The 2009 Disney-Pixar film Up, directed by Pete Doctor, is a pretty emotionally affecting film.

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The 2009 Disney-Pixar film Up, directed by Pete Doctor, is a pretty emotionally affecting film. The first twenty minutes (in)famously depict the budding relationship between the main character, Carl, and his soon-to-be future wife, Ellie; the two grow up together, fall in love, get married, and move in together, all played over a montage with Michael Giacchino’s Academy Award-winning score playing over. We also see some sad moments in their life together — Ellie and Carl cannot have children, and as they grow old together, Ellie passes away, leaving Carl alone and bitter toward the world. After strapping thousands of balloons to his house and flying to South America (and accidentally bringing a Wilderness Explorer, Russell) he embarks on a journey of healing and understanding as he learns to appreciate life once more, without his wife, but with his newfound family in Russell and a talking dog named Dug. This film became one of the three animated films to ever be nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards — Beauty and the Beast (1991) and Toy Story 3 (2010) is the third (notably: all Disney films) — and it isn’t hard to see why. With fully realized characters, breathtaking visuals, and an emotional and impactful story (with an incredible score to boot), the film is one of Pixar’s best.

When talking about Disney, I would remiss to mention how much they’ve acquired in their late 2000s, and early 2010s. “[By] 2016, the company owned several movie and multimedia studios: Walt Disney Pictures (which includes Pixar), Touchstone Pictures, the Marvel Entertainment Group, and Lucasfilm,” Lewis states. Obviously, in 2019, the Walt Disney Company acquired probably its biggest studio to date: 20th Century Fox, marking a massive to one of the first film studios ever. Up was released three years after the acquisition of Pixar from Disney, and released the same year Disney acquired Marvel as well. Some argue they are monopolizing the film industry (and I don’t disagree), but this might be a bit of a digression.

P.S. Speaking of digressions, I have a slight fact-check on Lewis (if I may). He states that The Dark Knight “became the first superhero film to receive a Best Picture nomination from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.” Unfortunately, it was pretty infamously not nominated for Best Picture and is cited as the reason the category was expanded from five nominees to ten. Just a little fun fact! 😀