Where Viewed: On DVD, at home.
Experience with Film: I LOVE THIS MOVIE
Writer: Pete Docter and Bob Peterson
Director: Pete Docter and Bob Peterson
Principal (Voice) Actors: Ed Asner, Jordan Nagai
What I want to talk about every time I see UP is the montage that covers the decades of Carl and Ellie’s marriage from the bloom-of-youth nuptials to Ellie’s decline, death, and Carl’s subsequent estrangement from the world. I’ve used it in every screenwriting course I’ve taught. I openly cry when I watch it. A beautiful example of visual storytelling. But that’s not what I’m going to talk about here. Instead, let’s look at the two (Nearly) Unforgivable Cliches that UP manages to brush off. The first is Corkboard of Craziness; the second is the Air Vent Escape. This former is used to reveal a character’s obsession or unhinged nature by showing a cork board filled with pictures and news clippings connected via red yarn or marker lines. We see this when disgraced explorer Charles Muntz expositions through his experiences with The Bird, telling us that she lives in the stone labyrinth. The latter is one of the most overused, laughable devices in all movie-dom. The hero, attempting to escape immediate danger or desiring to break into/out of an impregnable fortress or needing to stealthily explore an interior, simply locates the nearest air vent, climbs in, and exits to safety (or the secret control room). Kinda like the Whistle Warp in Mario 3. In UP, our heroes use a convenient air vent to escape pursuit by Muntz’s canine minion in the dirigible. Both (Nearly) Unforgivable Cliches are groaners. But UP manages to avoid the greasy stink of cliches by barely making them plot points. The movie devotes maybe 12 seconds total to them both–it doesn’t dwell on them, it doesn’t give the audience time to register that they’re there. Usually filmmakers draw attention to these cliches by making them seem clever or revelatory, whereas UP uses them as brief throwaway devices to impart a small piece of information and maintain a breakneck pace, respectively.
FADE OUT 