Up

I like balloons. They slip, they slide, they float (okay, I admit this freaks me out a bit) and then when you finally pin the little bastards down and sink your teeth into them, they pop. If only squirrels were so accommodating! There are a lot of balloons in Up, which is one reason I liked it.

I also greatly enjoyed the liberal use of dogs (why do the good parts almost always seem to come along in animation? I used to be against cartoon dogs but now I'm rethinking that position) and the conceit that peoples’ ears could be adjusted to hear what dogs are thinking. Very clever! I don’t know if they got an actual dog to give the dogs’ dialogue a polish--it wasn’t me, anyway-- but I thought it was really well done. Some of the most realistic-sounding dog-talk I’ve heard in a movie (I know I’ve expressed my dislike of anthropomorphism before, but in this film the dogs are most certainly dogs). There’s a nice range of characters here and a really nice depiction of pack dynamics; I commend the filmmakers for their sensitivity to dog culture.

The one sour note was the fact no one chased down any of the balloons, but given the film’s other achievements I’ll accept it as a character choice. Oh, and they need to adjust the fit of the 3-D glasses to accommodate a wider range of species (I didn’t smell any cats in the theater though so maybe just a dog-friendly version would suffice). I couldn’t get mine comfortable.