As many may or may not know, I have had to reflect on life recently, the meaning of life, love, eternity, purpose, the whole bit. I have done this knowing the reality that my mother was getting closer to the end of her life. A few weeks ago I was finishing up a concert series with a wonderful band named Shel. Between promoting them in 8 concerts and being a part of the opening act we got to spend a lot of time together. On Father's Day, the band decided to take my wife and I to the movies so we went to watch Disney/Pixars' summer hit, Up.

I had wanted to see this movie as I love great animation and Pixar had yet to let me down. They didn't just impress me, though; Pixar provided a movie that for me, up until this point in time, the middle of July, is simply put, by and far, up and away, the best, most entertaining, enjoyable movie of the summer. As of this writing, Up is still in the top 10 films of the summer, and is the third highest-grossing film of the summer. I expect that by the time it is all said and done (including DVD release and sales), Up will even surpass the sixth installment in the Harry Potter series.

Up provides a tremendous story of growing up, letting go, and dreaming. It provides much more than that, though; what Up does is cause one to reflect like few films of recent memory. Surprising to some, but not to me, Up is far more of an adult story than a story for children. We see the growth and development of Carl Fredricksen, voiced by Ed Asner, from childhood to old age. In fact the first 15 to 20 minutes of this film could work as a stand-alone short, and may be the most emotional 15 to 20 minutes of a film in its opening sequences ever filmed. I would anticipate that easily 70% of the audience is in tears as we see the growth of Carl. This establishes a backdrop into old age that any of us past 35 can likely relate to. One of the attributes of a great film, though, is that it causes one to reflect when one normally wouldn't. That being the case, one could say that Up goes beyond this point of being a good film to being a great film as it is likely the overwhelming majority of the audience, even young adults watching this film, reflect on life in a way they wouldn't have normally.

Not only does Up provide an incredible first 15 to 20 minutes, it also provides an entertaining joy-fest and heartwarming event for the eyes and soul. Everything from the story to the visuals, to the voice talent and music, is special. This animated feature does something unique and rare; it takes the viewer into the special world of animation, where only certain things are possible, and then has the viewer forgetting that they are watching animation. In that sense, Up is magical.

While many think the movie is primarily about the young boy, Russell, it is really about the development and growth of Carl; even in his old age, he has lessons to learn, and while it may be hard to teach an old dog new tricks, Carl is open to learning... and in that learning process, we all learn there is something we can learn even in old age. We learn things like recognizing and seeing the important things around us. We learn that while we should always be willing to go for our dreams, sometimes the real dreams, the real joys are the things around us. We learn to see that we should never take for granted the things we have, especially the loved ones around us.

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