The thing is though, it's a bit of a strange concept. The main characters are a 78 year old man, a fat kid, and a dog who has a collar that reads his mind and talks for him in an amusing English accent. Check them out:
The story begins when old man Carl there takes off to South America by attaching balloons to his log cabin and riding the winds. Only he forgot that Boy Scout Russel had just been at the door trying to do good deeds so he ends up coming along for the ride too. Looks like things go a bit tits up along the way and they get lost, find Dug the dog, and fall into all manner of thrilling adventures.
So not really your average kind of animated family film. No large cast of talking animals here (see Over the Hedge, Madagascar, Bee Movie, Shark Tale, Kung Fu Panda, Antz, A Bugs Life and on and on and on and on and ON) No, this seems to be another risky film from Pixar, following on from the equally risky WALL-E of last year. A film were there's practically no speech for the first 30-40 minutes and, lets be honest, not a lot of story presented in that time either. Kids could have easily got bored by that fact but it's a credit to Pixar that they managed to create such an amazing, naturally funny character as WALL-E who makes us all laugh and not care that there's actually not a lot happening. Basically a pattern seems to be emerging. If you want a blockbuster style film with crazy characters voiced by A-List celebrities watch a Dreamworks film. If you want innovative ideas with an underlying, thought-provoking message then you want Pixar's offerings.
That being said, it still seems an odd choice to base this type of film around an old man. Can you really see kids going to school with Carl on their lunchboxes or buying Carl soft toys to take to bed with them? Merchandising makes A LOT of profit for films like this and it strikes me that in this area Up will not be as successful as similar films in the past. Maybe they'll want to centre the merchandise around Dug instead as he's at least a more conventional character. He is a talking animal after all.
Ultimately none of that really matters to me though if the film is still funny and entertaining. Up hits cinema screens in the UK on October 16th a full FOUR AND A HALF MONTHS after it's American release. Which is ridiculous. However judging by the trailer, it'll be worth the wait:
