"Up" comments
Juan F. Lara
but I still feel bothered about plot problems.
SPOILER WARNING
Of course, I instantly liked Carl and Ellie, and wanted them to fulfill
their dream in some way, as well as see Carl come to terms with the passage of
time. More on that below. So I was eager to see Carl get to Paradise Valley
right away.
But the thing is, once he got to Paradise Valley, what then? I couldn't
answer that, and I think the makers at Pixar had trouble answering that
question as well. Thus, the movie has Charles Muntz and his dogs. Muntz was
useful as a childhood inspiration for Carl and Ellie. But that early scene
was all that the premise really needed from that character. Instead, Muntz
wound up a heavy for Carl to fight, I think for no other reason than to give
Carl something to do at Paradise Valley. I didn't care much for his quest for
MacGuffin Kevin. Kevin didn't seem all that amazing to me anyway; just a
glorified emu.
I'm left baffled as to how Muntz wound up the way he did. We were so
vividly introduced to the childhood hero version of him. Then he suddenly
revealed that he had gone Colonel Kurtz. Well, I guess when you're isolated
for a long time you can go squirrelly (SQUIRREL!), um OK...Muntz needed more
character depth to make his change more compelling. I also felt that the plot
developped in a very unfair way to him. He definitely was falsely acccused of
fraud; that ruined his life. From Muntz's perspective, Karl and Russell WERE
stopping him from completing his mission, and he was planning on bringing the
bird in alive anyway. At the end, Karl and Russell kept Muntz's airship and
memorabilia; they unintentionally came off as thieves to me. Muntz could've
been a tragic figure, but the makers didn't develop him more than just a one
dimensional villain.
So here I am talking only about Muntz. Like I said, Karl and Elie's dream
premise I liked without any reservation. Two cute kids forming their adventure
club is of course going to be an irresistable premise. I agree with everyone
that the montage of their marriage excelled in storytelling ability. Memorable
imagery to tell the reason why they didn't have any children, and to point out
the time when Elie passed. I felt a lot of empathy for Karl, faced with the
unstoppable pace of time. I gotta say though that I wasn't sure what point
they were going to make about the dream. So the climactic scene where Karl
discovered all the photos Elie kept was a favorite scene of mine. So then, you
may have big dreams, but the life you actually lead is the real adventure.
- Juan F. Lara
Ted Nolan <tednolan>
Juan F. Lara <lj...@ces.clemson.edu> wrote:
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> I finally saw "Up" last Sunday. I found the main premise very endearing,
>but I still feel bothered about plot problems.
>
>SPOILER WARNING
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>vividly introduced to the childhood hero version of him. Then he suddenly
>revealed that he had gone Colonel Kurtz. Well, I guess when you're isolated
>for a long time you can go squirrelly (SQUIRREL!), um OK...Muntz needed more
>character depth to make his change more compelling. I also felt that the plot
>developped in a very unfair way to him. He definitely was falsely acccused of
>fraud; that ruined his life. From Muntz's perspective, Karl and Russell WERE
>stopping him from completing his mission, and he was planning on bringing the
>bird in alive anyway. At the end, Karl and Russell kept Muntz's airship and
>memorabilia; they unintentionally came off as thieves to me. Muntz could've
>been a tragic figure, but the makers didn't develop him more than just a one
>dimensional villain.
>
Remember Muntz is at least 20 years older than Karl, probably more, so
despite his super-medical-science advances, he's 100+ years old. I felt
he was suffering from some form of dementia.
Ted
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columbiaclosings.com
What's not in Columbia anymore..
sirblob2
oh it wasnt a dream.
the evil guy in the forest was filler material, the required paycheck
for me to charlie chaplin or buster keaton my way into old age,
certainly the weak point in the pic but prolly corresponds to one of
the many fucked up and pervasive notions in the west that we always
have to fight evil, even when we're attempting to float our way into
werner herzog's land of ''anyone can do this better than clint
eastwood'' territory. i really wanted a silent movie so much of the
time, but no, the fucking villain had to come in with his subplot a la
kurtz so fuck the lot of em, thats prolly where i wanted disney a la
40s and 50s shorts they did way back when