Movie Review: Pixar's "UP": magically uplifting or firmly grounded?

I have yet to see a Pixar movie that I haven't instantly fallen in love with. From "Toy Story" and "A Bug's Life" to "Finding Nemo" and "WALL-E", every single film has been superb. The writing is always spot on, the voice actors always well-selected, and the movie as a whole has been excellent. With that in mind, how well does Pixar's tenth and latest film, "UP", stack well, "up" to their past accomplishments?

Sadly, not all that well. "UP" is the tale of balloon-salesman Carl Fredricksen [voiced by Ed Asner], a lonely, bitter old man who lives by himself. Carl's house is smack dab in the middle of a major construction site-and the construction contractor is willing to do anything to get Carl to move or give up his house.

Here's where this review gets tough. I'm going to avoid the spoiler route (because the trailers for the movie seem to have done the same), and have it simply suffice to say that the early part of the movie is a montage of a younger, happier Carl.

Within that first 20 minutes, the film had already made the people I saw the movie with cry-and, at least in my case, made my extremely manly tear ducts spasm. I did not cry. My tears ducts spasmed. That's it.

After this life-changing event, Carl attaches thousands of balloons to his house and flies off to explore the wilds of South America, which had been a childhood dream that he had neglected throughout his life.

Throughout his (mis)adventure, Carl meets and befriends the portly child Russell (Jordan Nagai), the vocal-chord-enabled talking dog Dug (Bob Peterson) and Kevin, a tropical bird.

Starting off the movie with such serious and even depressing subject matter may have not been the best decision for the movie.

Not only does it make the movie less-kid friendly, but it makes it harder to enjoy the humor (and don't worry, there's plenty of laughs to be found, as is typical in a Pixar flick) in the movie. Not only that, but it also makes the ending clichéd and expected.

"UP" lacks the raw emotional power of "Finding Nemo", or heck, even the ever-obvious overtone present in "WALL-E".

Don't get me wrong-I enjoyed the movie. It's tough not to. However, it wasn't exactly the easiest Pixar movie to enjoy. And it seems like Disney knows that. An article on "UP"'s failure to appeal to Wall Street as well as toy merchants appeared in an April issue of The New York Times.

According to the issue, "Target and Wal-Mart say they will stock little "UP" merchandise, mainly because there was not much interest from manufacturers: Thinkway Toys, which has churned out thousands of Pixar-related products since 1995's "Toy Story," will not produce a single item [of "UP" merchandise]." In response to that, Disney executives replied that they "don't expect every Pixar film to become a franchise." But since all nine previous Pixar films have become franchises, why would the tenth be any different? That's a tad worrisome.

Ultimately, "UP" is a celebration of life and dreams. Despite its somber beginning, the movie overcomes it with humor and a more than a little bit of the classic Pixar panache.

Seen with Digital Light Processing (DLP) and in Disney 3-D, the movie is a stunning piece of animation. The 3D effects aren't overtly obvious or cheap, making "UP" one summer movie that you should not miss. Rating: 8 balloons out of 10