Thread by @joshua_r_eyler

#PixarinApril fans, it's time to talk about Up (2009). This is my favorite of the Pixar films, and it was nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award--the first of the Pixar films to be afforded this honor. It didn't win, but that's a big deal for an animated film.

[CW: death, grief, miscarriage]

Up is, very simply, an allegory about loss and grief. Here is what I mean by allegory in this case: although many stories and films can have symbols and metaphors as components of their narratives, an allegory is different. #PixarinApril

In an allegory, the entire story itself is a metaphor, and each piece of the story serves to advance that symbolic meaning. One of the major reasons Up is a masterpiece, then, is its depiction of loss and grief. #PixarinApril

There is, of course, the death of Ellie and Carl’s attempts to move on without her (and I’ll get to this in a second), but there is another powerful moment of loss to talk about first. #PixarinApril

The scenes depicting Ellie’s miscarriage at the beginning of the movie belong on a list of the most important film moments of the 21st c. To my knowledge, no animated film has dealt w/the subject before, & the way the filmmakers handle it is both beautiful and sad. #PixarinApril

In one of the scenes, all we see is an image of Ellie and Carl finding out the news that they have lost their baby. Ellie is clearly grieving, while Carl is supporting her, grieving himself, but unable to fully understand the depth of Ellie’s sadness. #PixarinApril

Like the rest of the opening, this scene is wordless. Only a melancholy variation of the movie’s score plays in the background. The absence of dialogue is used to great effect here, because a loss of this magnitude cannot ever fully be expressed in words. #PixarinApril

Some emotions transcend our abilities to describe them. The image of Ellie (below), eyes closed, in her yard after returning home from the doctor remains one of the most poignant of the film. #PixarinApril

She is deeply affected but also stoic. Carl sees her through their door & comes out to comfort her. Silently, they turn to each other & begin to move forward–-resolute in their intention to maintain their family even if they can't have the children they'd hoped for. #PixarinApril

They fully embrace the life they choose to make with each other, and it is only cut short by Ellie’s tragic and unexpected death. The main narrative picks up at this point, as Carl begins the process of trying to make sense of a life without Ellie in it. #PixarinApril

He decides to travel, via balloons, to Paradise Falls, which is where he had always promised he would take her. Carl’s journey with his house is an extended metaphor for the grieving process. #PixarinApril

The house where they spent their life together is a convenient symbol for his memory of Ellie, and his inability to be separated from the house (he tethers it to himself) is indicative of his incapacity to let go of his grief and move on. #PixarinApril

As the film progresses, his connection to the house wanes & after a key scene where Carl views a message Ellie left for him in her Adventure Book, he understands that he can both live a new life & at the same time remember the love the two of them shared. #PixarinApril

He is not cheapening her memory by making the courageous choice to live his life. Shortly afterward, the house falls from the sky after Carl rescues Kevin, Russell, and Dug. #PixarinApril

Up teaches us this: overcoming grief is not about forgetting the past ever happened, erasing what had come before. Instead, grieving is meant to teach us how to fashion a new life in altered circumstances — one that is not less meaningful, just different.#PixarinApril

The life after grief is not a shadow of what might have been, nor is it second best. The life after grief runs parallel to the life abandoned, and it is as full of beauty and tragedy as any other of the many lives we might have lived. #PixarinApril

Before I finish this analysis of Up (can you tell I love the film?), there is one more loss to think about. Like Andy in the Toy Story movies, Russell’s father is not involved in his life. #PixarinApril

Russell at least talks about his dad, which makes the situation different from Andy’s, & it's clear that he misses the connection they once had. Carl eventually serves as a kind of father to Russell, as we can see when Carl shows up to give Russell his W.E. badge. #PixarinApril

In short, a beautiful, powerful film that (along with WALL-E) established Pixar as a film studio that not only made fun movies but important ones too. #PixarinApril