CG films particularly look great in 1080p, but there is something about Pixar films that's even more special. Their attention to detail simply pops in HD. For UP, when Carl and Russell head to South America, the richness of the jungle landscapes they created allows the audience to get lost in the world. The colors are so vibrant, especially the feathers of Kevin, the mysterious bird. Additionally, the 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtrack just adds to the experience. Carl and Russell's flight through the storm is a moment where the sound just envelops you. These are the kind of moments with good home theater systems you can understand why people are beginning to prefer watching films at home instead of the theaters, where cheap theater owners dim the light in the projectors and haven't updated their audio systems in decades.
The disc is also cock full of great special features. Director Pete Docter and co-director Bob Peterson's commentary track is supplemented with production artwork, clips and doc footage to contrast the final CG film with its inspirations along the way. Docter and Peterson delve into the thought process that went into each of the film's moments. There's also two great features that chronicle the changing development of the antagonist Muntz and the classic Married Life sequence. Through storyboards, we see the various fates that the Pixar artists worked on for the obsessed Muntz. As for Married Life, the sequence started out in a totally different direction.
The disc also has two shorts — PARTLY CLOUDY (the short that played before UP in theaters) and the new DUG'S SECRET MISSION. MISSION is simply a series of gags featuring Dug, Alpha and his henchmen leading up to Dug meeting Carl and Russell.
As for featurettes, it's loaded with one informative one after another. Each one goes into the details of the production and creates a greater respect for what the filmmakers accomplished. "Adventure is Out There" follows the Pixar artists on their trip to the tepuis mountains of South America to research the design. It's amazing to see where many of the inspirations for the film came from. Each one of the main characters — Carl, Dug, Russell, and Kevin — get their own featurette, giving fans more info on the who, what, where, when and how these characters came about. "Homemakers of Pixar " shows the development of Carl and Ellie’s house and how it was used as a character as well. "Balloons and Flight" deals with the use of balloons in the film and reveals the original plans for how Carl was going to get his house in the air. In "Composing for Characters," composer Michael Giacchino runs through how he develops and twists the theme songs of the characters for the changing mood of the story.
"Global Guardian Badge Game" is a fun BD-Live geography game. Discover how little you remember from 8th grade in this interactive game. One note — good luck stopping the cursor on smaller states and countries.
As one of the premiere films of 2009, this is a must buy disc.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
