'Up': high-flying cinema

Still from the movie ‘Up’, produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios

The cinema of an imation is considered a minor genre, but the truth is that it has left us masterpieces such as The Lion King, The iron Giant, Nightmare Before Christmas, South Park , the sagas of Toy Story

and Shrek , Finding Nemo, Spirited Away ,

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, Shaun the Sheep , Girlfriend corpse r , Peter Pan, The Lady and the Tramp, Chicken run. Farm Escape , Beauty and the Beast, 101 Dalmatians, The Jungle Book , Akira , Snow White or Up . I imagine that I omit some important work, but I consider the films cited enough to show the excellence of an unfairly despised genre.

Animated cinema occupies a border place between childhood – sometimes innocent; others, terrible- and maturity, almost always impregnated with nostalgia and hungry for fantasy . Maturity is tragically impoverished by severing their ties with the amazement of the early years, when the possible and the impossible coexisted without hindering each other. That is why we must find a way to keep these two stages of life in communication.

Up is an example of the magic of animated cinema, as it indistinctly seduces children and adults, creating a space where age differences become irrelevant . Produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios, it tells the story of Carl Fredricksen, a seventy-eight-year-old widower with a small two-story house set in an urban landscape colonized by skyscrapers. Harassed by a construction company, Fredricksen – who looks remarkably like Spencer Tracy of old age – refuses to sell his home, full of memories of his wife, Ellie. The appearance of Russell, an explorer of about eight, half American, half Japanese, will change everything. Heartbroken by the loss of his partner, Fredricksen had become unsociable, pessimistic and grumpy, but thanks to his new friend he will discover that the best way to preserve Ellie’s memory is to regain his zest for life.

Up contains four masterful minutes, one of the stellar moments in the history of cinema. You only need a few sequences to tell us the story of the marriage Fredricksen, managing to move us deeply. It is inevitable to smile at the beginning and it is difficult to suppress a tear at the end. As a child, Carl was shy and had little initiative. Instead, Ellie was spontaneous, determined, and brimming with energy. Their differences will only accentuate their mutual sympathy, which will eventually turn into love. As adults, they will marry and settle in an old house that they will rehabilitate little by little.

Carl works as a balloon seller and tries to save money to travel to Paradise Falls, the place Ellie has wanted to know since childhood, but will always emerge an unforeseen event that forces you to break the piggy bank. The couple will suffer a severe setback when doctors discover that they cannot have children, but the affection will remain intact. When it is authentic, love endures and overcomes all misfortunes.

Up

uses a kind of McGuffin to reflect the passage of time: Carl’s tie . Year after year, Ellie lovingly knots it until it turns into a bow tie. They both reach old age deeply in love. When Carl has finally raised the money to travel to Paradise Falls, Ellie falls ill and, after a brief hospitalization, dies with great dignity, leaving a message that her husband will only discover later. On the last page of a photo album, he writes: “Thank you for this beautiful adventure, now it is your turn to live a new one. He loves you Ellie. ”

The image of Carl holding a blue balloon in the church where his wife’s funeral was held has enormous dramatic force. The semi-darkness of the enclosure contrasts with the colored balloons that decorate the altar, accompanying the flower crowns. The polychrome stained glass windows underline the chromaticism of a scene that openly shows the emptiness produced by death.

Up works as melodrama and comedy, but also as an adventure film . Russell and Dug, a good and goofy Golden Retrevier, introduce the comic note. Russell wants to complete his collection of boy scout badges. He only lacks what is awarded for helping an elderly person. Chance leads him to Fredricksen’s house. Far from rejoicing, the old man is overwhelmed with his noisy vitality. Russell is brave, tenacious, spontaneous, gluttonous. His fondness for chocolate has led him to be overweight, which does not prevent him from carrying a bulky backpack. Naive but not stupid, he will find in Carl, Dug and Kevin, a gigantic female bird of an extinct species, the family he is missing, as his biological parents hardly pay attention to him. Russell is not a softie. Protect and save Kevin from Charles F. Muntz, an old explorer who seeks to restore his reputation.

He was accused of falsifying the skeleton of a missing bird, but the truth is that he was not lying. The skeleton belonged to Kevin’s species and can only prove that he did not commit fraud, trapping the only specimen that has survived the sieve of centuries. Dug instantly takes a liking to Fredricksen and Russell, helping them escape from their former owner, Muntz, who has gone mad after being stripped of his past honors. With these wickers, Up weaves a fast-paced story that talks about loss, loneliness and overcoming . The film circumvents the trap of sentimentality by approaching the most emotional moments with delicacy and sobriety.

Up skillfully exploits symbols, transforming places and objects into mythical references . The Paraíso Falls are not a simple landscape, but that Eden that we all dream of. The mailbox at the Fredricksen house is not a box for receiving letters. When the married couple decorate it with their paint-stained hands, it becomes a sign of love and fidelity. The Muntz zeppelin is not a simple vehicle. It symbolizes that will to power that should not be confused with the desire for adventure. Muntz does not want to exceed goals, but to take over everything on Earth. His stuffed animals reflect his contempt for life. He is Nietzsche’s superman, who overwhelms and devastates the places he steps on, making fun of compassion and weakness. His dogs, trained to serve him, are not his friends, but his slaves.

Carl’s house, which will take flight thanks to hundreds of balloons, is not a mere relic of the past, but a song lasting affections and bonds. A utopia in the middle of a vast jungle of concrete and asphalt. In the middle of a big city with high doses of dehumanization, it constitutes an oasis of tenderness. Widowed, Fredricksen is trapped in a world that has disengaged itself from the elderly and children. Your little garden should be a meeting space, but speculators only notice its market value.

Up shows us the abandonment that older people endure in a society obsessed with appearances. It also brings us closer to the drama of children and pets who suffer abuse or neglect . Children, dogs and the elderly seem useless trinkets in societies that identify virtue with production and accumulation. Carl, Russell and Dug overcome their problems and shortcomings, knotting their lives. Carl will learn from Russell, always focused on others. That is why he will give her what he cherishes most: the badge that Ellie pinned to his chest when they were both children. Again, a simple object takes on a powerful symbolic force. The badge, which Carl will hang on Russell’s scout shirt as a decoration, embodies the most beautiful values: loyalty, sacrifice, dedication. Fredricksen will culminate his happy learning when he discovers that his grief does not exempt him from caring about others.