The story begins with a time from Carl Fredrickson’s childhood. He is sitting in the movie theater and watching a film about a famous explorer named Charles Muntz. Muntz has found a giant bird skeleton—except that others deem it fake.

Shortly after, Carl meets this enthusiastic girl around his age, Ellie. Despite Ellie’s upbeat personality, Carl struggles to speak around her. He actually has strong feelings for her.

Ellie loves to explore and even has an adventure scrapbook that she shares with Carl. At some point, Carl lets go of his balloon, although it ends up in the attic of Ellie’s house. But on the other side where there is nothing but a long plank of wood to connect it. Ellie has Carl walk across that… until he gets injured. But he recovers.

Years have passed. Ellie and Carl get married. They spend some quality time together as decades go by.

Unfortunately, Ellie gets really sick. While in the hospital, she gives Carl her scrapbook. Then she meets her demise.

Some more time has passed since then. Carl is now in his late 70s. There is construction going on in his neighborhood. And it drives him crazy.

There is also this little boy named Russell. He is a boy scout and is trying to earn his badge for assisting an elderly person. But Carl won’t accept his help.

Sometime later, a guy accidentally knocks down Carl’s mailbox. Carl gets mad and hits the man, which causes him to bleed. Then he gets in legal trouble and goes to court. The court decides to have Carl go to a retirement home.

When some retirement staff come to pick Carl up, he pretends to accept it. The truth is that he and Ellie have been saving up money to go to Paradise Falls in South America for many years. The plan fell short when Ellie died, though.

Carl attaches a bunch of inflated balloons to his house, and it make it float away into the sky. Carl not only wants to avoid going to the retirement home but also yearns to go to Paradise Falls.

While in the sky, Carl discovers that Russell is there, too—on his porch. Of course, this startles him. Russell, however, is excited. He even talks about the different types of clouds they encounter.

However, a storm occurs, and the house gets out of control because of it. Later, Carl and Russell have landed somewhere. They are in the South American wilderness.

Carl is still determined to get to Paradise Falls. Russell also aids him as they attach themselves with ropes outside the house and take it with them.

Along the way, Russell meets this large, flightless bird that he names Kevin. He forms a bond with him—but Carl won’t accept the bird.

They also hear a voice that they think is from a man. But it turns out to be a dog, who is wearing a device that transforms his actions and thoughts into words. The dog’s name is Dug, and he ends up joining Carl, Russell, and Kevin.

However, they encounter a bunch of aggressive dogs that are also wearing speaking devices like Dug. Then a strange man tells them to stop. That guy is none other than Charles Muntz.

Carl is excited to meet him. And he seems okay at first. He even offers Carl and Russell some dinner.

Unfortunately, his true colors show. He tries to hurt not only Carl and Russell but also Kevin. His dogs want to hurt Dug.

Carl, Russell, Kevin, and Dug escape. While on the run, Russell discovers that Kevin is actually a female bird since she has babies that are calling her. Carl is willing to take her home.

But she gets captured by Muntz, who also sets Carl’s house on fire. He does everything he can to take it out using just a stick.

Despite succeeding with that, things go downhill for him, Russell, Kevin, and Dug. Can they still turn things around, though?

This movie kept me more engaged than I predicted. I also did not expect it to be funny. I laughed a lot throughout the film.

There were many other aspects of this movie that I enjoyed. First, the concept—it was creative, in spite of being unbelievable in a lot of ways. But hey—it’s a cartoon. Obviously, no one would get away with getting their house to float up into the sky in real life.

Which brings me to my next thought: Carl was more likable than I expected. I thought he was going to be a stereotypical cranky old man. But he turned out to be better than that, even with Russell.

Although they didn’t plan to travel together, Carl would protect Russell several times. Russell was cute, smart, and bubbly. I especially admired his goal to get badges to help an old person and to explore the wilderness. His bond with Kevin was particularly sweet.

And I cannot emphasize enough how creative it was for Disney and Pixar to have the dogs “speak” through devices. Those gadgets that translated their actions and thoughts into human language was so intelligent and out-of-the-box.

Some people consider talking animals to be childish and cliched, although it depends on the story. Disney is known for talking animals in their films, but they very rarely speak to people. That is why I admire their approach to getting the dogs to communicate with each other and the humans. In fact, I think it was an accurate depiction.

Like with any good movie, this one had lots of twists and turns. That being said, there were some loose ends and unresolved moments. But they were minor.

Overall, I enjoyed Up. It was a fun movie with memorable characters and adventures.

I give it 5 out of 5 stars.