“Up” Pixar’s newest masterpiece comes out tomorrow on DVD and Blu-ray and if you haven’t seen this film I highly suggest you check it out, or since it is Pixar – just buy it already. You do know: anything put out buy Pixar should have reserved shelf space in any self-respecting geek’s household, after all this is the company that gave us one the of the greatest superhero films of all-time The Incredibles.
“Up” if your not familiar with the story, is the tale of a grumpy old man named Carl Fredricksen and an overeager Wilderness Explorer named Russell who fly to South America in a floating house suspended from helium balloons. Oh yeah, and there dogs that talk with the aid of high tech collars in the film as well. Up to me seemed like one of the more original Pixar films they have done, and one you simply have to see to believe how great it is. I can’t believe I almost passed this by originally when I read the synopsis, but after watching it I wondered how I could have ever doubted them after-all most studios would kill for Pixar’s track record of releases.
I recently had the opportunity to sit in on a junket with Director and Writer, Pete Docter(Toy Story 1+2, Monsters Inc. and Wall-E) and Co-Director and Writer, Bob Peterson(Finding Nemo and Ratatouille) and get some answers to some of my burning questions about “Up”  in anticipation for tomorrow’s DVD and Blu-ray release of the film. Warning spoilers are after the jump.
“Up” became the first animated film to open the Cannes Film Festival. Do you believe animated features are becoming accepted as a more serious artistic platform?
Pete Docter: We were very honored to be the first animated film to open the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. Walking around there, I kept picturing Hitchcock, Coppola, Truffaut; these big time directors… and US?!?! It seemed like some sort of mistake! But we do look at our work as filmmaking, just like any other film. And it’s nice to see the world looking at it that way as well.
What inspired the story of “Up”?
Bob Peterson: Various things, including the lives of our own grandparents. For example, I had a grandfather who always wanted to go west from Ohio, but never got the chance. I had the foresight to videotape my grandparents’ home after they had passed 20 years ago. There are the side-by-side chairs – one soft and one hard, which absolutely paralleled who they were as people. Many of our life experiences with our wives and children were put into play in the script, and of course living with our dogs gave us great insight into dog behavior!
As far as the animation style of “Up” goes, instead of going for “as close to realism as possible” kind of visuals, “Up” has an almost caricatured style, especially with the facial features highlighting big points, rather than looking like a human head. What influenced the style of “Up,” and why did you decide to go this route?
Pete Docter: The story called for Carl to float his house into the air buoyed by balloons. For that to be believable, we felt it would be necessary to caricature the world — and therefore the characters as well. I think if we made it look photo-real, you wouldn’t believe it as readily. We work in animation, so we can do things that can’t be done in any other medium. So the idea of simplifying and caricature is always exciting to me.

Was the choice of presenting the film in 3D a conscious decision from the beginning? How does it affect the production process?
Pete Docter: We started the process for “Up” in 2D, with the focus just on the story and the characters. It was about three years in that John Lasseter came to us and said, “Hey, there are some really cool new developments that have happened with 3D,” and of course Pixar had a long history of interest in 3D, John being one of the prime cheerleaders. He shot pictures of his own wedding in 3D, as well as “Knick Knack,” which is in 3D as well. So we did a ton of research, watching other 3D films, and made a list of things we liked and things we didn’t. I wanted to use 3D in a more subtle way. We used 3D as another tool to communicate the emotion of the scene, like you would use color, lighting, or cinematography. In the end, we didn’t let it affect the way we approached the story at all. I didn’t want to compromise the 2D version, which is the way it will be seen most often, considering DVD and Blu-ray.
Were you concerned at all with delivering such an emotional gut-punch so early in the first act?
Bob Peterson: We weren’t concerned as much as we were vigilant. We knew that we were traversing deep emotional terrain early in the film and we wanted to keep that thread of emotion alive as the film progressed. The reason we went so deep was because we wanted the audience to buy that Carl would lift his house and go on such an audacious adventure. We wanted to keep Ellie alive in the second and third acts, as if she were along for the journey, and so we created a few “talismans” to do so – objects with symbolic meanings – such as the adventure book, the house itself, the colorful sash on Russell (and his Ellie-like sense of adventure) and the colorful bird. At the end of the second act, when Carl reads the adventure book, Ellie is there to give him the wisdom to keep going. It was our hope that in keeping Ellie’s spirit alive throughout the film, her passing earlier would be more poignant.
What was your favorite sequence in the film, and why?
Pete Docter: I personally like the part we call “Married Life” — the wordless section showing Carl and Ellie’s life together. I think it plays to the strengths of film and animation in general, letting the visuals tell the story. And it seems to hit home for people. The bookend to this sequence is also one of my favorites — where Carl looks through Ellie’s adventure book (toward the end of the film).
Bob Peterson: Great question. The love story was the spine of the movie. When we develop these films we look for themes that guide us in how we tell the story. As the process of writing progressed, we realized that our main theme was “How does a person define adventure?” Is adventure out there in great deeds, or can it also be between people in the small moments that make up a life. Carl and Ellie’s love story helped us tell that theme – that small moments lead to a life’s adventure.

Of all the exotic locales in the world, why did you choose South America as the place of Carl and Russell’s big adventure?
Bob Peterson: We wanted our locale to reflect and resonate with Carl’s emotional state in the film. The tepuis, or table top mountains, of South America are old, isolated, rugged, and dangerous but with a soulful beauty – a pretty good description of Carl. Going there gave us a good sense of what it would be like for Carl and his friends to be up there. In the film, we used a great many plants and rock shapes that we saw from the tepui.
How was the idea for collars enabling dogs to talk arrived at? How much of it was comedy and how much of it was inspired by fact?
Bob Peterson: We knew we wanted to give Carl a new family including a new “grandson” and “family dog.” It was a gauntlet laid down in front of him to accept new people into his life. Before Russell was invented, we just had Dug along for the journey and it turned out to a pretty quiet journey. So we invented the collars. We love comedy and we knew that the collars would provide plenty of laughs, peering into our beloved canine friends’ brains. But more importantly, Dug is a mentor for Carl in that new relationships are always offered to us, and it is up to us to act on them.
What’s the most rewarding thing you’ve learned or taken from making this movie?
Pete Docter: Hmm, tough question. Overall I’d have to say that the best thing was the experience of making it — the research, the work, and most of all the amazing people we got to work with.
Pick up the film here! SQUIRREL!