Film Rating: A+

Every so often, a movie comes along that defines great cinema and shows the audience what the medium of film can truly do. These movies remind us why we love traveling to the theater, and why we haven't given up on the medium despite the fact that most films released today are utter garbage. This decade, most of these kinds of movies have come from Pixar Animation Studios, the greatest set of cinematic artists working today. Their new film, Up, is one of those magical movies that takes you to another world and moves you in a way you wouldn't think was possible. It's hands down Pixar's best film to date (that's the third year in a row I've said that statement), and is without a doubt one of the greatest films I've ever had the pleasure to see.

Up takes a simple concept and turns it into a thoroughly layered, incredibly exciting, uproariously funny, and immensely powerful story. Carl is a man who, along with his wife Ellie, has dreamed of adventure all his life; Ellie, sadly, has passed away, leaving Carl lonely and friendless. One day, he decides to go on the adventure they had always dreamed of: a trip to Paradise Falls in South America. He strings thousands of balloons on his house and goes up into the sky for a fantastic adventure.

Reading the above paragraph back to myself, I am deeply discouraged. That description doesn't do the film justice. Not by a long shot. Director Pete Doctor and his team, however, get the basic concept apart in the first ten minutes, mostly without dialogue. The montage showing the courtship and life of Carl and Ellie, from childhood to adulthood to Ellie's death, manages to be funny, uplifting, and ultimately tear-jerking. If you told me you watched this scene without tearing up, I'd call you a liar, and it's not the only scene in the movie where that sentiment applies.

I suppose the best way to describe Up is that it's bursting with creativity on all levels. The simple idea of using animation to tell the story of an eighty-year-old man is bold, but the ideas behind his adventure are incredibly inventive and poignant. The character of Russell, a young wilderness-obsessed Boy Scout stowaway on Carl's flying house, isn't there just to attract the kids: he's an essential part of the movie's plot and thematic material, a reflection of Carl at a younger age. The movie's army of talking dogs, led by the hilarious Dug, may very well be the most creative use of canines in a movie to date. Indeed, I think Dug's dialogue made me laugh harder than I have in a movie all year.

In fact, Up defines what may be Pixar's greatest asset: the way their movies seamlessly dance between humor and drama. While you may be laughing at Dug's antics, you'll simultaneously be feeling a deep connection to Carl and Russell, characters relatable on every level. When a movie gives us one totally realized character, it's quite a feat; when they give us two fully fleshed out creations, it's a wonder to behold, and Up proudly rides on the strength of its two leads.

The characters and the story are what make Up such a great movie; I highly doubt that any Pixar movie is put into production without the creative team having spent countless hours slaving over the plot. It's been fourteen years since Toy Story came out, and the animation in that film looks very primitive today; when watching it, however, you don't notice that because of the strength of the characters. Up works in the same way, except that the animation is stunningly beautiful. The environments are lush and detailed, the characters as expressive and nuanced as real people. But while watching, you don't notice that. I, for one, was caught up in the characters and the story, and the animation was merely an extension of that, as it should be.

Much has been made of the fact that the film is presented in select theaters in 3-D, and I did see the movie in that format. The 3-D doesn't water down the colors or the detail, and it doesn't try to draw you in with stupid gimmicks like having things fly out at the audience. The 3-D effect is simply an extension of the animation, which, in turn, is an extension of the story. Most of the time, I didn't even notice that the movie was 3-D; the depth drew me into the animation, the animation into the story, and once my mind was embedded in the story, it didn't want to come back out. That's what good 3-D should do, and Up exemplifies good 3-D. The flipside of that is that the 3-D is totally unnecessary; it doesn't make the film any better. It's simply a fun way to experience the film, a way I would recommend, though one I would never call essential. Lately, studios like DreamWorks have begun using 3-D as the sole marketing angle of their movies, making up for bad plots and paper-thin character with the 3-D gimmick, and the best thing I can say about Up is that it doesn't use the 3-D to make up for anything. Other studios should learn that lesson.

I've talked plenty about the characters, but I haven't yet mentioned the voice talents that bring them to life. Edward Asner is simply terrific as Carl; it's a very natural, down-to-earth performance that is incredibly powerful and touching. It's not surprising at all that Jordan Nagai, the youngster who voices Russell, is a child without any previous acting experience. His performance sounds totally realistic and never once fake or forced. Christopher Plummer is delightfully vicious as the film's antagonist, Charles F. Muntz. The film's co-director, Bob Petersen, voices the uproariously funny Dug, and as always, there's a hilarious John Ratzenburger cameo.

But just as important as any vocal performance is the musical score by Michael Giacchino, who has, I think, cemented himself as one of the best (if not the best) composers working today. The man has scored every episode of Lost, and over the past few years has churned out instant classic soundtracks to The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Speed Racer, and Star Trek, just to name a few. His score for Up is incredibly emotional and touching, and there's an underlying brilliance to it that I can barely describe. On the bonus features for the fourth season of Lost, Giacchino said that good music simply converts what the audience feels into sound, rather than telling the audience what to feel. All I can say is that his score for Up exemplifies exactly what he was talking about when he defined good music.

Up is a truly magical movie, full of moments that left a huge impression on me. For example, the scene where Carl takes off in his balloon-supported house will no doubt go down in cinematic history as one of the most jaw-dropping, awe-inspiring sequences ever produced. The action scenes, which I haven't even had room to talk about, are as thrilling as in any live action movie I've ever seen. It's an emotional power-house of a story, with plenty of humor and thrills along the way. A review cannot sum up what makes this movie so special; you have to see it for yourself, and do it as soon as possible. In 2-D, in 3-D, it doesn't matter.

The crowd I saw the movie with was ridiculously loud, chatty, and obnoxious, but when the film faded to black for a few seconds after we learned the fate of Carl's wife, they all fell silent and were polite for the rest of the running time. If that doesn't sum up the power of Up, I don't know what could.