saw Up again a few nights ago. What a great movie – and somewhat different than the usual Pixar fare.

On the one hand, the animation keeps on getting better and better – the balloons above the house look almost real, and it’s interesting that they’d make a movie about an old man and his early child dreams of South American adventure (?). And the usual Pixar ‘warm & silly’ touches are there too (talking dogs with several recurring jokes, gentle slapstick humor throughout, a weird chocolate-loving bird named Kevin, etc.).

I also appreciate Pixar’s continued willingness to subtly slam the corporations (not that Hollywood doesn’t make a lot of income doing that anyway) but Pixar is more sublime than most, barring say, WALL-E (that movie is a more extreme position on the subject :)). Here the anti-corporate commentary largely takes the form of Carl’s house being ‘built around’ by skyscrapers (reminds me of the old lady’s San Francisco firehouse in Herbie Rides Again) but there’s also implications for both the two heroes (Carl and explorer scout Russell) and villain (Muntz) concerning the underlying theme of adventure and seeking the unknown. The ‘real world’ is never kind to that one, to be sure.

There are definitely varied movie and pop-culture influences at work here – at least in my mind. Muntz’ airship is right out of The Island at the Top of the World; kerewin noted the house + balloons as possibly inspired by James & the Giant Peach; and my own (i’m sure unintended) reference is the Alpha dog’s distorted voice (heard at two different times in the movie) being identical to Conan O’Brien’s Pimpbot 5000 – too funny. And the whole ‘travel adventure’ artwork seen early on by Carl and Ellie as kids is very reminiscent of the earlier Pixar movie The Incredibles (I’m thinking of Mr. Incredible in his office looking at all his old glory newspaper articles, and of the artwork in the closing credits, too – classic stuff!)

But what makes Up more than a bit different than other Pixar movies (and other family fare) is their willingness to inject a lot of sadness into the movie and plot. The early montage of Carl & Ellie’s life together by itself is enough to get out the hanky, but it doesn’t stop there. Although they balance it somewhat by the various triumph(s) in the movie, this is still a much sadder story than most – one of our friends is adamant he’d never bring kids to this movie, way too depressing! 🙂 But to his point, I think at least some of that sadness is aimed far more directly at adults and you have to be one to really appreciate WHY it is sad and not simply transition periods between the more action-oriented portions of the movie. Maybe it’s not sad per se, but rather, poignant and wistful? The writers obviously make strong points about ‘live life to the fullest’, ‘don’t forget to look around you for the adventure you already live’, and themes to that effect. Sage advice indeed – but rare in an animated family movie?

I guess that’s what continues to make Pixar special and their movies stand out from the crowd. While I think the next couple movies are going to be sequels (Cars 2, Monsters Inc. 2) hopefully they’ll continue with the original, unique stuff.

candybowl

Saw one of these bad boys (Red-Tailed Hawk) sitting on the fence this am near the backyard. Made my day! Now if I can only convince him to eat those d*** pigeons hassling my bird feeders! I wonder if he’ll take a check…..

candybowl

UPDATE 8-2: The Phinneywood blog has posted about either the same or a similar hawk in the area – and it looks like he has a taste for pigeons – enjoy!

In other news, we have been pigeon-free since that day….he’s earned his keep so far 🙂

Our neighbor has a pretty old cat. And apparently he had a stroke at some point in the not-so-distant past, so he walks normal in front and like a crab in back – at first glance we thought he had been hit by a car when he was on their lawn, until the neighbor came out and explained his situation – apparently he’s not really supposed to go outside but he manages to sneak out here and there.

Anyway, we got back from a bike ride and he was on their lawn – I checked to see if they were around but they were out, so kept an eye on the kitty for a while – he seemed content to hang in the yard or on the porch, so i let him be, he didn’t seem like he was going anywhere.

Later, we were headed out to go get a late lunch and two of the neighbor girls from around the corner were over there (that rare species of Seattle resident – children!) petting him and talking to him. I explained he was ok, that he lived there – they thought he was a stray. Their dad was coming back around the corner with a plastic cup of water for the kitty – I told him too. Later on, the neighbors were back, hanging on the porch with the kitty and I told them about the girls feeding him water.

Just goes to show you that when you think this country is going down the toilet faster than you can intermediate flush – something really nice happens and you end up smiling.

candybowl

OK – so on the way home today I was walking down the street and saw a house that has two large, carved (wood) Rottweilers on either side of the front stoop. I did a double-take, then just laughed to myself and moved on. Wood Rottweilers? I’ve seen stone lions, griffins and dragons, but Rottweilers? I guess it would have been worse had it been Shi Tzu’s, a pair Bichon Frise or Pugs (the latter being the ‘unofficial dog’ of Seattle).

This isn’t the first weird thing that I have seen on our street. Last year (take that time-stamp with a grain of salt) – I was walking to the bus and actually saw A BANANA PEEL on the sidewalk. Having been ‘edumacated’ and ‘moydolized’ in the hallowed halls of Looney Tunes – naturally this was a conundrum: Do I simply savor the (once so far in my life) sight on its own; Do I actually STEP on it and see if it makes me actually slip and fall?; Or finally, Do I simply tell the story ad nauseam at many later dates? I opted for choice #3 – but it was still a cool thing to consider on the way to the bus.

And finally, when we first moved into this house (about 10 years ago this fall), there was a house about 3-4 doors down, white, that had a big 80s poster in the window (facing the street) of what looked like a Lamborghini Countach getting humped by a black panther. Or at minimum, they were in the picture together. Again – no Patrick Nagel painting this – but definitely way 80s. I was sad when (I think) those people must have moved and took the kitty-humping italian supercar poster with them. Sniff!

It’s all good…..

candybowl