know it's a late review for the movie Up, it's been 2 months since the first premiere in Cannes, but the movie just screened a few days ago in my country, Indonesia. Okay, here goes my initial thought for it: absolutely beautiful. In my life, I recall only few animated movies that could be considered as 'influential' and/or 'life-changing' (well, in fact, there are only two of them: Brad Bird's The Iron Giant, and Isao Takahata's Grave of the Fireflies) but today, as I've watched Up, I listed it as the third. It's a life-changing experience to see the movie. Yes, the effect brought by the movie was too powerful for me. In a sense, Up is typical of a more modern animated movie: rendered in high-tech CGI, featured in 3D and less dependent of hand-drawn character, but it does have something that modern cartoon couldn't offer: a story.
I know that animation movie shouldn't be compared to those of real-live movies. I mean, originally, animation movie wasn't meant to emphasized in the story. 
Most of the earliest cartoon were respected not for the story, but rather for their technical wonder and magic, Disney's Steamboat Willie and Silly Symphonies was a few example. They are famous because they pushed human life forward, technologically and culturally. But, it's no longer 1928, it's not the era of a mouse in red pants anymore. It's 2009, a time when 60 frames per second animation movie won't impress anyone. The technical wonderment once associated with animation movie is now getting irrelevant. Today's cartoon movie is not judged by fluid sequence of movement or the complexity of the making, but rather by the story and message it carried. 
Some successfully done it, and some flawed. For every Iron Giant made, there are more Bionicle: The Legend Reborn. For every Spirited Away, there are more Happily N’ever After. Today's animation movie – especially 2000s – depends heavily in over-simplified story, technological advance, and entertainment value without so much caring about characters, coherent plot and/or important message it could (and should) deliver.
Most of the earliest cartoon were respected not for the story, but rather for their technical wonder and magic, Disney's Steamboat Willie and Silly Symphonies was a few example. They are famous because they pushed human life forward, technologically and culturally. But, it's no longer 1928, it's not the era of a mouse in red pants anymore. It's 2009, a time when 60 frames per second animation movie won't impress anyone. The technical wonderment once associated with animation movie is now getting irrelevant. Today's cartoon movie is not judged by fluid sequence of movement or the complexity of the making, but rather by the story and message it carried. 
Some successfully done it, and some flawed. For every Iron Giant made, there are more Bionicle: The Legend Reborn. For every Spirited Away, there are more Happily N’ever After. Today's animation movie – especially 2000s – depends heavily in over-simplified story, technological advance, and entertainment value without so much caring about characters, coherent plot and/or important message it could (and should) deliver.
The two top animated movies of mine gave a clear example of the power in visual narrative like cartoon. You don't have to be realistic in cartoon world, for this world is about analogies and allusion. Imagination and big ideas. In fact, cartoon urged us to gave more thinking in the viewing process, because--like every neuroscientist said--our brain interpret visual stimulus NOT in literal way, but rather through the conception around it. 
When you see an apple in dinner table, you don't see an apple. The brain 'interrogates' the apple, and create a series of mental models around it according to your collection of discovery through various processing in your lifetime. A baby didn't see an apple like the way adults would have--because babies don't have any understanding of it yet, they are in different stage of cognitive development. And that's that about visual imagery like animated movies: it can be interpreted in so many ways. 
In the movie like Iron Giant, for example, we could ask, why did the alien have to be depicted as a giant robot instead of monster with fang or wings? The interpretation could've resulted in many hypothetical deductions. Maybe it was an allusion to the fear of technology, or maybe it was simply because robots are cool and could be accepted in larger audience segmentation. The guessing could be endless, the chance to exploration could be limitless and that's the magic of it. In animated movies, virtually, anything could happen. People can fly, cars can talk, clouds do have legs and arms, and so on, and so on. But the most successful animation in my opinion wasn't the one that gave too much room for explorations and wild guessing. Such animations could be wander aimlessly without any apparent context, that's pathetic. For me, the most successful animation was the one that allow the audiences to imagining things, yet in the same time gave an appropriate context and set some boundaries and mental models, so that the audiences won't get lost in the feast of colorful allusion and analogy it presented. Up did that. Gloriously.
When you see an apple in dinner table, you don't see an apple. The brain 'interrogates' the apple, and create a series of mental models around it according to your collection of discovery through various processing in your lifetime. A baby didn't see an apple like the way adults would have--because babies don't have any understanding of it yet, they are in different stage of cognitive development. And that's that about visual imagery like animated movies: it can be interpreted in so many ways. 
In the movie like Iron Giant, for example, we could ask, why did the alien have to be depicted as a giant robot instead of monster with fang or wings? The interpretation could've resulted in many hypothetical deductions. Maybe it was an allusion to the fear of technology, or maybe it was simply because robots are cool and could be accepted in larger audience segmentation. The guessing could be endless, the chance to exploration could be limitless and that's the magic of it. In animated movies, virtually, anything could happen. People can fly, cars can talk, clouds do have legs and arms, and so on, and so on. But the most successful animation in my opinion wasn't the one that gave too much room for explorations and wild guessing. Such animations could be wander aimlessly without any apparent context, that's pathetic. For me, the most successful animation was the one that allow the audiences to imagining things, yet in the same time gave an appropriate context and set some boundaries and mental models, so that the audiences won't get lost in the feast of colorful allusion and analogy it presented. Up did that. Gloriously.
For years and years I've been waited for a movie like Up. Kudos to the makers, they really know something about the power of animation. Up, though took setting in real world inhabited by human, didn't bind us to stay realistic and force us to thinking in linear way. 
In opposite, Up still gave us a room for imagination and wild wonderment. The very first scene of the movie even depicts an adventurer cruising a lost land--something that won't happen in our ordinary life. The rest of the movie just got better. A shy boy, Carl Fredericksen who had this great dream to be an adventurer, met a boyish-girl, Ellie, a member of Grape Soda club. A spark of love started to grow between them and OMG it's sweet. ("You don't talk much...I like you", said Ellie in one of the most memorable scene in the movie). The first 20 minutes of the movie dedicated to the love life of Carl and Ellie. Their wedding, their domestic life and their old age was told in a very honest and consummate way--and when Ellie passed away, wow, I can't believe I can drop tears again for a movie. After that, the story is getting more interesting. Carl, now lived alone, became a rude person and develop as strange, eccentric old-man. His meeting with a scoutboy, Russell, was so hilarious you'll laugh your ass off. (Oops, I should stop here, I won't give too much clue about the real story). Just keep in mind: when thousands of balloon popped out from Carl's chimney, you know you're in for a ride. This is a ride of life for me. Carl, in his old age, finally found his passion and happiness, and that teaches me a lot. There are differences between pleasure and happiness, they're dogs of different breed and Up told me how to recognize one from another. It is a movie about adventure and dream, about visual feast and technological celebration, about coherent narrative and powerful storytelling. Up is a colorful, funny, imaginative and heartwarming experience, the one that'll last in my mind forever.
In opposite, Up still gave us a room for imagination and wild wonderment. The very first scene of the movie even depicts an adventurer cruising a lost land--something that won't happen in our ordinary life. The rest of the movie just got better. A shy boy, Carl Fredericksen who had this great dream to be an adventurer, met a boyish-girl, Ellie, a member of Grape Soda club. A spark of love started to grow between them and OMG it's sweet. ("You don't talk much...I like you", said Ellie in one of the most memorable scene in the movie). The first 20 minutes of the movie dedicated to the love life of Carl and Ellie. Their wedding, their domestic life and their old age was told in a very honest and consummate way--and when Ellie passed away, wow, I can't believe I can drop tears again for a movie. After that, the story is getting more interesting. Carl, now lived alone, became a rude person and develop as strange, eccentric old-man. His meeting with a scoutboy, Russell, was so hilarious you'll laugh your ass off. (Oops, I should stop here, I won't give too much clue about the real story). Just keep in mind: when thousands of balloon popped out from Carl's chimney, you know you're in for a ride. This is a ride of life for me. Carl, in his old age, finally found his passion and happiness, and that teaches me a lot. There are differences between pleasure and happiness, they're dogs of different breed and Up told me how to recognize one from another. It is a movie about adventure and dream, about visual feast and technological celebration, about coherent narrative and powerful storytelling. Up is a colorful, funny, imaginative and heartwarming experience, the one that'll last in my mind forever. 
"Up still gave us a room for imagination and wild wonderment."
ReplyDeletestuju banget! bahkan sampe sekarang gue masih bisa menemukan beragam makna dan meaning yang bisa diambil dari film ini!
satu lagi yang baru gue dapet setelah liat gambar pertama dari post lo ini, si kakek yang "menyeret" his floating house...itu sperti dimana kita membawa mimpi-mimpi kita yang tinggi...di jalan si kakek menemukan banyak rintangan dan dibayar dengan beberapa balon yang pecah satu persatu, sang mimpi pun lama-lama semakin rendah dan semakin dekat ke tanah...