Going ‘Up!’
"Up"
By James Allen | Entertainment Editor
After the success of “WALL×E,” Disney-Pixar will release “Up,” the latest creation from the greats minds who brought us “Finding Nemo,” “Toy Story” and “Monster’s Inc.” Director Pete Doctor, who was also the director of “Monster’s Inc.”, contacted The Reflector and several other college newspapers to perform an over-the-phone press conference from Skywalker Ranch where he and the Pixar crew are doing final mixing for the movie.
According to the Internet Movie Data Base (imdb.com), the new movie “Up” features a 78-year-old man, Carl Fredricksen, who after being placed in assisted living puts thousands of balloons on his house and sets out to see the wilds of South America. Right after lifting off, however, he learns he isn’t alone on his journey, since Russell, a wilderness explorer 70 years his junior, has inadvertently become a stowaway on the trip.
According to Doctor, the concept of “Up” came out of a stressed day brainstorming with writer/co-director Bob Peterson.
“Going backwards, I guess it was about five years ago that Bob Peterson and I were sitting in a room thinking about what movie we wanted to make,” Doctor said. “One of the things for me definitely, I’m not an extrovert so by the end of the day I just want to crawl under my desk and rock quietly in a corner. The idea of getting away from it all was really appealing…I think I just drew this picture of a house floating with balloons.”
From there Doctor and Peterson took off to imaging Carl and his stow away in the house, eight-year-old Russell, and the adventure that would ensue from there.
New graphic programs were made to create not only the fabric of the characters, but also the balloons themselves, to make this animated work act as natural and as close to reality as possible. The fabric has to adapt to the movement of the very cartoon-ish in size Carl and the balloons had to adapt to the wind and contact with other balloons.
When it comes to the creative aspects of the story, the writers choose a very archetypal relationship between the two main characters, Carl and Russell. Even though they are not related and are 70 years in age apart, they resemble a grandfather-grandson relationship that Doctor and Peterson really wanted to explore.
Doctor bases some of the relationship decisions in the characters off of a few friendships he’s made with some of the great Disney founders and original cartoonist, such as the late Joe Grant, who was heavily involved in the creation of “Pinocchio,” “Dumbo” and “Fantasia.” Doctor also commented that when making films, he doesn’t necessarily view the experience of movies in a socio-economic way, but he definitely loves to create places and environments that relate to the audience as a whole.
“On some fundamental level, there’s an emotional truth and a reality that resonates with my own life,” Doctor said. “So even though we’re watching a film about toys or monsters or fish or whatever, there is something about [the characters] and the way they’re acting that speaks to me and my experience. And so at its core, and this is something we work really hard on at Pixar, is finding what is the sort of foundational elements that relates to all us in the audience.”
“Up” will be released on May 29, 2009. The film also will be the first Pixar film available in 3-D.
