Up

Keeping its penchant for building tales around unlikely protagonists (including imperiled ants, fish with issues, and a culinarily gifted rodent), Pixar places a widowed former balloon salesman at the fore of its 10th computer-animated feature, Up. Adorned with bright colors and stunning vistas, the film, directed by Pete Docter (Monsters, Inc.), follows cranky, square-faced Carl Fredricksen (voiced by TV icon Ed Asner) as he attempts to live out the dream of his late wife by journeying to Venezuela, using his balloon-lifted home as a nostalgia-weighed means of transportation. A cherubic stowaway, a giant tropical bird, and a dopey talking dog all factor into the helium-borne adventure, but the movie is truly anchored by its small details, including the textures (fabric, wood, etc.) of the many things that inhabit Carl's memory-filled home. If this all sounds like an odd, melancholy mix that doesn't quite fit together, well, it is--Up lacks the narrative focus of fellow Pixar movies such as Finding Nemo and Wall-E, and may have been better served as one of the company's impressive shorts. However, what Up lacks in cohesiveness, it partially compensates for with gentle humor and genuine emotion. Oh, and make sure to have Kleenex on hand--the first few minutes are disarmingly poignant and heartbreaking.