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TechnoratiUp is an animated film for grown-ups. Sure, it has a main character who is a child, funny talking dogs (sort of), and a fantasy element that requires a substantial suspension of disbelief – so don’t be surprised that families are drawn to it as well. Pixar movies are magnetic. They have the power to attract, even when the source of the pull is not immediately evident. Certainly Up has its share of snappy visuals; the 3-D version is particularly beautiful. But it is Pixar’s craftsmanship in showing us a story about the perils and promises of aging that makes Up rise above its animated rivals in its ability to strike an emotional chord that floats across any demographic divide. Kids will like it; but it will deeply touch adults.
Carl Fredrickson is a retired balloon salesman whose biggest adventure in life is getting out of bed, making it down the stairs to the kitchen, and then completing the arduous trek from the kitchen to a chair on his front porch. He spends the rest of his day watching infomercials. And while he is a fearsome guardian of his late wife’s memory, mostly he is just waiting to die. But, at often happens when we think we know how things are going to be, life intrudes, and Carl finds himself swept into an adventure of a lifetime. Not bad for a 78-year-old.
There is a two-tiered error into which our youth-obsessed culture has fallen concerning the elderly, and Up poignantly illuminates its folly. The first is the myth of retirement. The second is our irrational fear of death and how it affects the way we navigate the latter days of our lives. As Patricia Jung points out in her essay, contained in a must-read book for baby boomers, Growing Old in Christ, “Why do we persist in stereotyping the elderly as ‘over the hill’? Partly this is a consequence of not being able to imagine that such aging has any purpose.” Is there meaningful life after 70? Up emphatically says “Yes.”
Going Nowhere or Going Somewhere
When we first meet Carl, he is a quiet, yet adventurous boy. He meets Ellie, the spunky girl from his neighborhood who has crafted her own Adventure Book. She makes him promise (“Cross your heart!”) that he will someday take her to South America so that they can set down their Explorer Clubhouse right next to the thundering Paradise Falls. She has saved out the majority of the pages in her book to fill with all of the wondrous things they will discover. In a beautiful montage that takes only a few short minutes at the beginning of the film, we watch Carl grow up before our eyes. Still a man of few words, he marries Ellie (and the look on his face shows that he cannot believe his good fortune). Together they work at the zoo. She handles exotic birds and he sells balloons. Together they rebuild their dilapidated clubhouse into a proper home, dream together, suffer loss, and, as a kind of therapy, determine to get to Paradise Falls together. Unfortunately, life keeps getting in the way. Roof repairs and blown tires keep emptying their Paradise Falls account. Despite all their planning, it seems as if they are going nowhere. Finally, the day Carl manages to purchase tickets to South America, Ellie becomes desperately ill. Realizing that she will never recover, she passes her Adventure Book to Carl. He hopes that he can fill in the rest of it for her.
When Ellie dies, Carl returns to their house, which becomes a shrine to what he had. As the years pass, all of the property around him has become a construction site for a downtown development, but Carl has refused to sell out. While machines rumble by, kicking up dirt, Carl carefully dusts the items on the mantle, making certain to put them back just so. Ellie and Carl’s chairs are just as they were on the day she left for the hospital. The house is a museum, with no room for anything or anyone new. Carl cannot even be bothered to work with eight-year-old Russell, a Junior Wilderness Explorer who knocks on his door to “be of assistance.” And when Carl’s treasured mailbox, decorated with the faded paint of his and Ellie’s handprints, is knocked loose by a careless construction worker, Carl loses it and strikes the man with his walking cane. The developers seize their chance, take Carl to court, and he is remanded to the care of a retirement home. All that he holds dear is about to be taken from him.Continue »
Dr. Marc T. Newman, president of MovieMinistry.com, helps Christians use film to reach others with the Gospel. He also teaches in the School of Communication and the Arts at Regent University.
