Up · reception & legacy

2009 · Pete Docter

How Up has been received, argued over, and remembered.

The arc

An instant hit in 2009 — rapturous reviews, huge box office, and a Best Picture nomination — and if anything its reputation has only sharpened: the opening 'Married Life' montage is now routinely called one of the greatest sequences Pixar ever made, sometimes overshadowing the film around it.

What's debated

The perennial fight: is Up a masterpiece, or a perfect ten-minute short film attached to a merely good talking-dog adventure?

Its footprint

Dug's 'SQUIRREL!' became universal shorthand for a short attention span, 'Adventure is out there!' is a yearbook-quote staple, and the balloon-lifted house is one of the most instantly recognizable images in modern animation — while 'the first ten minutes of Up' is pop-culture code for guaranteed crying.

Where it stands

Core peak-Pixar canon and a Letterboxd fixture — the go-to exhibit whenever anyone argues animation can gut adults as thoroughly as kids' entertainment.

★ Did you know? Up was the first animated film ever chosen to open the Cannes Film Festival (2009), and went on to become only the second animated feature nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, after Beauty and the Beast.

Named by the director

Influences Pete Docter has publicly named — the director's own word, distinct from the inferred lines of influence.

Hayao Miyazaki — Docter has repeatedly cited Miyazaki as a formative influence, crediting him with showing that animation can slow down for quiet, emotional 'breathing' moments of the kind Up leans on.