Up

Thoroughly entertaining movie, as one might expect from Pixar. The sterling first 10 minutes, chronicling Carl's life with his wife before the main events of the movie, is the perfect portrait of companionship (or lack thereof): real enough yet perfect enough to draw the audience in and tear their hearts out, even when the ending is inevitable. In fact, this prologue is so good, the rest of the movie seems almost an afterthought. In a way, it's kind of like Wall-E, Pixar's previous movie, where the bits on Earth are more fascinating than the bits in space. It does seem that the plot doesn't really know what to do after the concept has been laid for the audience (in the case of Up, a lonely elderly man who goes on the adventure that he and his late wife had always wanted, but didn't have a chance to; in the case of Wall-E, how a lonely robot finds love in a deserted future Earth). Still, the final scene that ties in the first 10 minutes is the perfect way to end the movie, and one can never go wrong choosing Pixar :)