THE MARRIED LIFE (OST. Pixar's Up)
THE MOST HEARTWARMING FOUR MINUTES SCENE
"The Married Life" is undoubtedly one of the most powerful scenes in the movie Pixar's UP. These are real life issues that are being addressed in this film. They tug at your heartstrings and in the same instance this is very much a film that can be appreciated by all ages.
It's among the most memorable -- and moving -- sequences in Pixar's new animated movie "Up": a four-minute, dialogue-free montage early in the film that traces the entire relationship between Carl Fredricksen and his wife, Ellie.
In encapsulating the couple's life together, the flashback sequence -- which Times film critic Kenneth Turan called "a small gem that will stay with you for a lifetime" -- includes a few issues rarely raised in a movie aimed at families, including a miscarriage, the failing health of the elderly, even death and bereavement.
Watch out to not see it in 3D! TOTALLY ruined the 3D effect, as you will suddenly have tears trapped in TWO sets of glasses. That montage alone is one of the most heartwarming scenes ever made and because of it, this movies deserves not just best animated film, but best picture, best original screenplay, best original score. That element really made it hit, how quickly life passes by.
watch the scene:
"It's one of the things I am most proud of in the film," says "Up" director Pete Docter. Docter and his "Up" collaborators always wanted to include the couple's back story. In researching the film's story, he looked at a number of Super-8 film reels from family archives and often found that the silent images were more powerful because of what wasn't said.
"We're always looking in animation to do things without dialogue,
to turn the sound off and still know what's going on"
Pete Docter
If you watch the scene closely, you also will notice that the color palette shifts to reflect the nature of Carl and Ellie's relationship. When they are young, the shades are sepia-toned, suggesting something from the 1930s. In the prime of their lives, the colors are richer -- vibrant greens and blues. Beautiful...
THE MUSIC
by Michael Giacchino
by Michael Giacchino
Up is the third Pixar film to be scored by Michael Giacchino, after The Incredibles and Ratatouille. What Pete Docter wanted more importantly out of the music was the emotion, so Giacchino wrote a character theme-based score that producer Jonas Rivera thought enhanced the story.
The type of compositional technique used on the score is called thematic transformation, a technique commonly used in large-scaled classical music compositions, in which more than one theme is involved and related together in a single piece of music.
"Throughout the soundtrack, Giacchino keeps things fresh
with his engaging melodies and variations,
and Up succeeds as an old-fashioned score
that doesn’t shy away from emotion or catchy tunes."
- iTunes -
"The experience of his [Giacchino's] original score went
from mediocre to marvelous with a single viewing of the film".
Christopher Coleman (tracksounds.com)
"In general, the vintage jazz and Waltz combination is effective in raising the spirit of adventure specifically from the perspective of an elderly man, but this material could potentially sound geriatric to some listeners seeking only loftier fantasy elements".
Christian Clemmensen (filmtracks.com)
It won the Academy Award for Best Original Score, the Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack Album, the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score, and the 2010 BAFTA Award for Best Film Music. It is the first score for a Pixar film to win the Oscar (Randy Newman also won for Monsters, Inc. and Toy Story 3, but in the category of Best Original Song).
THE STORY
of THE FOUR MINUTES MONTAGE
Young Carl Fredricksen (Jeremy Leary), a quiet bespectacled boy wearing an old pilot's cap and goggles, watches a film reel in a theater depicting his hero Charles Muntz (Christopher Plummer), a famous explorer.
Carl goes inside to investigate and meets a young, outgoing tomboy who shares his passion for exploration and admiration of Charles Muntz. Startled by her loud, boyish demeanor at first, Carl loses his balloon in the rafters.
The girl, Ellie (Elie Docter), helps him retrieve it, though Carl falls from a beam and breaks his arm. Ellie sneaks into his room that night and shows him her adventure book where she expresses a desire to one day move to the top of Paradise Falls in South America, showing him a picture that she 'ripped right out of a library book'. She makes him promise that they will go together someday before leaving.
A musical montage shows Carl and Ellie eventually getting married and moving into the old house where they first met. Their marriage is blissful and they get jobs as a balloon salesman and zookeeper, respectively. When they discover that Ellie is unable to have children, they make a pact to save money to travel to Paradise Falls. However, as the years pass, they are forced to dig into their Falls fund for other obligations. One day, an elderly Carl realizes that, despite living happily together, they never fulfilled their old promise and decides to surprise Ellie on a picnic with tickets to South America. However, Ellie's declining health puts her in the hospital and she eventually passes away, leaving Carl alone.
The fantasy of a flying house was developed on the idea of escaping from life when it becomes too irritating, which stemmed from his difficulty with social situations growing up. Docter added he saw Up as a "coming of age" tale and an "unfinished love story", with Carl still dealing with the loss of his wife. Up is a "resurrection" stories about men who lose something, and regain purpose during their journey.
Carl discovers photos of their married life in Ellie's childhood scrapbook and a final note from his wife thanking him for the "adventure" and encouraging him to go on a new one.
So, now is our turn go have a new one!
