After weeks of missing out on a lot of summer flicks we were told we HAD to see (The Hangover, we’ll get to you, eventually), the missus and I finally went to see Pixar’s latest flick, Up. Now I’m a pretty huge fan of all of the Pixar movies, and I went particularly ga-ga for WALL-E, and I wasn’t sure that Up would be able to top it. I mean a story about an old guy who lifts his house with balloons? Doesn’t sound like an earth-shattering premise, really.

But once again, Pixar has blown me away. Up is an amazing film – very sad, very uplifting (pun only slightly intended), very funny – a lot happens in an hour and a half, and despite the inherent un-reality of some of the major plot points, you just can’t help really feeling for the characters.

I don’t want to give away too much of the plot, but I can honestly say that despite all initial appearances, Up is only barely a kids movie. Sure there are some poop jokes and a whole army of talking dogs, but a lot of the subject matter, especially in the first part of the movie, is pretty damn dark. My guess is that depending on the age, most kids will just be bored by some of it, and not really get why their parents are getting all misty-eyed. But overall I would imagine that your average kid would still really enjoy the movie, if for somewhat different reasons than their parents.

Oh, and getting back to the talking dogs – the guy who wrote those lines DEFINITELY knows dogs, and I think if there ever is a device that translates dogs’ thoughts in to words, dogs will sound an awful lot like they do in this movie.

One final note – we saw the movie in 3-D, and I wasn’t terribly impressed by the images leaping off the screen, and afterward I sort of had a headache. So bottom line, go see Up, but maybe save yourself a few bucks and migraine and see it in just two dimensions.