Up - An Exciting, Tear-jerking Adventure

After seeing this online, due to impatience on having to unnecessarily wait until October to see it here in the UK, my verdict is this: it's an exciting, heartfelt adventure. While isn't one of Pixar's best (Toy Story can still take pride of place on it's throne, for me), It's themes of obsession, grief, acceptance among maybe some more I missed make it more family friendly than Disney's Bolt, which was obviously firmly aimed at the under tens, with little for an older audience.

What Pixar do best is create real, living and breathing characters. The main two: the old widower and the young boy develop throughout the film. I was in tears as the old man had to learn to move on with his grief of his late wife, and touched by scenes with the boy talking about his father.
It's a testament to these compelling characters that make the film what it is.

I wasn't fond of the dog with the 'speaking' collar, but the antagonist was really quite sinister and obsessive - really unsettled me in a couple of scenes.

Speaking of obsession, that is one of the themes in the plot: the old man's obsessed with his house and the boy's obsessed with getting his badge for helping the elderly. There are montage scenes that work so well, especially showing the old man's past. No dialogue, yet it's so enchanting.
Good old-fashioned storytelling, pathos and a some quite consistent, witty laughs make this adventure-cum-self discovery tale work.

Unfortunately, the version I saw was horribly pixilated, so I couldn't completely make out some dark scenes. I'm sure the animation was superb, though, as the faces of the main duo were so expressive.

The score really drives the action scenes and lifts the flying scenes to heights where it soars.

Overall: A very good film, with top notch characterisation, simple and solid storytelling and a believability that sells it for me. Up, while not perfection, ascends to heights that other animation companies could only wistfully dream of - 8/10.

BGT Final - Diversity win!

Wow, what a final! OK, there was a lack of variety, in that there were: 5 singers (Shaheen, Hollie, Susan, Shaun and 2 Grand) and 3 Dance Groups (Flawless, Diversity and Stavros Flatly) and one lone dancer, Aiden and bringing up the rear, sax player Julian.

But with that said, the talent on show was in certain places eyebrow-raisingly good - obviously, I'm referring to who impressed me most, which was Diversity's performance and Shaheen's vocals.

I was worried when both Diversity and the much-hyped Boyle were on stage, as Boyle has the world probably voting for her, but all the while I was praying and repeating the mantra in my head of 'Diversity. Diversity.Diversity'. Well, all I have to say is thank God they won! I was screaming and jumping up and down, clapping my hands like a child.

I'm probably biased as not only do I find them entertaining and witty, but they live in Essex too, like myself. No worries with Susan, cause she'll get signed to Simon's label and make a whole bunch of cash.

Hopefully the same thing with Julian too. So, this is the end of the competition from April 11th to now. Till next year - I hope Series 4 will be even better, if that's possible.