I would disagree with Carl’s purpose and weakness to overcome. RVC was closer to the truth. Carl’s weakness is GUILT. He promised (Crossed his heart!) that he would take Ellie, the woman he loved, to Paradise Falls. There is actually some fairly heavy philosophy going on here for a Pixar flick, as Ellie’s death makes Carl a LOST SOUL (because he can never fulfill his broken promise now that she’s gone.) Carl desperately clings to everything Ellie, from putting his hand on her handprint on the mailbox to adjusting the robin on the mantel just as she did, because he fears that if he ever loses his tenuous hold on his memory of her, his guilt will become total, and his soul will descend to hell (in the literary sense). That’s why Carl is so furiously adamant about making it to the Falls, even to the point of refusing to do reasonable things that would not have prevented him from accomplishing his goal and might even have helped (for example, welcoming Kevin and Dug into the fellowship from the start). It is only when Carl receives Ellie’s benediction that he is forgiven and his guilt is wiped away utterly — leaving him so spiritually reborn that he no longer needs his cane. Carl had to be willing to confront and defeat his guilt at the shrine of Ellie before he could receive his reward.

Hurt Locker was decent enough, but Up was so clearly the best film of 2009 that it was frustrating not to see it win Best Picture. It also serves as a writer’s clinic on Chekhov’s Guns, as they are fired perfectly one after another throughout the film.

Really fun movie though.

The inciting incident was definitely the truck backing into the mailbox. That lead to a series of events which forced him to take action and change his life. Prior to that he was a defeated and bitter old man.

look, it’s a beautiful story, so poetically told, so well rendered and drawn. thank whatever deity you like for pixar.