Up reviewed

This is really obvious but I really like the Pixar movies.  Everyone of one them that I see (barring Monsters Inc. and A Bug's Life since I haven't seen them) I, at the very worst, like and some of them I love very much, like Wall-E.  However, my hopes were not high when I sat down to watch Up.  For one thing, the very first promotional photo that Pixar gave me visions of Waterworld, but in the air...which isn't a bad thing since I love Waterworld. When I read the plot though, it didn't sound like Air Waterworld at all.  And then I saw Wall-E, which is the absolute pinnacle of Pixar, CGI-Animated movies and 2008 movies which made me think, "How could Pixar follow-up?"  So did they do it in a successful way?  Let's find out as we dig into Up.

The movie revolves around Carl Fredrickson, an elderly man, who recently lost his wife.  They made a promise to go to Paradise Falls in South America but life always got in the way.  Now Carl, grumpy and alone, has lost his house due to some horribly non-wacky hijinks and is due to be sent to a retirement home.  So he gets a lot of balloons and heads down to Paradise Falls but somehow he got an Asian Wilderness Explorer Scout in his house.  Eventually they make it, but the adventure is only beginning.

There is one thing that Up has that stands head and shoulders over the rest of Pixar's films.  That thing is Carl, who is the best human protagonist in a Pixar movie, granted the only real competition is Mr. Incredible from The Incredibles.  His character arc is one of the best that Pixar has ever done starting him as a nice, optimistic and caring husband down to a grumpy old guy back to caring due to his many lessons learned at Paradise Falls.  Carl is truly, one of the most fully realized characters that Pixar has ever created and certainly the best human one.

What really sells this is the voice-acting, especially by Ed Asner who voices Carl.  Not once did I think of Carl as Ed Asner or even Cosgrove even though I would kill to hear this "Hey Freakazoid, you wanna help me put balloons on my house so I can get to South America?"  He injects Carl with the humanity and pathos of his journey so well that Carl wouldn't have worked half as well if it wasn't for Asner.  Another character of note is Dug, the dog voiced by co-director Bob Petersen who's the funniest thing about the movie.  Dug is both a Cloud Cuckoolander and Captain Obvious but it totally works and Petersen plays it to perfecSQUIRREL....heh, heh sorry.

However, there are some flaws that do drag Up down.  First of all, it's a bit too short.  The last few Pixar movies have been over 100 minutes, giving the various stories time to breathe and feel real.  Up clocks in at 96 minutes and by the second half I felt things were a bit too rushed as everything gets wrapped up in a neat bow.  I probably won't have much of a problem if this came out before the epics like Incredibles or Wall-E but after them, it just looks like a step back.  Also, this kinda does suffer from some logic-holes that I saw during the movie.  I know about Suspension of Disbelief and moving the story along but it just kinda bothered me.

In the end though, Up was really good even though it ranks in the middle of Pixar films.  It succeeds at everything it sets out to do and it plucks the right emotions with one of Pixar's best characters.  It does misstep in the second half and there's some stuff I never quite liked but that's just fairly minor quibbles.  It might not be as good as the Toy Stories, Cars or Wall-E but it is still great family entertainment.

8/10

Kingdom Hearts reviewed

I want you to imagine two things, the first thing is that you are back in the year 2001.  Then I want you to imagine you first hearing that Disney and Square were teaming up to make a video game where Donald Duck was a magician and Goofy was a knight.  And then the hero's weapon was a huge key that functioned as a sword.  Futhermore, some Final Fantasy characters were going to be there as well!  You would be thinking that would be the end of Square and make Disney a bigger laughing stock they were then.  In fact, you probably wanted to buy it just to see how laughable this game but there was one problem.  The game wasn't laughable at all....it was pretty awesome.  With your mind blown, let's dig into Kingdom Hearts.

The universe is in pretty deep trouble.  Evil shadowy creatures called The Heartless has been destroying the borders that kept the worlds separate.  Then with the walls gone The Heartless found the keyholes to the various worlds which they flood and destroy erasing that world.  Well, King Mickey Mouse isn't going to have any of that but he disappears and mails a letter to Donald and Goofy to find the Keybearer and save the universe.  Meanwhile, we have our main character Sora from Destiny Islands with his best friends Riku and Kairi.  However, The Heartless destroys the islands which sends Sora into the same path as Donald and Goofy...also, he's the Keybearer.  So now it's a quest to save the universe, find King Micky and find Riku & Kairi.

You got all that?  As you can see this game is pretty epic.  Now what sets that apart from every other epic RPG?  It doesn't start off that way.  I'm not saying it starts off as fluffy since there's nothing fluffy about a destroyed homeland and being separated from your friends but it starts off more humorous than epic with Donald and Goofy's wacky antics.  Even the early worlds don't really advance the plot that much as you just solve whatever worlds problems.  However, around halfway through the humor stops, the plot goes into full-tilt darkness and the relationships between Riku & Kairi have radically changed.  The change is almost so subtle that you won't notice it when it's happening but only when thinking about it.

Another strength of the game is the battle system.  It's like a combination of Legend of Zelda's 3-D batle system and Secret of Mana's in which there's no battle screen but you do have your stats and some rudimentary decisions to make like what magic and items to use.  You could just mash the attack button and you would be able to do fine, not great but good enough to live.  Now some may think that button mashing is a bad thing and while it is to an extent, here that's not the case since the enemies have enough variety to them to still provide some challenge.

Hell, I even think the gummi ship levels are pretty cool.  I know most people don't like them and they have their own extremely valid reasons but it's not so bad once you get the warp piece and the best engine making those levels immeasurably shorter.  What really gets me about these levels are the backgrounds, as you go deeper in it gets darker and more nightmarish as all color slowly drains away into the darkest place known to man.  Yeah, people do complain it's too slow and too Star-Foxy but those are easily overcome flaws in the bigger scope of things.

This game is pretty damn awesome considering it's pedigree and how it came together.  The battle system is one of the best I played.  The story is awesome, especially as it gets towards the end.  The voice-work is pretty good since they have some of the original voice-overs, great imitators and Billy Zane, which is awesome.  If I really wanted to I could nitpick like some of the weak voices-acting, the weak camera, some dangling plot threads and the beginning of the gummi levels but they're not big enough deals for me to hate on.  If you haven't played this game yet....geez, you're more behind the curve than I am.

10/10