Up

**** (PG)Director: Peter Docter and Bob Peterson.Cast: Voices of Ed Asner, Christopher Plummer, Jordan Nagai, Bob Peterson.PIXAR - the boffins who gave us Toy Story and The Incredibles - are yet to make a bad film. Even their lesser movies (Cars and Ratatouille) are entertaining and enjoyable.The animation studio has continued its winning streak with Up, but be warned - this is the strangest, darkest and most mature of its films to date.In a rarity for a film predominantly aimed at kids, the hero is a senior citizen, the recently widowed 78-year-old Carl Fredricksen, who is lost without his late wife Ellie and fighting a losing battle against developers who want to buy his house.Using his ingenuity and experience as a balloon salesman, Carl turns his house into an airship and heads for Paradise Falls, South America - a place he and his wife dreamed of visiting since they were children.But eager boy scout Russell inadvertently tags along, dragging Carl into all manner of strange adventures involving talking dogs, bizarre birds and eccentric explorers.Up is bizarre and easily the most surreal thing Pixar has ever done. Like Ratatouille, with its master chef rodent, it requires a fairly hefty suspension of belief. A flying house? Canines that speak? Geriatrics doing some serious stunt work without breaking a hip or having a heart attack?It's the main geriatric, the loveable curmudgeon Carl (voiced wonderfully by Asner), that keeps Up aloft amid the absurdity. His emotional journey holds it together in between the laugh-out-loud slapstick moments and the comic relief of Dug the Dog.A beautifully handled montage of Carl and Ellie's life together will have you in tears before the first act has even properly started, making you like Carl in spite of the fact he's a grumpy old bugger.As with Pixar's best films - The Incredibles and WALL-E - Up is a well layered film. Carl's house is an obvious but touching symbol as he literally drags it through the jungle, while his relationship with talkative youngster Russell is subtle but affecting.Up is as flawed as Ratatouille but immensely more enjoyable. Pixar again prove that story and characters are their stock in trade - they just happen to decorate them in spectacular computer-generated animation.