On DVD: Up

If I was rating Disney/Pixar movies, here's how I would put them:

1. The Incredibles (2004)
2. Toy Story (1995)
3. Toy Story 2 (1999)
4. Up (2009)
5. Finding Nemo (2003)
6. Monster's Inc. (2001)
7. Cars (2006)
8. Ratatouille (2007)
9. A Bug's Life (1998)

Haven't seen: WALL-E (2008), Toy Story 3 (2010)

What a fabulous roster of movies. A Bug's Life is at the bottom, but I like it. And I've found Cars to be very re-watchable (my daughter went through a phase of watching that one). The Incredibles ranked as my 8th favorite movie of the past decade, and Toy Story and Toy Story 2 were 11th and 17th on my best movies of the 1990s.

And they did it again with Up. Most people who love Pixar probably already saw it last year. I didn't because my daughter was 2 at the time, and friends and family said that the movie was probably a little too old for her. I meant to take my wife in the theater or rent it shortly after it was released on DVD, but that didn't happen.

It's a lot different movie than any of the others. The deep tones remind me more of Pixar's short films than the other longer films they have made. And who but Pixar could have pulled off a story where the main characters are an old man and a boy scout.

Yes, the film had the requisite child movie silliness, including some slapstick comedy and talking dogs (though this was the best group of talking dogs ever). And my friends and family were right: this is not a little kids movie. Besides it being a little scary at parts, the themes are really more adult, or better said, a better fit for older kids.

But as always with Pixar, you get a kid's movie that rises about the silliness and gives you something more, something real. The premise of the movie, like all Pixar movies, it's complete fantasy. Talking cars. Talking toys. A world full of friendly monsters. Rats that love to cook. Or an old man moving his house to South America using balloons. Yet the characters and the feelings they create are more real than a lot of 'real' movies.

The biggest missing piece in this one was the villain, who was a little too cliche and was introduced too quickly. Other than that, I have no complaints. It was a movie worthy of the Pixar legacy, and I'm not sure I can pay it a bigger compliment than that.