(As a kid, I used to go to the one on Topanga Canyon Boulevard in Canoga Park, across the street from Topanga Plaza.) He’s taken us on a tour of this area before in a couple of the great, early films that put him on the map (“ Boogie Nights” and “ Magnolia”) but with “Licorice Pizza,” he offers us a gentler view. This is the place of my youth, too-I grew up In Woodland Hills, just down the 101 Freeway from where the events of “Licorice Pizza” occur, and I recall fondly the Southern California record store chain that gives the film its title. His love is specific and palpable for the Valley, with its suburban sprawl and non-descript strip malls. Four stars out of 4.This is a place Anderson knows well from his own childhood and it’s where he still lives today. UP (PG) Featuring the voices of Ed Asner, Christopher Plummer, Jordan Nagai, Delroy Lindo, Jerome Ranft and Bob Peterson.
Once again proving that whenever you think you’ve hit bottom, there’s no place to go but “Up.” What sticks with you though in the hours, even days, after you’ve seen the picture is how wonderful it makes you feel. But it’s their seemingly endless imaginations that allow such witty touches as including an old-fashioned black-and-white newsreel, a la “Citizen Kane,” that introduces us to Muntz back when Carl was an impressionable lad, and in the cleverness of making Carl resemble Spencer Tracy and Muntz look like Kirk Douglas, cleft chin and all. His mutts, who’ve all been fitted with electronic collars that translate their every thought into English, are as funny as they are fierce thanks to superior voice work by Delroy Lindo, Jerome Ranft and Bob Peterson, who in addition to playing two of the dogs, Dug and Alpha, also co-wrote the script and co-directed the movie.īut then, that’s what makes Pixar so great the ability and the willingness by everyone on staff to multitask. The biggest laughs, though, are delivered by a pack of dogs lorded over by disgraced explorer Charles Muntz (voice of Christopher Plummer), a budding Colonel Kurtz who’s spent the past 50 years or so living in exile. It’s a echelon of emotion matched only by a playful sense of humor that’s rooted in Carl’s cantankerousness (think Walter Matthau at his grumpiest) and the host of critters Docter incorporates, including the gangly Kevin, a towering flightless bird with a sweet tooth. It comes just 15 minutes into the movie, too, a monumental testament to Docter’s talent for creating characters we can instantly identify and empathize with. Powerful doesn’t begin to describe the effect those five minutes have, leaving you practically drowning in tears. In five short minutes, Docter movingly depicts their lifelong romance in a riveting montage accompanied by Michael Giacchino’s haunting score. The fun is in the sense of adventure Docter creates, but the heart is in the way he makes you feel the enormity of the grief that’s consumed Carl since the death of his beloved Ellie. It’s the same level of nuance that fuels a script by Docter and Bob Peterson that maintains a sense of realism despite the fantastical nature of a tale that in addition to a flying house includes a prehistoric bird, talking dogs and a crazed explorer who’s spent far too much time away from civilization. In fact, the landscape, gorgeously drawn in luscious 3D (a Pixar first) by a host of animators under the guidance of director Pete Docter (“Monsters, Inc.”), is practically a character onto itself, constantly changing colors and mood. It’s quite a place, too, filled with towering mesas, a mile-high waterfall and enough flora and fauna to stock a botanical garden. Thus the stage is set for the beginnings of a beautiful – and contentious – friendship that will grow into something quite special assuming, of course, they first survive the trip and then the many hidden dangers awaiting them in the wilds of South America. In hopes of fulfilling that quest, he has the misfortune of being just outside Carl’s door at the time of liftoff. His name is Russell (voiced wonderfully by 7-year-old Jordan Nagai), a lonely, well-meaning Boy Scout obsessed with earning a merit badge for assisting the elderly.
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