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Daren in Brief - UP IN 3D
by Daren Foster

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Daren in Brief
UP in 3D

by Daren Foster

How I found myself sitting in a theatre behind a pair of 3D glasses on a Monday night will remain clouded in mystery. I remember lounging out on a patio deck in the sun the previous Thursday afternoon. Nothing out of the ordinary about that. Then somebody ordered a round of Jägermeister and another. Sometime later there was a heated discussion about single malt scotch. In the subsequent foggy haze an accountant looking guy who hadn’t been present when things began asked if we’d ever tried ketamine.

Why this is important is because I wouldn’t normally go to see a 3D movie. The last time I had it was Michael Jackson’s Captain EO. That thing so unnerved me that I swore the technology off forever. But, as your mother probably once warned you, the combination of Jägermeister and ketamine (and sangria.. that’s right.. we drank lots of sangria) will make a person do strange things. So there I was on a Monday night, 3D glasses on, slowly regaining an edgy equilibrium while watching Disney/Pixar’s UP.

UP is a much better movie than Captain EO, let’s get that out straight up. It is 20+ years on and 3D is much more advance, much easier on the eyes. In fact, it is strangely mesmerizing even for those not crashing skittishly down to earth after a 4 day bender, I imagine. UP is beautiful to watch. The story of a grumpy old man heading off on a grand adventure and the slightly ADD-afflicted scout adventurer stowaway who comes along for the ride is inoffensively pleasant. There are lots of funny bits of business especially the dogs with their talking collars. UP is a fun diversion and not a bad way to sober up.

There was one niggling bone of contention I had with it aside from the spiders crawling all over my chair. (Why wasn’t everyone else bothered by them, I found myself wondering). Does every movie have to have a message, even one that is ostensibly for kids? Can’t an old man just be grumpy without delving into his back story for a full-on explanation? Why can’t a kid just be hyperactive without mining his off screen life for some sort of weak-assed behavioral justification? Is it so necessary for movie characters to be seen as likable that we have to understand even the slightest of foibles in them?

I think back to the viewing icons of my youth and the cartoons from the Warner Brothers stable. Bugs Bunny was many things, funny, free-spirited, feisty, but likable wasn’t one of them. Yosemite Sam wasn’t grumpy because he was a widower and most of his life was behind him. He was grumpy because he hated getting’ outsmarted by a varmint. Sylvester wanted nothing more than to eat Tweetie. Ditto Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner. I wanted to see Tweetie and the Roadrunner eaten!

We just loved going along for the crazy ride these characters and cartoons took us on. Nobody was looking to learn anything. That was what school was for. It was pure fun and tapping into that sense of anarchy allowed us to imaginatively let loose. There’s nothing wrong with a little dose of the Marx Brothers attitude every now and then. Groucho, Chico and Harpo weren’t driven by anything more than eating a little better, gaining a little more financial security and blasting a hole in the inflated balloon of pomposity.

So come on Disney and Pixar. Stop giving us life lessons and just take us on a wild ride. I don’t need you to teach me never to mix Jägermeister and horse tranquilizers in the future. I learned that all on my own.