Making my spirits go UP!

I have a new all time favourite movie.
How does Pixar keep coming up with films filled with heart, wisdom, fun, pathos, imagination and adventure?

UP! is a masterpiece.

The childhood dreaming of Carl and Ellie brought to mind Randy Pausch's last lecture.
The land around Paradise Falls made me think of Conan Doyle's, Edgar Rice Burroughs' & Jules Verne's respective Lost Worlds.
The little short before the main film was a lovely look at how some partners life gives us are partners that bring us pain, but it is still possible to love and to be faithful.
The colors thrown against the wall of the little girl's room, from the light coming through the balloons, rising up to the ceiling were spectacular.
The blueness of the sky, the little house against it and the balloons like a giant heart held by many, many strings.
The badges wanted not for themselves, but for the hope they gave Russell of seeing his Father again.
The need to let go of what's weighing us down, in order to lift off.
Charles Muntz fails as an adventurer and a person because what he wants is glory for himself. In contrast, Carl is doing what he does first for Ellie and then for Russell, and Russell does what he does in the hope of getting his Father back.
Kevin the bird, whose behaviour in his first scenes in the film harken back to the days of Chuck Jones' RoadRunner.
The dogs so brilliantly portrayed. Their behaviour and mannerisms (and speech!) was ultimately so dog like in devotion and simpleness ..... "squirril!" ...... "point!" .... "master!"
And Dug. He who once wore the cone of shame was the most adorable of all.

When the wonderfully rendered credits roll at the end of the film, you'll catch Brad Bird and John Lasseter listed. Oh happy fault, that both these masters of graphic storytelling had to leave Disney over creative differences (in very separate incidents), and eventually ended up working in the same company, Pixar.