UP and Bearded Fellow

Blog 149: UP and Bearded Fellow

Taka really wanted to se UP, and I never minded another Disney/Pixar film. So today, Parkarr, King, Taka, and I saw that movie.

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Movie Review: Up

Pixar has done it again.

Carl and Ellie share the same hero in this explorer, who had brought back a skeleton of a super tall bird creature from South America and decided to go back to bring back the actual thing after being called a fraud. Ellie talks about how she wants to live in a house on Paradise Falls and fill her book with the many adventures she'll have while down there. From then on, they got married and lived out their life, trying to make the most out of it. Then Ellie had passed on, (another sad Pixar opening). 

Carl, now widowed, lives in that house where time stood still, but all around him construction is going on to try and make something new. When a crane accidentally knocks over Carl's mailbox, Carl assaults the guy trying to fix it with his cane. After his court hearing, he is forced to live in a retirement home. A day later, just as the people from the retirement home comes by to pick him up, Carl unleashes a mass amount of balloons that lifts up his house and carries it away...

And so on.

There are many perks about this movie.

The storyline is very cute and clever. Of course, coming from the minds of animators, who would be the experts in paying absolute close attention to detail as they manipulate every angle of the scene, you would expect something on a really grand scale. It has some hilarity to it too, as far as an old man and an annoying boy scout will allow.

The characters are very unique and funny. Carl, Russell, (the pudgy boy scout), Kevin, (the female exotic rainbow bird), and Doug, (the talking, big nosed dog), all provide humor and humanity, (so to speak), to make the movie a very heart warming story.

Some of it can be flighty to some smaller children. Parents might have to explain the concept of what happened to Ellie, the shot gun, whether or not the man falling from a blimp survives or not, and how dogs are able to fly planes and shoot tranquilizers with a squeaky toy device. Of course, you would have to expect the abstract coming from the movie's concept of a flying house... XP

My favorite scene would have to be where, after Carl finally lands his house at the falls following the capture of Kevin, Carl discovers, as he tears through the pages of Ellie's adventure book, that Ellie never regretted not going to Paradise Falls. Through the pages were pictures of both Carl and Ellie through the years, all the way to the very end where Ellie leaves a note: "Thanks for the adventure, now go and have a new one!" 

Not a dry eye in the audience after that! :P

The animation is a little more detailed this time around. This is the third human-ish movie Pixar has done, which definitely shows in how they had created their characters. The modeling on the dogs in this movie is a lot more realistic than any other animal Pixar has done. Not to mention the actual breath taking scenery of South America beautifully recreated in 3-D style.

Overall, it pulls off the strong message of living everyday as an adventure and that you don't have to go far to live each day as such. The feel good, family classic film of the year!

Rating: 4.75 Out of 5 Thumbs UP--> BETTER than Wall-E in my opinion. XP

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After the movie, Taka, Parkarr, and I decided to go to Downtown for a bit. We walked toward Hard Rock in the K Street Mall to get a Jamba Juice. Then it came up that we need a pack of playing cards because I didn't bring any. So we turned around to the other end of the mall, where we decided to just go to Old Sacramento. 

In Old Sacramento, we walked back to that Candy Heaven store to try out some samples of candy. Apparently there was a field trip going on because there were a lot of short children and tagged responsible adults. As we walked out, there was a kid on the floor, looking through the cracks on the floor boards. Apparently he had lost his camera's memory card down there. The adult with him asked for my Jamba Juice straw, seeing I was done with it. The kid asked for more gum. Taka, Parkarr, and I just stood there, staring at him. Then we left. 

We went toward the Railroad Museum, where we decided to go somewhere to eat instead. So we ended up going back to the Plaza.

In front of the tacky clothing store, there were these three guys who walked up to us, Pachunga, Annette, and Bearded Fellow, (I forgot their actual names...). Anyway, they had asked if they could talk with us and film us at the same time. We didn't mind, so we said sure. Basically, they have traveled from southern California and plan to hit cities down the coast to preach the good word of Jesus Christ. Bearded Fellow had supposedly played in a few bands and was super addicted to heroin around our age until he found the good word...

Crud... Religious talk. XP

Bearded Fellow had asked us how old we were, which school we went to, and if belonged to a church. We basically said that we went to ARC, that we had met there. Then our churches: Taka, her Nazarene church; Parkarr, Presbyterian; Me, ... 

Bearded Fellow had noticed Taka's cross, which was why they had walked over, but he was apparently surprised that I would hang out with two religious people. I guess he just remarked that we had seperate beliefs but were still easily able to be friends in spite of it. We're not that different, you and I. I don't mind anyone having their own religious faiths. I do mind if they try to preach me something they don't understand themselves, or that they try to preach down my throat to try and get me to believe their faith. It's random moments like those that make me avoid talking about religion. From that point on, I felt kinda singled out being the "non-religious" one, trying to strike a chord with me in the ways of religion, because I saw he stared at me a lot.

Thing is, I didn't mind so much. Sure he only talked about how the historical Jesus of Nazareth died for our sins, how the evil still exists as a result of human free will, because that was what he basically knew. He talked from the heart, from his own experience of searching for enlightenment. However, he also shows a religious tolerance more people should have, how we should be able to go out there and find for ourselves where God is, if and when we decide to look for her.

I would not mind a religious conversation with Bearded Fellow in the future. XP

Anyway, after they were stopped by a security guard, who happened to be a pastor, we shook hands and they left. 

Around the corner from where we stood, Jabyne, Nicole, and their two kids were walking by doing their shopping, too. They had came over to say hello. Gaby is apparently still shy because when her mom pointed me out to her, she ran back to mommy. XP

Then we decided to go to the Sizzler by the apartment, where Taka and I had steak and Parkarr had his cheeseburger. 

Then we went home! XP