For 14 years, Pixar Studios has excelled at the delicate balancing act between child and adult, simplicity and context. It's a shame that this balance is necessary at all -- it feels like an arbitrary task imposed by the notion that animation needs to appeal to kids first and foremost. The Japanese, unhindered by this constraint, have been producing fine animation for all audiences (and I do mean all) for decades. I can only dream of what Pixar might produce with the artistic freedom enjoyed by their Japanese contemporaries such as Satoshi Kon or Hayao Miyazaki. But Pixar's constraints have not diminished the end product -- ten visually stunning feature films that delight audiences of all ages while producing nuanced social commentary on issues such as single parenthood and mental illness (Finding Nemo), corporate exploitation (Monsters Inc.), consumerism and the environment (Wall-E), family and fidelity (The Incredibles), and artistry (Ratatouille).
This string of commercial and artistic success remains unbroken with the release of Up. The studio has worked before from scripts that include emotionally dark openings (Finding Nemo) or unlikely protagonists (Ratatouille, Wall-E), but with Up they've outdone themselves. The film starts with a heart wrenching montage of the lifelong relationship of Carl and Elie, beginning from an awkward childhood romance through marriage, the disappointment of infertility, economic troubles, and ultimately Elie's untimely death prior to the fulfillment of the couple's shared dream: a trip to Paradise Falls. It is Carl the mourning widower joined by Russell, an unhappily neglected young boy (and a hilarious talking dog), who will serve as protagonists as the film morphs into an unlikely South American adventure.
Incredibly, despite frequent reminders of Elie's death and Russell's broken family life, the film is ultimately uplifting. The key lies not in what the characters achieve or overcome, but in the choices they make along the way -- to take others' problems as their own, to let go of the past, and to break from the pack. The belief that good outcomes flow from the right choices is the optimism that lies at the heart of each Pixar film. And in that world, and hopefully ours as well, heroism is found not in accomplishments, but in the choices we make.