Pixar's UPisodes

[Hamburglar]

A little over a month til the movie comes out...sweeet! And to keep us busy, Pixar's released a ton of clips called "The Adventures of Carl & Russell" - which are freakin hilarious.

Check 'em out -

UPisode #1: http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810014785/video/12689034

#2: http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810014785/video/12689034

#3: http://www.moviefone.com/movie/up/30...ap/18514162001

Can't decide which one is my favorite - think I like the 3rd....because who can resist chocolate? :P

[Bageara]

The first aid upisode is on gamecrapping for download in 1080p PS3-compatable MP4...looks nice

[Batman1980]

Yay this one looks like it will be a lot better than Wall-E, at least I hope so!

[EvilGamerX]

It is awesome. Though I still need to see the other half of the movie, haha.

[zahinn]

These look too cute....
The first Teaser for UP was horrible -_-, thought I would end up hating this movie..these eps really changed my mind ^.^

[Hamburglar]

Well, the first teaser didn't show much about the movie, except for the awesome animation with all those balloons. Then they kind of slowly built it up, introducing us to the story and the characters little by little...and now it looks like another winner from Pixar

[Borris]

I was fortunate enough to be at a screening of this last week.

Here are my thoughts...

[Show spoiler]The beginning of the movie couldn't be any better. It tells a love story of Carl and Ellie in the first ten minutes of the film that Wall*E couldn't quite affectively accomplish in its entire runtime (also without using any dialog). I really felt the plot dips soon after Carl reaches South America with his balloon-lifted house. Why? Because although the movie is an adventure movie from that point, much like Indiana Jones, there are a few too many things that are present that Disney has exhausted the use of. (Come on, Disney! Do we really need more talking dogs in your movies?) There are also plot/dialog references that I caught from Indiana Jones and Star Wars. Last I checked, it was Dreamworks that used pop-culture references and it was Pixar that was making timeless films that are modern-day classics. But those three things aside, I thought the adventure aspect of UP makes the film fall just under that of The Incredibles, but the story telling between Carl and Ellie and her book of adventures brings it up to the same level. Grown women (and a few men) had tears from Carl and Ellie's story making it some of the best story telling that Pixar, or Disney as a whole for that matter, have ever done...and that's just one scene with a short resolve towards the end of the film.
The villian character of the film comes with great character development. Basically the villian is a Howard Hughes-type explorer that Carl and Ellie look up to when they were children. The explorer is outed as lying about the finds of a rare South American bird and is shuned by the once in awe public. He then sets forth to recover the mysterious and rare bird and is not heard from again. Forward to Carl landing in South America and finding the bird in question and the explorer that was once a childhood hero to Carl is now a plotline's villian.
The screening was not in 3D so I cannot comment as to if 3D adds to the film or not. As far as the animation in the film is concerned, I am in awe at Pixar's further development of light reflection and refraction in the films. It creates truly stunning images that no other animation company has yet to compete with. I will see the film again when it is released so I can see both the short before the film and to find out if there will be any more to the story in the credits (both the short and credits were not on the print at the screening).
I will also add that is was great to finally see what type of human face Pixar associates with John ratzenberger's character. He has a good, light-hearted cameo.

8.5/10

For reference, my rankings of Pixar films:
1. Ratatouille
2. Monsters, Inc.
3. Finding Nemo
4. Toy Story
5. The Incredibles
6. UP
7. Toy Story 2
8. A Bug's Life
9. Wall*E
10. Cars

[Hamburglar]

Dude, lucky! Still have to wait a whole month before I can see it. Thanks for sharing your review. I've also heard/read in reviews that the story is one of Pixar's best yet...especially the beginning. Definitely looking forward to seeing this one, and I decided that I'm going to see it in 3D for sure.

[Borris]

Update:
The first reviews are in from Variety and Time...
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?lay...117940233&cs=1

http://www.time.com/time/arts/articl...1896685,00.htm

[The Big Blue]

Here is another "As of May, Best Picture of the Year"



Didn't read so not sure about spoilers

[Hamburglar]

I know what you mean, don't wanna read too much because I don't want to spoil the movie for myself but seems to generally include plot/character points that we already knew. At any rate, the general consensus is the movie's pretty freakin' awesome....As of right now, Rotten Tomatoes has it rated 100% Fresh!!!!

[Joe Cain]

Oo, fun: a new character for Toy Story 3 is hidden in Up.

[Batman1980]

Bleh not everything from the Upisodes is in the movie so I'm guessing they're all trailers that were made during production.