The first ten minutes of Pixar's Up have been said to be better than most movies entirely, or at least a better love story than Twilight. Although they might be exaggerated, these claims do have solid reasoning. Pixar is able to progress from first introducing young Carl, then to warming the hearts of the audience with his simple, happy marriage, to finally (spoiler alert) making the audience sob as his wife dies - all in the span of a mere ten minutes. This is what makes the opening to Up a masterpiece. By intertwining the two themes of simplicity and unexpectedness, it shows us that even the simplest lives don’t always go as planned.
The opening to Up can be split into two parts: the background and the montage. The background shows young Carl's awe-stricken face as he watches Charles Muntz, a famous explorer. It also shows him running on the sidewalk pretending to be on a vast journey. This establishes Carl's fascination with adventure.
This is where the first of many unexpected occurrences takes place. He just happens to overhear Ellie, as she's shouting Charles Muntz's motto, "Adventure is out there!" from an abandoned house on the street. He enters the house and encounters Ellie for the first time, starting their lifelong relationship. Unlike the complex character progressions that usually come with a…show more content… Throughout the montage, we see a continuation of two major themes established in the background: simplicity and unexpectedness. For examples of simplicity, take Ellie eagerly jumping to kiss Carl during their wedding, Carl carrying her home after the wedding, Carl accidentally leaving his handprint on the mailbox they were painting, and Ellie adding her own handprint. These things show us that, as a couple, the two of them are very cutesy; they have an almost childlike happiness in their marriage. This emphasizes the simplicity of their
