Up (2009 film)

Up is a 2009 American animated adventure comedy-drama film directed by Pete Docter and written by Bob Peterson and Docter. Produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures, the film centers on Carl Fredricksen (voiced by Ed Asner), an elderly widower who, by attaching numerous helium balloons to his house, travels to South America with youngster Russell (voiced by Jordan Nagai) in order to fulfill a promise that he made to his late wife. Along the way, they befriend a talking dog (voiced by Peterson) as well as an exotic bird and encounter Carl's childhood idol (voiced by Christopher Plummer), who has sinister plans to capture the bird.

Originally titled Heliums, Docter conceived the outline for Up in 2004 based on fantasies of escaping from life when it became too irritating. He and eleven other Pixar artists spent three days in Venezuela for research and inspiration. The designs of the characters were caricatured and stylized considerably, and animators were challenged with creating realistic cloth. Composer Michael Giacchino composed the film's score. It was Pixar's first film to be presented in 3D format.

Up debuted at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival on May 13, 2009, and was released in the United States on May 29. It received critical acclaim for its screenplay, animation, characters, themes, narrative, emotional depth, humor, Asner's performance, Giacchino's musical score and its opening montage. The National Board of Review and the American Film Institute named Up one of the top-ten films of 2009. Up earned $735.1 million worldwide, finishing its theatrical run as the sixth-highest-grossing film of 2009. It was nominated for five awards at the 82nd Academy Awards, winning two, and received numerous other accolades. Among its Academy Award nominations, it became the second of three animated films ever to receive a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture (after 1991's Beauty and the Beast and before 2010's Toy Story 3), ultimately losing to The Hurt Locker. Since then, it has been and continues to be regarded as one of the greatest animated films of the 21st century and of all time. A short-form sequel series, Dug Days, premiered on Disney+ on September 1, 2021.