Up (2009 movie)

Up
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Directed by	Pete Docter Co-Director: Bob Peterson
Written by	Screenplay: Bob Peterson Pete Docter Story: Pete Docter Bob Peterson Thomas McCarthy
Produced by	Jonas Rivera Executive Producers: John Lasseter Andrew Stanton
Starring	Ed Asner Christopher Plummer Jordan Nagai Bob Peterson Delroy Lindo Jerome Ranft John Ratzenberger Elie Docter
Music by	Michael Giacchino
Production companies	Pixar Animation Studios Walt Disney Pictures
Distributed by	Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Release dates	May 29, 2009 (North America) September 3, 2009 (Australia) October 9, 2009 (United Kingdom)
Running time	96 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$175 million
Box office	$472,690,456

Up (also known as the most beautiful movie ever) is a 2009 American animated movie produced by Pixar and distributed by Disney. It was first shown at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. It was a successful movie and was one of the top movies for 2009. The main characters are a boy named Russell, an old man named Carl Fredricksen, and Kevin the rare bird. The main antagonist is Charles Muntz. They take an adventure to Venezuela on a flying house. The movie won two Academy Awards, including for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Score.

Plot

The first scenes take up the childhood of Carl Fredricksen, a shy and serious boy who idolizes the famous explorer Charles F. Muntz Jr, whose anecdotes are usually told in news programs projected in movie theaters of the time. One day, after going to the movies to watch Muntz's new adventures, Carl learns that Muntz was accused of making the skeleton of a giant bird, which he claimed he had discovered in Paradise Falls. When his alleged lie was found, he lost his job. However, he promised to return to that site to bring back a live specimen of that bird and thus regain his reputation. The revelation of Muntz's lie saddens young Carl.

Soon after, Carl meets an energetic and somewhat eccentric girl named Ellie, who coincidentally is also a fan of Muntz. She confesses her desire to move her club (located in an abandoned house in the neighborhood) to a cliff overlooking Paradise Falls, where Muntz went. Carl promises to help him make his plan come true. As the scenes progress, adults Carl and Ellie are seen getting married and living in what was previously her club, although this time completely restored. He works as a balloon salesman, while she gets a job at a zoo in the city. At first, they want to have children, but after they lose a child, they discover that they can't have more and start thinking more about traveling. Although both try to save to be able to go to Cataratas one day, they always end up spending what they have saved on some other need that arises. Later, Ellie, now elderly, suddenly falls ill and dies without the couple being able to carry out the longed-for trip, something that Carl deeply regrets.

An aged, widowed, lonely and grumpy Carl is now presented inhabiting the same house, although it is now surrounded by an urban environment of skyscrapers and prominent buildings. Contractors working in an area near Carl's house have asked him to buy his house to occupy the land in a new construction, however, the old man refuses to sell them his property. On one occasion, the elderly man injured one of the workers because he accidentally knocked down the mailbox of his home, which caused him to be sent a court order forcing him to vacate his house to move to an old age. With no other alternative, Carl contrives to inflate tens of thousands of helium balloons a day before being evicted, to tie the house to them and take it with him in the heights. When this happens, and indeed the house rises from its place, he realizes that he has also brought with him Russell, a boy who belongs to the scouting group called "Intrepid Explorers", who shortly before had insisted to Carl to help him get the "Help the Grown-up" medal, the only one he needs to advance in scouting grade.

With Russell as his only companion on the journey, Carl orients the direction in which they fly aboard the house, similar to the planning of an airplane. After passing some obstacles related to the proper ascent of the house, including a thunderstorm, they almost fall down a ravine when they reach the mainland, in an area full of cliffs and rock formations. They manage to survive and Carl decides to carry the house, still floating by several inflated balloons, on his back for which he ties the hose of it to his waist. The old man recognizes Paradise Falls in the distance, so he hopes to get there before all the balloons deflate or burst, and the house can't be moved anymore. On their journey, they come across a tall, colorfully feathered bird, which Russell names Kevin (although it is later discovered that the bird is female, as she must take care of her young), and a dog that is able to talk through a special electronic collar that she wears around her neck. The latter says his name is Dug. Although Carl is reluctant to have both animals join them on their journey, they end up accompanying them. Before reaching their destination, they are intercepted by a group of dogs led by a Doberman named Alpha. Like Dug, they are able to speak through their respective collars. Carl learns that Dug was communicating with them all that time, something that Alpha and his companions, the Beta Rottweiler and the Gamma Bulldog, reveal at the time. In addition to the dogs, they mistake Russell, a postman, who call him a "mini-postman". The dogs force them to follow them, except for Kevin who hid on the roof of the house shortly before so that he would not be seen, to meet his master, an elderly Muntz.

Once they arrive at the place where the dogs indicate them, Carl recognizes his childhood idol and greets him with joy, but not before noticing that he is accompanied by dozens of dogs. Muntz kindly offers to board his airship, Spirit of Adventure, which is parked in a cave in the area. While they eat inside the airship, the adventurer reveals to Carl and Russell that he has spent a lot of time in Falls looking for the bird he promised to find, and for this he is helped by all the dogs they saw when they arrived. Although he also hints that he would not be concerned at all about the creature's well-being, as long as he regains his reputation. Innocently, Russell informs him of Kevin, finding similarities between it and the creature Muntz is looking for. Carl decides to flee the place with the boy, but Muntz refuses to let them go without first handing over Kevin. After a chase through the slopes and rocky areas of the place, where Carl, Russell and Kevin (who has come out of hiding) receive the help of Dug, in the end the villain catches them with the help of his dogs and the airship, and sets fire to Carl's house.

Knowing that taking Kevin away will not bother him anymore, and having extinguished the fire in his house, the old man considers returning to Falls without caring anymore about what happened, something that bothers Russell, who insists on returning to help the bird. It is not until the former reads Ellie's photo album, specifically some pages he had not seen where she thanks him for the adventure that meant having been married, and encouraging him to go for new adventures, Carl agrees to rescue Kevin with the help of the young scout. To get the house to rise back into the air, since many of the balloons burst due to the fire caused by Muntz, it is necessary to dislodge some furniture from it. After catching up with the airship, Carl intercepts Muntz inside, but Muntz manages to capture Russell. Finally Carl maneuvers the blimp and manages to rescue him, which brings him to safety along with Kevin and Dug in the houseboat. After an altercation between Muntz and Carl, the explorer falls off the airship. Despite his attempts to rescue the house, which can no longer float and to which he has hose-held, Carl chooses to let it go to prevent Kevin and Dug from falling off the blimp as well.

In the last scenes, Carl, Dug, and Russell are seen saying goodbye to Kevin and returning to the city aboard the Spirit of Adventure. In the absence of Russell's father, Carl agrees to give the missing medal to the young man, but this turns out to be the medal made from a grape soda cap by Ellie in her childhood. Moments later, the latter two appear, along with Dug, counting the cars of the same color that travel along one of the streets of the city, while eating an ice cream, a pastime that Russell did with his father some time ago. Carl's house is also seen descending and settling in Paradise Falls, which somehow fulfills the wish that Ellie had had since she and Carl were children.

Characters

• Carl Fredricksen - A 78-year-old man.

Soundtrack

1. Up with Titles by Michael Giacchino
2. We’re in the Club Now by Michael Giacchino
3. Married Life by Michael Giacchino
4. Carl Goes Up by Michael Giacchino
5. 52 Chachki Pickup by Michael Giacchino
6. Paradise Found by Michael Giacchino
7. Walkin’ the House by Michael Giacchino
8. Three Dog Dash by Michael Giacchino
9. Kevin Beak’n by Michael Giacchino
10. Canine Conundrum by Michael Giacchino
11. The Nickel Tour by Michael Giacchino
12. The Explorer Motel by Michael Giacchino
13. Escape from Muntz Mountain by Michael Giacchino
14. Giving Muntz the Bird by Michael Giacchino
15. Stuff We Did by Michael Giacchino
16. Memories Can Weigh You Down by Michael Giacchino
17. The Small Mailman Returns by Michael Giacchino
18. He’s Got the Bird by Michael Giacchino
19. Seizing the Spirit of Adventure by Michael Giacchino
20. It’s Just a House by Michael Giacchino
21. The Ellie Badge by Michael Giacchino
22. Up with End Credits by Michael Giacchino
23. The Spirit of Adventure by Michael Giacchino