Pixar for that. We don't live in the "nuclear family" ideal of American life anymore. There is a lot of people living alone and a lot of kids growing up with one or more absentee parents. Thankfully the movie had some great comedy moments to balance out all the serious stuff.
Spoiler Alert - Click to Toggle
I laughed out really loud more than a couple times. Some of the stupid yet clever shit Kevin the bird was doing had me in stitches. I think Kevin is a throwback to some classic Looney Tunes or Tex Avery characters. Doug the dog and Russel, the irritatingly positive wilderness explorer both had great moments as well. And the thing with Alpha the Doberman's voice translator malfunctioning when he is introduced made me bust out laughing the loudest. I'm not sure why that moment is so funny, but it is. Still, the big moment in For the Birds ranks as the biggest Pixar laugh out loud moment for me to this day.
I guess the 3D thing is the evolutionary development Pixar has introduced this time around -along with a new Pixar logo intro. With all the previous movies from Pixar you could pick out new breakthroughs in technology. Wall•E really pulled off the simulation of anamorphic photography very well. I bought A Bug's Life on Blu-ray -which also gave me a big discount on the Up movie ticket. As good as A Bug's Life looks on Blu-ray you can also see that it looks very primitive compared to a recent Pixar movie like Ratatouille. Anyway, I'm not sure what new Renderman™ technology was rolled out for Up. Aside from the 3D, I agree with ![[joe]](graemlins/joe.gif) that the visuals seem a bit similar to The Incredibles.
Did I mention the movie had a pretty decent sound mix to it? It grew pretty aggressive during a couple scenes. Good sound is usually a given on any Pixar movie anyway.
I'd like to see Up again in the theater. Our local Carmike theater amazingly is showing it only on 1 screen. So there is no 2D versus 3D option to see the difference. And the movie may play out itself entirely in 3D through its run there since the theater has 3 RealD systems installed in various sized auditoriums.
I'm definitely buying Up on Blu-ray.
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Mark Lensenmayer
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1605
From: Upper Arlington, OH
Registered: Sep 1999
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posted 06-06-2009 02:37 PM
OK, boys, this one moved me to tears. That first section really did me in. I feel about my wonderful and adorable wife much as Carl did Ellie, and the thought of losing her made me very sad. I've never been that emotional in a movie before.
Pixar never stands still. Looking at the trailers for upcoming 3-D films from a number of producers, they all have the same look. Pixar always moves the state-of-the-art. The clothing had great detail. Carl's face was very complex, not just the square one might imagine. Even the eyebrows were very well done. Every film looks better than the last. I can't say that for most studios.
Someone from Pixar must have been spying on my dog, Chauncy. He is just like DUG. Sure seemed to me that DUG was an homage to Buddy Cat, who kept calling Sylvester "George" in the cartoon "HOPPY GO LUCKY, which is, in turn, an homage to Lon Chaney Jr. in OF MICE AND MEN.
The film is well paced and never dull. As I've stated many times before, I believe in what I call the "Siskel-Ebert" rule, which states that for a movie to be successful, you must care about the characters. These are all loveable characters.
This is one of the best from Pixar. They just don't release films without good characters and well thought-out stories.
The short, PARTLY CLOUDY, is really beautiful. Pixar must have been testing some new scenic software there. Another nice effort.
I'm so glad they cast voices for character, not for "big name star power". Dreamworks would have cast Brad Pitt as Carl, one of the Jonas brothers as the kid, and Eddie Murphy as the dog. It just wouldn't have been as good.
I'd like to compliment whoever sets up the sound at RAVE COLUMBUS. These are the sweetest sounding rooms I've heard since the THX room at an old GCC. Beautifully balanced, with subs that sound like part of the whole, not add-ons. This is a much smoother system than the one in the local IMAX location.
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