Overview
Up is a 2009 American animated comedy-drama adventure film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The film was directed by Pete Docter, co-directed by Bob Peterson, and produced by Jonas Rivera. Docter and Peterson also wrote the film's screenplay and story, with Tom McCarthy co-writing the latter. The film stars the voices of Ed Asner, Christopher Plummer, Jordan Nagai, and Bob Peterson. The film centers on Carl Fredricksen (Asner), an elderly widower who travels to South America with wilderness explorer Russell (Nagai) in order to fulfill a promise that he made to his late wife Ellie. Along the way, they meet a talking dog named Dug (Peterson) and encounter a giant bird named Kevin, who is being hunted by the explorer Charles Muntz (Plummer), whom Carl had idolized in childhood.
Originally titled Heliums, Docter conceived the outline for Up in 2004 based on fantasies of escaping from life when it became too irritating. He and eleven other Pixar artists spent three days in Venezuela for research and inspiration. The designs of the characters were caricatured and stylized considerably, and animators were challenged with creating realistic cloth. Composer Michael Giacchino composed the film's score. It was Pixar's first film to be presented in 3D format.
Up debuted at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival on May 13, 2009, and was released in the United States on May 29. The film received acclaim for its screenplay, animation, characters, themes, narrative, humor, Asner's vocal performance, Giacchino's musical score, and the opening sequence, with organizations like the National Board of Review and American Film Institute naming Up as one of the top ten films of 2009. It earned $735.1 million worldwide, finishing its theatrical run as the sixth-highest-grossing film of 2009. Up was nominated for five awards at the 82nd Academy Awards, winning two, and received numerous other accolades. Among these, it became the second animated film in history to receive a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture, ultimately losing to The Hurt Locker. A short-form series, Dug Days, premiered on Disney+ on September 1, 2021.
Plot
From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).
