A slice of bittersweet loveliness from Jimmy Dale Gilmore, Bill Frisell, Jerry Douglas and Viktor Krauss.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Friday, July 03, 2009
Eve Tushnet likes Up too:
She's right. Usually I tolerate, at best, kid's movies, but I became totally absorbed in, and was really moved by, Up. It's a movie that is framed around a great loss, and one man's attempts to somehow compensate for that loss -- the ridiculous lengths he is willing to go to, the struggles he is willing to undergo, and what he learns along the way. It's a fantasy, of course, and an adventure -- and a very good one -- but a movie that attempts to address some very big questions.
I've always thought that the best "children's" music, movies and books should be able to engage adults as well in some meaningful way. There is a select group of kids movies and TV shows -- the British stop-time animation Wind in the Willows series, a lot of Warner Brothers cartoons from the 40s, 50s and 60s -- that manage it, albeit in different ways. Up is in that category. It's no small accomplishment.
Really, one of the best children's movies I've ever seen--maybe even second-best after the indescribable Last Unicorn. I'd say it's tied with The Great Muppet Caper. It's a beautiful story of love and grief, of fulfilling one's dreams and sacrificing them, of hope and wanderlust and discovery and homecoming. I think maybe the Kevin-the-bird arc is the subplot which defines the movie's heart: Obligations mean that sometimes a beautiful creature wanders into your world, and you fall in love with her, and then you let her go home.
She's right. Usually I tolerate, at best, kid's movies, but I became totally absorbed in, and was really moved by, Up. It's a movie that is framed around a great loss, and one man's attempts to somehow compensate for that loss -- the ridiculous lengths he is willing to go to, the struggles he is willing to undergo, and what he learns along the way. It's a fantasy, of course, and an adventure -- and a very good one -- but a movie that attempts to address some very big questions.
I've always thought that the best "children's" music, movies and books should be able to engage adults as well in some meaningful way. There is a select group of kids movies and TV shows -- the British stop-time animation Wind in the Willows series, a lot of Warner Brothers cartoons from the 40s, 50s and 60s -- that manage it, albeit in different ways. Up is in that category. It's no small accomplishment.
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