Pixar’s UP is makig history tonight. It is the first animated film and first 3D film to ever open the Cannes Film Festival. That’s a pretty terrific start for Pixar’s 10th animated movie.  And while I haven’t seen the film yet (fingers crossed that I get to go to Cannes one day), I can barely contain my excitement for this film. Pixar just cant make a movie that is anything but spectacular. Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, Monster’s Inc, Cars, Ratatouille aside, Wall E is perfection. So as you can imagine, I have a a huge red circle around May 29th on my calendar just so I can count the days until UP opens.  The film is about an unlikely friendship between a 78 year old man and a 8 year old boy who journey to South America in the most unlikely of ways. The reviews of this film have started to fly in and as expected, Pixar has done it again:

Sukhdev Sandhu at the Telegraph: “The film, in its aerial beauty and its melancholic undertow, recalls Albert Lamorrise’s The Red Balloon and Hiyao Miyzaki’s Howl’s Moving Castle. No recent animated picture has been quite so suffused with an awareness of human mortality. A subplot, in which Carl and Russell try to protect a rare 13-foot bird nicknamed Kevin from a legendary hunter, ensures the film has enough breathtakingly exciting sequences for anyone who craves action as much as atmosphere…. the quality of writing, its delicious sound design, and the emotional punch it packs all make this one of Pixar’s finest achievements to date”

Michael Rechtshaffen, Hollywoord Reporter: “What gives ‘Up’ such a joyously buoyant lift is the refreshingly nongimmicky way in which the process has been incorporated into the big picture — and what a wonderful big picture it is….Winsome, touching and arguably the funniest Pixar effort ever, the gorgeously rendered, high-flying adventure is a tidy 90-minute distillation of all the signature touches that came before it. Bottom Line: Pixar again raises the bar to wondrous new heights.”

Todd, McCarthy, Variety: “…Pixar makes it either 9½ out of 10 or 10 for 10 with ‘Up,’ a captivating odd-couple adventure that becomes funnier and more exciting as it flies along ‘Up’ is universal in its appeal. At the same time, it may be the most subtle Pixar production to date in its use of color schemes, shapes, proportions, scale, contrast and balance, factors highlighted by the application of 3-D, which will be available at many initial engagements….Not long after comes an exquisite interlude that, in less than five minutes, encapsulates the life-long love affair between Carl Fredericksen and his wife Ellie in a manner worthy of even the most poetic of silent-film directors.”

(Image: Disney Pixar’s Up)