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The Story
Reeling in grief over the loss of his wife and lifelong best friend Ellie, Karl Fredricksen (voiced by Ed Asner), 78, decides to finally go on the trip they’d dreamed of taking together since they were kids watching newsreels of globetrotting adventurer Charles Muntz (Christopher Plummer). So he fills thousands of balloons with helium, strings them through his old house’s fireplace, and lifts off into the blue sky—with an unwitting stowaway named Russell (Jordan Nagai).
Looking to earn his final Wilderness Explorer badge for helping the elderly, the boy gets the chance when the unlikely duo somehow succeed in finding Paradise Falls and landing just short of it. Together, they start marching toward it, towing the still-airborn old house by the still-attached hose.
Soon, though, they are befriended by a large, rare do-do style bird who likes Russell’s chocolate and a goofy dog with a specially-designed collar named Dug (Bob Peterson). Carl tries to ditch the animals and keeps marching toward the falls until the whole group is apprehended by a small army of mean, talking dogs and taken to their mysterious leader, a dangerous man willing to kill the adventurers to capture Russell’s new bird friend for himself.
Content Issues
The movie might be a bit scary in place for younger tots and sensitive kids might feel the movie’s deep sense of sadness, but the PG rating is mostly just for exciting adventure danger and the threat of deadly peril.
Worldview Talking Points
“Up” is a fantastic movie and a natural addition to Pixar’s library in every way we’ve come to expect. The stylized animation is still breathtaking; the characters are well-developed; and director Pete Docter’s storytelling is engrossing. From the moment the house is lifted into the air, you can’t imaging where this film will land.
“Up” is also laugh-out-loud funny, but it’s built on a foundation of grief and loss. The opening sequence, nearly dialogue free, tells the sweet story of Carl’s life with Ellie, including as touchpoints the discovery of their infertility, their plans to travel to South America, and how those plans are regularly thwarted by the unexpected expenses of life. The grief that accompanies their final parting in death is not only sad, it’s what the story is about.
Yes, that’s far from the basis of your typical kids movie, but younger ones won’t likely care too much when the house starts flying and the giant bird starts pecking and the talking dogs start flying airplanes. But Carl’s struggle to deal with the loss of his wife—and young Russell’s obvious pain at the absence of his dad—are perfect conversation starters for using a film like “Up” to talk about the deeper truths of life from a biblical perspective.
A few of the questions below might get that conversational ball rolling.
- What are some of your favorite Pixar movies? How does “Up” rank for you in that list?
- Which was your favorite character in the film?
- What were some of the funniest moments in the movie?
- What kinds of things do you think a dog would really say if it could talk?
- Were you surprised how sad the movie was in the beginning? Did you expect that from an animated movie like this?
- Do you know anyone who has not been able to have kids or who has lost a husband or wife or a dad? How do you think people deal with that kind of sadness?
- How does being a Christian change or help us in dealing with sadness like that?
- How important is it that we try to make our dreams come true in this life?
- Do you think God owes us the right to have any of our specific dreams come true? What does it mean to give our dreams to Him and to let Him give us a new calling?
- How important is it that we see our everyday lives as a gift, a kind of adventure of their own, provided for us by God who loves us? Do you think our family usually looks at life that way? Why or why not?
- How are people who believe in Jesus able to find love, hope, and joy in the middle of our everyday lives?
- What is our greatest hope in life, as followers of Jesus?
- Russell is a funny kid. Do you know anyone kind of like him?
- Russell carries a deep sadness about his dad being gone so much. How important are dads in the lives of their kids?
- How important is it for other men to step up to help meet some of that need in the lives of kids who don’t have dads nearby?
- How do you think our church does at providing for the needs of women without husbands and kids without dads?
- What could we as a family do to help that?
- Do you think being a Christian means we shouldn’t have any suffering in our lives? How can suffering be a good thing for a Christian, even if it’s still very painful? (See Romans 5:3-5.)
- How has God given our family comfort during some of the sad moments of our life? Did any of that comfort come through other people in our lives?
- How can we give comfort to people who are hurting? Does it matter that we try to do that? (See 2 Corinthians 1:3-7)
- What’s the greatest comfort we could offer to someone who doesn’t have a relationship with God through Jesus?
- How interested are you in seeing next year’s Pixar movie, “Toy Story 3”?
