Up is an animated flick from the fine folks at Pixar, about a senile old man who accidentally kidnaps a young boy as he flies his house to South America.

The film does not mess about, and chucks you right in at the deep end, to the point where I would say that it moves too quickly. This continues throughout most of the film, with things seemingly happening far too easily, and lots of happy coincidences. If you imagine a film with nice pacing is like drinking a lovely smooth cup of hot chocolate, Up is like drinking a mug of hot chocolate that hasn't been stirred properly. It's lumpy.

At the start, we're treated to a montage of a little boy and girl who meet and then grow old together. They have the kind of happy life you would expect of a Pixar film: meet as kids, fall in love, get married, get pregnant, lose the baby, have a picnic. Wait, what was that? Oh yeah, there's some really dark and adult themes in this film, which came as quite a surprise. Along with the miscarriage, there's a social commentary on old age, commercialism, and even the little boy's dad doesn't love him. There's also blood, which I found even more shocking than the miscarriage. Spontaneous abortion sounds like something Pixar might do.

While it was refreshing to see, I couldn't help but feel they didn't make the most of their new-found seriousness, though I don't know if this was because they didn't know how to, or they remembered they were supposed to be making a kids' film.

I laughed a lot when I watched this. Like most other animated films, it's very quirky. Also, like most other animated films, there's a lot of over-the-top action sequences. I'm kind of fed up with these now, as they appear in all animated films, and they aren't needed most of the time. Just because you can do something, doesn't mean you have to. It just makes it very predictable.

The film looks really good, both in style and quality, though some of the physics of the whole thing don't make any sense. I personally found it quite irritating that it took so many liberties and contradicted itself on numerous occasions, though I am a big fan of gravity.

On the whole, I found the film brilliant visually, and very funny, but it just felt all too familiar. There's not really anything original here, and what little new territory it does attempt to tread, it gives up on pretty quickly. Add to that the pacing feels clunky, and you're left with an experience that's just not satisfying.

I wish that it really was about a senile old man who kidnaps a young boy and takes him to South America. Someone get Robert Rodriguez on the job. Danny Trejo can play the dog.