"Home Is Where the Heart Is: Pixar's Up"

In "Home Is Where the Heart Is:  Pixar's Up," Dennis Tyler explores the success and message of Disney's production Up.  He starts with explaining the immense success that Up achieved.  Tyler points out the statistical evidence of Up's success by recognizing "as of February 2010, the film had made over $720 million worldwide.  This box office success surpassed all other Pixar films except Finding Nemo (2003)" (Tyler 268).  The first point that Tyler emphasizes is how Up may not necessarily be a strictly children’s movie. When considering the messages that Up portrays and the situations that the characters face, the movie is more meaningful and realistic than past Disney movies.  In “Home Is Where the Heart Is:  Pixar’s Up,” John Lasseter, a movie producer at Pixar, explains how Pixar movies were structured to appeal to children as well as other age groups.  He says, “We make movies for the kind of movies we like to watch” (272).  Lasseter continues to say “there’s so often that I’ve been to a movie for my kids that I’m bored to death.  And I said I just don’t want that to happen in our movies.  It’s not about the cynicism, or getting humor from putting somebody else down.  That doesn’t happen in a Pixar film” (272).  In this article, both Tyler and Lasseter emphasize how Pixar focuses more on ‘heart’ and this may be the more mature piece that attracts people of all ages to Pixar.  Up is an example of a Disney movie that offers the idea of family not being limited to blood related connections.  Tyler states that “throughout the Pixar canon, 'the family' is not simply the biological entity of the nuclear family, but rather a grouping of individuals who care for each other whether technically related or not” (269).  This is an example of a life like situation and a more mature message to be presenting.  In my opinion, Up, as well as many other Pixar movies, are far more entertaining then earlier Disney movies.  The plots are more complex and the characters have a personality and more ‘heart’.  These are all contributing factors to why Up is such a popular Pixar film today.