First reviews in for Pixar’s Up

As we talked about last week, Up has the potential to be Pixar’s riskiest project yet, with the suspicion being that there’d be no end of critical plaudits, albeit with less certainty surrounding its box office potential.

Well, the film has now opened the Cannes Film Festival – a feat in itself to be asked, and the first animated film to do so – and the first verdicts on Up are coming through. And the word is good. Very good indeed.

Variety calls it “a captivating odd-couple adventure that becomes funnier and more exciting as it flies along”, noting one particular highlight being “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 director”. It concludes that it’s both very funny, and “an exceptionally refined picture”.

The Hollywood Reporter is singing from the same song sheet, calling Up a “wonderful big picture”, noting that it’s “winsome, touching and arguably the funniest Pixar effort ever” and “Chaplin-esque”. It also reckons that when it comes to box office potential with Up, “the sky’s the limit”.

Roger Ebert in his Chicago Sun-Times blog, meanwhile, also concurs that the film is “wonderful”, saying, “This is a story as tickling to the imagination as the magical animated films of my childhood.”

In fact, looking through the reviews this morning, it’s hard to find a note of dissent amongst them. US moviegoers can find out for themselves when the film goes on general release at the end of the month, while here in Blighty, we have to, guttingly, wait until October for the privilege.