Up is Disney/Pixar’s latest film.  Released earlier this year to tons of hype I unfortunately never got to it in theatres, so I was excited to see it on Blu-ray the other day.  The plot of the story is that as a young boy Carl Fredrickson (Asner) is obsessed with an explorer who travels to South America.  He meets a girl who shares this obsession and they spend the rest of their life together always intending to go exploring themselves, but life always getting in the way.  Finally she passes on and Carl is an old man.  The entire neighborhood is being taken over by a developer and he’s about to lose the house he shared with his wife.  In a last ditch effort he attaches balloons to his house and flies it to South America, accidentally being joined by a Wilderness Scout named Russell.

Clearly Pixar hit this one out of the park again.  It would be hard to top Wall-E, but this manages.  The opening sequence may be one of the most moving cinematic sequences of all time.  It takes you through all the ups and downs of an entire life in a few minutes, and for characters you literally just met to connect to so strongly is a brilliant accomplishment.  The entire film I actually found bittersweet.  You have great comedic moments, but there’s many more sad or emotional moments.  Even with all the sadness the film manages to keep an upbeat attitude and still be something a kid would enjoy, while adults are still being artistically fulfilled.

I really cannot recommend this movie enough.  It’s nothing less than a brilliant work of art, Pixar once again elevating the animation medium to it’s highest of heights.  Everyone in the family will enjoy it on some level, from the littlest of kids to the oldest adults.

Also just a quick word, they did a wonderful thing releasing this on home video by putting it out on a 4 disc set.  The set contains a Blu-ray of the movie and extras, a second Blu-ray consisting of a ton of making of material, a DVD version of the first Blu-ray containing the movie and some extras so you can watch this even if you don’t currently have a Blu-ray player but are planning to get one someday, or you want to take it to a friend’s place, and a digital copy for an iPod or computer, or other digital device.  And it costs the same price as just buying the regular one disc DVD.

So check that out over at Amazon:

It’s also available on iTunes with iTunes Extras in HD: