UP

Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar continue their string of animated hits with "Up."

In the film, 78 year old balloon vendor Carl Fredrickson (voiced by Ed Asner), is living a live of solitude after the love of his life, his wife Ellie passed away.

When they were kids, Ellie and Carl had a dream to live in a house over a vast waterfall over a lost land in South America.

When Carl inadvertenly hits a construction worker, he is forced to go into a retirement home.

But instead, Carl decides to fulfill the dream he and his wife set, by tying thousands of balloons to his house and flies away to the wilds of South America.

While on the trip, Fredrickson realizes he has a stowaway, an 8 year old Wilderness Explorer named Russell.

When the balloon house lands in South America, the adventure becomes more than what Fredrickson and little Russell bargains for, when they a encounter a rare bird named Kevin and an evil explorer and his horde of talking dogs.

I went into this movie, with minimal expectations, thinking the story was a little farfetched, but I left laughing hysterically.

I think "Up" is this year's "Wall-E", a remarkable film with top notch animation and an unfamiliar cast performing the voice overs, excluding Asner as Fredrickson, Christopher Plummer as the evil explorer and Delroy Lindo and John Ratzenberger, who served as two of the voices of the talking dogs.

The story was told fluidly throughout the film, a story of one's search to fulfill a life's dream despite dealing with the remorse and heartbreak of a lost love.

What's good about "Up" was there were several scenes that made not only children laugh, but made adults laugh. The film didn't have the mix of adult humor like other animated hits like Shrek or Kung Fu Panda, but the children and the children at heart in my theater were entertained all the same.

I would definitely say "Up" is one of the best films of 2009.

Next time on the Reel Revue will be my review for the Hangover starring Bradley Cooper and Zach Galifinakis.

Now you've read my review, here's what some fellow critics thought of Up:

1. Thomas J.L. Young and Elizabeth M. Young

2. Jeff Land and Emily Cross

3. Jenny Russel, Hannah Gustafson and London Lyle.

4. Jarold and Jake Peterson.