the first twenty minutes holds me taut and I always cry.
:-)

That sense of frustration every time they pull out the hammer and then what happens when he finally buys the tickets? I can see that.

With me though that one moment with the photos justifies* Carl's happiness of his life with Ellie** whilst also freeing him to tackle Munz and it is the moment that makes the movie sing for me.

*Not really what I mean but I can't find the right word for it.
**And for all the frustrations (that scene in the hospital after painting the bedroom is heartrending) Carl and Ellie did clearly have a happy life together. Not realising that is possibly what was holding Carl back.

I enjoyed "Up". It wasn't quite perfect -- The Incredibles comes closest to that -- but it was fun. I felt that it missed out on a couple of opportunities to rise above merely "good Pixar".

That's not saying it's a bad film -- Pixar, thus far, has managed to avoid jumping the shark for an amazing length of time, and I keep expecting the next one to be a trainwreck. But it's not as good, from my POV, as The Incredibles or even Toy Story. It's better than Cars -- which was, again, still a good movie.

I agree that it isn't the best of the Pixar catalogue but it is still a classic Pixar in that the story overrides any discussion of the CGI etc.

And, hey, "good Pixar" is still an extremely high standard for any film. :)

Oh, certainly. I'm not sure any studio before has managed to maintain quality for this long.

Studio Ghibli springs to mind.