Pixar's UP: Up in the air.

You might have recently heard about Pixar's next movie, to be released this summer: UP. Not too many of the details of the story are known just yet, but it revolves around a grumpy old man who ties a bunch of balloons to his house so that he can get away from everyone and be left alone. But his plan hits a snag when he finds that a optimistic boy scout from the neighborhood has stowed away.

As you can see from the picture above, Pixar again looks to be bringing us some beautiful animation. No doubt the visuals will be creative, interesting, fresh, and beautifully rendered, as they always are at Pixar. But recently, I got into a bit of a squabble with a fellow commenter on one of the movie blogs that I follow. I expressed concern that a story revolving around a grumpy old man might not hold my children's attention. For example, some of Pixar's stories tend to skew more adult in theme, like Cars and Ratatouille. Cars follows the existential crisis of a talking car sandwiched between two exciting race scenes at the beginning and the end of the movie. My kids loved the race scenes but were completely bored by everything in between—as was I. As well, Ratatouille deals with the same sort of internal crisis. And, to boot, the antagonist that my kids are supposed to be afraid of is a mean food critic. Needless to say, the threat of a negative restaurant review didn't exactly have my children sitting on the edge of their seats. Keeping this in mind, I expressed concern that UP may turn out to be the same sort of thing, a story that has no real villains or moral choices, but rather focusing on the internal struggle of a jaded, all be it beautifully animated, old man.

I was attacked mainly for implying that Pixar movies are kid's movies, and that the strength of a Pixar movie lies in my children's enjoyment of it. However, notwithstanding the fact that Pixar often makes good films that both children and parents can enjoy, I would argue that Pixar makes children's movies, or at least they aim for a family-friendly audience. For example, Pixar's best movies (Toy Story 1 and 2, The Incredibles, Finding Nemo, and Wall-E) all deal with issues that are central to the lives of small children like loss of family, learning between good and evil, fitting in, loneliness, and believing in yourself. And the characters in these stories have clear objectives and a clear line between right and wrong, good and bad. (We're not talking Ghost in the Shell, here, people.) And whether we like it or not Pixar movies are marketed to children with toys, sponsorship of Happy Meals, and commercials during Saturday morning cartoons.

Adults can deal with moral ambiguity, and we can identify with existential crises because we realize how complicated the world is. But children need to see clear lines drawn in order to better learn those lessons and understand the world around them. They need to know that the challenges they face are large, but they need to know they can overcome them. They feel reassured and safe when the good guy wins and the bad guy is punished.

This is what I hope Pixar can achieve with UP, but I'm slightly skeptical. As I said before, not much about the story's actual plot has been released, but I hope that the old man in question can face a series of insurmountable tasks and overcome them instead of simply ruminating over his own existence. I have faith in Pixar, and they've come through before. I hope they can do it again this summer.

Watch the teaser trailer below.


What do you think? Does Pixar make kid's movies? Does UP look commercially viable?