I enjoyed Up while I watched it and was near tears for much of it. But once we got out of the theater and started talking about it, I realized that the narrative and the character depth were really subpar, but shiny visuals, proficient acting, and Trust in Pixar ensured that the shameless, hamfisted heartstring-yanking would have the intended effect of making you feel like This Movie Matters. This Movie Touched Me.
In fact, I think the setup entirely abuses the audience. First of all, it shamelessly rips off It's a Wonderful Life. Picture the difficulty of Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed's life, but Donna can't have children! *gasp*
As desperate and open-hearted as protags Carl and Elly are, adoption never occurs to them, since heartbreaking childlessness very critically goes toward building their identities (like Ma and Pa Kent, really--even if it defies all logic, they HAVE to remain childless for the story to go where it needs to). Which is to say, we're supposed to think they're all the more tragic and pitiable.
Carl and Elly spend the rest of their life together attempting to save up for some jetsetting but assorted random costs over the decades keep the savings limited and then Elly dies and Carl immediately turns into a bitter old man who finds himself whacking a well-intentioned construction worker so hard with his cane that he draws blood. (This is the best moment of the movie, a peek at real drama, and firmly grounds it in reality, if only thinly-rendered reality.) Worst of all, Elly is one of those Angelic Wives who exist just to die. She's utterly flawless--gorgeous, sunny, and oh-so-committed--and thus more valuable than a "regular" character who maybe, I don't know, frowns sometimes? or feels a justifiable amount of bitterness over her crushed dreams? or gets angry when disaster occurs? Nah, these are marks of an inferior wife whose death is no great cause for grief. Elly is MAGICAL, so you know you have to feel REALLY bad for Carl and his TREMENDOUS loss. (FEEL, DAMMIT!)
Ten minutes later, Angry Geezer jumps out of reality and accomplishes the absurd. All semblances of real-world tangibility are shed when he ties enough helium balloons to his house to rend it from the foundation and pipes and go soaring away from the city, all the way to South America.
It just gets crazier from there. There's a bird from Ice Age, a bunch of poorly-designed dogs talking via translator collar from some Dreamworks piece of shit, I guess, and an immortal villain with a shitty motive.
There are many good moments of humor and, as I said, proficient acting (both voice-acting and the subtle expression animation that has been Pixar's bread and butter since The Incredibles, at least). This movie has no particular driving visuals, no coherent sense of narrative type, and no respect for its audience. Pixar thinks it can press a button marked CRY! and keep you coming back for more.
Eh, I've lost interest.
ETA: On the up side, while this was supposed to include a trailer for Toy Story 3 and inexplicably didn't, I was very pleased with the trailer for New Orleans-set, traditional cel-animated The Princess and the Frog.
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