[Locke]

Rewatched Up on 3D Bluray.

"My name is Dug. I have just met you, and I love you."

Speaking specifically as a Bluray, being that it is a relatively new animation outing by the juggernaut that is Pixar it was gonna be a given that the film looks great anyway and there is no need to really go into it any more than that. What I will say is the 3D was really spotty for me, my TV uses passive 3D and I have to sit 3D glasses over my own (it is not as uncomfortable as that probably reads) but Up is the first movie where I visibly noticed the backgrounds remained out of focus and weren't popping into 3D. I dunno whether it'd be different if you could see or if you had active 3D but I found this distracting in my experience from an otherwise visually splendid film.

And my God is visually splendid a term not up to scratch. The visuals are heavily stylised which I guess is the only real barrier for the audience but other than that, this is just Pixar working its magic once again. I dunno, I guess the great thing about Up's look is it's so...memorable. The image of the cosy pastoral house with the rainbow of balloons coming from the chimney as it floats through the clouds, it's an image you can see so vividly in your mind even after your first viewing. Up may have more emotional depth than it does narrative depth, but the films visuals are what cement this as truly unforgettable.

Honestly though, if I had to pick a word for Up, I wouldn't choose "unforgettable" but "transcendent". Yes Up's plot is paper thin, and held together with clichés but it's such an imaginative, emotionally rich cinematic landscape that it becomes less of a film, and more of an event.

Some films will make your lips quiver, they'll make you chuckle but that is about it, that is the height of your emotional response. Up is the kind of film, where when it makes you laugh, you bellow that laughter at the top of your lungs until tears run down your face and you have to pause the film to catch your breath. Up is the kind of film that when it makes you cry, it leaves you a blubbering mess ripping through boxes of tissues at a time until you have to pause the film to catch your breath. Up is a cinematic experience of the best kind. The ultimate adventure.

Then there are the characters, never before have I loved such a bunch of archetypes. Carl and Russell are nothing new, and neither is their dynamic but they're so richly drawn, feeling lived in and flawed in ways only real humans can be and the film makes us care for them so personally we love them despite their familiarity. In some ways maybe even because of it. The biggest props though, go to Kevin and Dug. One of which doesn't get a line of dialogue and the other where the whole joke is they do.

Some have claimed Up loses its way when it starts to "relax" into a more adventure driven story and if you think that...well done, you just missed the whole point of the damn movie. It's the best Pixar has ever been, every moment in Up feels refined, perfected and complete.

I've seen Up time and and time again in my life but this is the first time I've actually sat down and put my thoughts down on paper and I realised it's probably my most favourite film of all time, and that says something considering my massive love for Blade Runner. I'm so grateful to own it on Bluray so I can laugh and cry and go on this magical adventure over and over again.