Pixar looks to adults for ‘Up’ box office success

The latest animated adventure from the Disney subsidiary Pixar - the people who brought us Finding Nemo - opens in Britain this Friday amid hopes it can repeat the success it enjoyed at the American box office earlier this year.

The film is Up, the first ever animated movie to open Cannes, and Disney's first feature film made entirely in 3D. It's also of interest because its huge success in the States has been put down to the 'Twitter effect' - with instant word-of-mouth recommendations boosting its takings.

The story begins with lonely widower Carl Fredricksen (voiced by the veteran American actor Ed Asner), a retired balloon-seller. Told he must move to a nursing home, he instead decides to see through the dream he shared with his late wife of visiting South America - and so he turns his home into an airship.

He collects a companion in the form of a young explorer Russell (Jordan Nagai) - who was sitting on the porch when the house took off - and once they reach the jungle they encounter the sort of characters (13ft-high birds and talking dogs) and adventures to be expected in a Pixar movie.

The film is laced with adult references and themes that help elevate it above the usual children's fare: Carl's late wife becomes the first Disney character to suffer a miscarriage for example.

It is those grown-up references that are thought to be behind the Twitter effect. Impressed viewers were sending out positive Tweets about the film the moment they left the cinema – at about the same time others were using Twitter to bury Sacha Baron-Cohen's latest comedy, Bruno.

It wasn't just Tweeters who enjoyed Up - the American critics loved it, too. "Winsome, touching and arguably the funniest Pixar effort ever," wrote Michael Rechtshaffen in the Hollywood Reporter. "The gorgeously rendered, high-flying adventure is a tidy 90-minute distillation of all the signature touches that came before it."

WHAT THE CRITICS ARE SAYING
Ian Freer, Empire: "If it had lived up to its golden first five minutes, Up would have been the film of the decade. As it is, it remains the best animated flick of 2009, a funny, moving, beautifully made argument that dreamers can move mountains." Verdict: four stars out of five

Nigel Andrews, Financial Times: "Quiet genius isn't enough. As in Wall.E, an opening section perfect in its stealth artistry, followed by a time/space lift-off heady with promise, lead to main-action middle and final parts that throw the picture-book at us."

Peter Bradshaw, the Guardian: "It really is a lovely film: smart, funny, high-spirited and sweet-natured, reviving memories of classic adventures from the pens of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Jules Verne, and movies like Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life and Albert Lamorisse's The Red Balloon." Verdict: four stars out of five