...and Away

We went to Pixar's UP today.  I read a review of it in the New Yorker  by David Denby that made me need to see it.  It is an absolutely gorgeous film:  full of wit, and an achingly bittersweet understanding of the sweet pain of lost youth and opportunity, and the need to let go and look forward.   It's also got a really fun sense of silliness:  the evil minions in the film are all dogs, and they have all of that species' sweet and eager single-mindedness.  I was telling my son Spencer that the main take-away from the movie was "don't use dogs as evil minions" - you can't trust them not to go for the ball.

My favorite moment though, which I wish I could get a still of, is when the old guy, beautifully voiced by Ed Asner, has decided to rescue the kid and and bird, and throws all his old furniture out so that his house can float again.  In the earlier part of the film, he had created a steering mechanism with his old victrola and a crank - now he's lost all this and he is steering his floating house with two ropes wrapped around his decrepit old body - it's positively heroic, and stunningly human and frail at the same time.

It's a great film - see it.