Up, up, and away

The local movie theatre has a Military Monday discount, so my family and I decided to take advantage of it to go see Up.  My daughter (7 years) and wife have been wanting to see it since they first saw the previews.  My son (7 months) just wants to see the pretty colours

The movie started with a short, Partly Cloudy.  Rumour has it that not all theatres showed the short, but if you get to see it, you’ll see how the stork gets the babies to deliver, and what happens when a misfit baby supplier gives one stork the less-than-lovable baby animals.

After that, we get into the movie proper.  Carl Fredrickson, an awkward child, dreams of being like his hero, explorer Charlse Muntz.  He meets the girl next door, Ellie, who shares his dream.  They get married and get old together, until Ellie dies with their dream unfulfilled.  Faced with a forced move to a retirement home, Carl instead ties a million helium balloons to his house to fly away to South America with stow-away scout Russel in tow.

I can’t say much more without spoiling the film, but I definitely recommend it to anyone with a family, or even those without.  Don’t forget to stay for the credits, where you’ll see pages from Carl and Ellie’s scrapbook, with each photo somehow related to the credit (for example, the Music Director’s page features Carl and Russel playing musical waterglasses).

It’s my first movie of the year, and we saw it in the cheap (non-3D) theatre, but I would definitely give it thumbs up.