Up

I think I read somewhere yesterday that raving about Pixar is positively cliché at this point. It’s probably true. So here you have it, me being cliché. For those of you who don’t want spoilers, feel free to skip the rest of the post, but when I write about movies I see it’s rarely in review form—there are a lot of reviews out there that are more eloquent and incisive, and mine are just jumbled thoughts.

I saw Up yesterday with three friends, and about ten minutes in I could hear sniffling from both sides of me. I dare anyone to sit through the Carl and Ellie montage just after the prologue and not cry. It was like a sobbing game instead of a drinking game: every time Carl takes out the Adventure book, you cry. Every time the slower, reflective music plays, you cry. Every time there’s a close-up of the bird and photos on the mantelpiece, you cry. And so on. It wasn’t sad, per se, but touching.

I look forward to very few films these days, a result of overexposure and inertia—the growing trend of my inability to become excited. But Up, not so. Blah, blah, Pixar pushes the boundaries of animation once again, what haven’t you heard before? I’m not an expert in animation, but I do know about story. And what I keep seeing from Pixar, again and again, is that just because a film is animated doesn’t mean it’s for children. Animation is a medium for storytelling, and Pixar’s latest deals with themes I highly doubt young children will fully grasp (like Wall-E and Ratatouille, which I think appeals more to adults anyway). On the basest level, the protagonist is an old man who tries to cope with his wife’s death by going on the adventure they’ve always dreamed of, to Paradise Falls in South America. I can’t really explain it better than director Pete Docter does himself:

In part it was based on this idea, what I was talking about earlier, the fantastic adventure that Carl thinks his wife really wanted, this adventure of going to the ends of the earth and seeing rare, exotic creatures that no one’s ever seen before and doing these amazing things. And, of course, he realizes that what she really wanted, and what she had, and what he had as well, is this most incredible adventure of all, which is the relationship that the two of them had. And so it was kind of working backwards from that punchline that led us to these other characters and tried to weave them in in a way that supports that theme.

How they do it—well, that’s really best seen on screen. All the trailers show Carl’s house attached to a million helium balloons, and Carl unexpectedly stuck with insufferable Wilderness Explorer Russell, an exotic female bird named Kevin, and a talking dog Dug who doesn’t really talk. Oh, and a vindictive childhood hero. That sums it up pretty well.

It was fantastic, though I’m quite sure I won’t be able to hear that music again without crying. Also, Apparently Russell is based off of Peter Sohn, the animator who did the voice for Emile in Ratatouille and director of Partly Cloudy, the short we saw just before Up. That just gives me a bubbly good feeling inside.

Teeth

Health stuff, not too gross, just a little blood. But you have been forewarned!

For those of you who don’t talk to me on a daily basis, I just had my wisdom teeth pulled out today. Now, my case was more pre-emptive than reactionary—I have one tooth that is being slightly covered by my gums, and that one definitely had to be taken out. The rest were taken out in case they end up like tooth #1, and plus if they come in completely they’ll start putting pressure on my front teeth, which will negate a lot of the suffering I went through with braces. (My bottom teeth are already moving back a little, to my own dismay, and to my own laziness for not having worn my retainer properly. Rest assured, I have paid out of my own pocket, and my own guilt, to get a new one made for myself. These ones are kind of like the invisalign braces, but just a retainer instead.)

So the orthodontist and the oral surgeon recommended I get all of them taken out, and that I be put under intravenous anaesthesia while I do. I’ve never had surgery in my life, let alone be put down, so I was more worried about that than anything. Also, pretty much everyone and their mother has told me about their own wisdom teeth pulling experience, some ranging from harrowing to mild. My dad, for instance, had one of his teeth growing in sideways and they didn’t give him enough anaesthesia, and took a month for his mouth to fully recover. Ryan said his were just sore afterwards, no pain at all.

Well, I went in at nine this morning and was starving, since I couldn’t eat or drink before the anaesthesia. It was very strange to be conked out—he pricked something in my elbow and talked to me for a bit, and after a minute I was sinking into unconsciousness. I have never experienced anything like it, not unless it’s voluntarily going to sleep—I’m not a heavy drinker or anything nor have I ever fainted. I vaguely remember my dad carrying me out and bringing me home, then trying to get me to eat some yoghurt, but I just kept dozing off. But I had this terrible headache that hasn’t quite gone away completely, and that feeling you get when you’re prepared to vomit. When I did (sorry, tmi), I slept a lot better.

Now the bleeding has stopped and the anaesthesia is wearing off. I can feel a little soreness coming in, they didn’t give me major painkillers but my dad got me some ibuprofen (we’re a very anti-medication type of family). I’ve had some applesauce and taken some penicillin, and I start the dexamethason tomorrow morning. My surgery apparently went EXTREMELY well, it was over in ten minutes, which is a relief to me because it means that wasn’t enough time to cut my mouth open. Merf.

I now only have 24 teeth—I had four taken out already because of the braces, another four today. My mouth just has no room whatsoever!