Pixar Animation Studios is a dazzling anomaly–a brilliant aberration on the drab and dour landscape of mainstream, commercial cinema.  Creatively bankrupt Hollywood has sent originality into death throes.  The auteur has given way to an army of mercenary filmmakers with little time for characterization, motivation, or plot.  But John Lasseter’s Pixar, located about 350 miles north of Hollywood in Emeryville, Ca, has unequivocally debunked the claims of critical and mainstream divergence made by studios to the south.  “Up” marks the studio’s tenth critical and commercial mega-hit–a feat unmatched in cinema history.  Who would’ve thought a crotchety old widower played by Ed Asner could keep the streak going?

The film begins with young Carl Fredericksen (Jeremy Leary), a wide-eyed, aspiring adventurer riveted to the screen of a 1930s cinema newsreel featuring his hero, famed, Kirk Douglas-inspired explorer, Charles Muntz (Christopher Plummer) claiming to have discovered a dazzling new species of giant bird in the remote jungles of South America.  The skeptical public brands the legendary, Captain Nemo-like explorer a fraud and he angrily sets out to bring back a live specimen to clear his name.  Carl is utterly engrossed by thoughts of Muntz’s dangerous and spectacular adventures until he meets the free-spirited Ellie, a fellow exploration enthusiast who’s even more adventurous than he is.  It’s at this point that Pixar ascends to greater heights than at any other time in the studio’s distinguished canon.

Carl and Ellie’s sweet romance, eventual marriage, and the sublime joys and gut-wrenching heartaches of life are encapsulated in the most breathtakingly touching montage I’ve seen in years.  The realistic and strikingly weighty subject matter explored here is handled with delicate and poetic dexterity.

The traditional narrative resumes with Carl, now a reclusive, square-jawed, unpleasant old man bereft of the love of his life.  Refusing to heal from his loss and give in to the realities of a changing world, Carl uses his expertise from years as a balloon vendor and fastens thousands of balloons to his chimney and, behind of guise of the great South American adventure he and Ellie never got to have, attempts to float away from his despair.  There’s only one problem–a stowaway.  Russell (Jordan Nagai) is a chubby, earnest, good-intentioned, Junior Wilderness Explorer so committed to winning the attention of his father by helping an elderly person and thereby advancing his rank that he just won’t leave Carl alone, even when his house floats away.

The first half of this film is astounding.  It is a masterwork of visual storytelling that will likely be studied in film schools for years.  The second half, chronicling the comfortably predictable revitalization of Carl’s spirit, is a whimsically enjoyable romp, but fails meet the standard set by the first half hour.  Pedestrian, DreamWorks-style jokes and a requirement for a progressively more ludicrous suspension of disbelief hampers what might have approached perfection.

Despite its shortcomings, “Up” is clearly in a class all its own.  Director, Pete Docter, and writer/co-director, Bob Peterson, infuse this brilliant picture with depth, humanity, and poignant and meaningful metaphor.  There is a world of symbolism contained within the simple image of Carl trudging along towards his childhood dreams with his home and a lifetime of memories in tow.

“Up,” though flawed, is an astonishingly beautiful work of art that is not only the best film of the year so far, but lives up to any of Pixar’s work to date.