Up and down in marriage life on movie “Up”
Up, Who didn’t know this masterpiece? Most of us might have watched this movie or this movie might be your favorite movie. A story about Carl Fredricksen, a 78-year-old balloon salesman, is about to fulfill his lifelong dream. He ties thousands of balloons to his house and then flies away to the South American continent. But it didn’t go as planned because he discovered a little boy named Russell and a new adventure waiting for them ahead. The movie effectively portrays the ups and downs of marriage throughout the use of shot, tone and music in its first 10-minutes.
It is interesting to analyze Carl and Ellie’s married life in the beginning of the scene, especially when Carl and Ellie’s kisses both family members show different reactions. Ellie’s family shows excitement and appears in semi-formal and colorful outfits, whereas Carl’s family shows calmness and appears in formal outfits. Both families look like they represent Ellie and Carl’s personalities. In the second scene, there is a woman in her wedding dress cutting a block of wood with a saw and a man at work with his hammer. The use of close-up when Ellie’s cutting a block of wood with a saw is to show that a woman can also do a man’s job, and by showing Carl also working
behind her, it emphasizes that they work together to build their marriage life and not only one person who works hard to build it. The scene shifts to Ellie and Carl hiking up the hill. They lay down while looking at the sky and pointed out each cloud and interpreted the similar shapes until one of them pointed out one cloud and said it looked like a baby shape. If we see the tone here represents happiness and excitement; that might show the first phase or honeymoon stage of marriage life, where romance and intense attraction are still on the air and bond a couple together that lead to the commitment. With the hope of having children, both of them work on it. Ellie paints a bright painted room with a stork and cloth bundles dangling from its beak, while Carl hangs some baby toys in the crib. The purpose of the stork’s painting is to connect it to an old Greek tale about the stork, which emphasizes the look of a stork that is huge and white to signify purity, and is frequently connected with creatures that may offer a bundle of pleasure to each family.
Then the tone of the scene and the instruments get down and sad to represent Ellie’s feelings. From a dark background to a poster of a pregnant woman’s anatomy, which is always found
in obstetricians. Long shots are used here to contrast feelings from the first stage with another stage of marriage life, which is down. The scene changes to Carl seeing Ellie sitting alone in the yard. The use of shot here by showing Ellie looking small is to show her depression and sadness due to the fact that she can’t have any children. So, Carl came down to calm her and gave her a book. The shot here changed to close up to show the title of the book, which is “My Adventure Book.” The purpose of the shot is to show that Carl persuades her to look for another adventure.
The scene begins with a jar with a drawn picture of a house glued in front of it; the purpose of the shot is to show their commitment to save money together to be able to travel to their dream places. But along the process, they have to face every up and down that leads them to break the jar in order to use that money to fix it. The scene also shows how Carl’s tie changes every day with various patterns and colors. The various patterns and colors of Carl’s tie are to show that day by day it has passed with a different story but still with the same person since Ellie always helps him by tightening the tie. At the end of the day, Carl realizes that they are lacking time and they haven’t yet gone to their dream places. That’s why the shot changes into extreme close up to his basket with a boarding ticket with “Venezuela”
written on it. Carl bought the ticket to show that they are one step closer to going to their dream place. Carl decided to persuade her to picnic in the same place when they were young, but she didn’t make it. Ellie gets ill, and the shot focuses on Ellie giving back a book to Carl. In the last pages of the book, Carl finds Ellie’s handwriting, which shows she is grateful and thanks him for the adventure. By giving back the book to Carl, she wants him to find another new adventure. It ends with Carl holding a blue balloon with a sad expression on his face. The use of long shots here is to show Carl depressed and sad due to Ellie’s funeral, since blue is always associated with sadness, followed by the dark tone on the scene.
To conclude, even though there is no speech in the film, the writer and animator succeed in conveying the message to the audience through the use of shot, tone, and music, making it the best 10 minute opening film of all time
