Blown Away

I caught the Pixar movie, UP during the weekend and I must say I haven't caught a movie that moved me in so many ways since 'Life is Beautiful'.

The premise of the story is simple, an old man who wants to escape from it all by flying his house away with balloons. It taps into the child in every adult. We have all had those crazy ideas that we hope would somewhat happen- living on another planet, being able to fly with wings, being Harry Potter. But this is not just a typical animation movie. Pixar ought to give themselves a huge pat on their back for being able to come up a animation movie with so much heart, Miyazaki would be proud.

In many ways, UP makes you cry, laugh, think. Beneath the absolutely charming idea of having a house fly away to 'Paradise Falls', the place grandpa always dreamt of going with his late beloved wife, the movie has underlying themes of loneliness, procrastination, sickness, abandonment and cruelty, seemingly unapt for an animation movie. But they hit you subtly, makes you walk away from the theatre with a bittersweet feeling. How many of us have always wanted to do something, but always put it off? And before we know it, decades have passed? Grandpa had a young, bright-eyed and eager boyscout to show him the way eventually, but it's scary to think just how many of us are so afraid and scared to move out of our comfort zone.

Highly recommend this movie. If the guy sitting next to me could be moved to tears, it must say something.