Up
Directors: Pete Docter, Bob Peterson
Ong Bak – The Beginning
Directors: Tony Jaa, Panna Rittikrai
I was initially tempted not to review the latest Pixar Animation film, Up, because I expected it to gain a series of five-star reviews to which I could add nothing. But then I heard a noted presenter of a Radio 4 arts programme declare that he would not be taking his 10-year-old son to see it owing to its dark subject matter and I thought: “No wonder the BBC is in crisis”.
Although Up deals with the disappointment of an almost-fulfilled life as experienced by septuagenarian former balloon-seller Carl Fridrickson (Ed Asner), with a heart-wrenching montage chronicling his marriage, it soon turns into a boy’s own adventure as experienced by a very old boy. It is also a film that preaches respect for the elderly. Well, women newsreaders are familiar with the BBC’s attitude to that.
Up is to be congratulated for pushing the boundaries of subjects of animated films – and I’m not just talking about 3D, which is one pair of glasses too many as far as I (and perhaps the elderly) am concerned. Essentially, this is a variation on ET – The Extra Terrestrial, where the wrinkly slow-moving guy is an elderly gent not an alien. The Elliot figure is Russell, a young boy scout who desperately wants to get his “assisting the elderly” badge. He hangs on for dear life as Carl decides to turn his house into a big floating palace rather than let developers tear it down. Russell has no sense of his own peril as they head for Paradise Falls, where Carl intended to one day take his wife. He gets there and experiences an unexpected encounter that takes the film into child-friendly territory.
The film’s other messages – about heroes proving to be a disappointment, the limits of genetic modification and explorers being one step away from demented charlatans – are disseminated with entertaining ease. It may offer the old chestnut that the best adventure is the one you have at home, but makes the point in a left field, consistently humorous and fun way.
When I saw the film in the summer, the representative from Disney explained that Up’s British release was delayed because the company did not want to compete for 3D screens with Ice Age 3. Ironically, it is now up against Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, a winning animated 3D kids flick that my son thinks is the best of the year. Who knew?
Reviewers have been asked very respectfully not to refer to Ong Bak – The Beginning as Ong Bak 2. As far as I am concerned it has no connection with the 2006 film that launched the career of Muay Thai legend, Tony Jaa.
Ong Bak was a contemporary drama about a country boy going to the big bad city on a mission – I forget what. Basically, Tien (Jaa) beat a lot of men up in self-defence. Ong Bak – The Beginning is set in 15th century Thailand at a time of civil unrest. Tien is re-imagined as a warrior’s son who, as a boy, ended up working among bandits and eventually faces the man who murdered his father, who is actually – you guessed it – his adopted father, the bandit who put him through his paces.
Much of the film is Tien as boy and man learning how to fight and, in the most novel sequence, run on top of a herd of elephants – he leaps from one to the other and runs up a tusk. For a 90-minute film, there is not much of a plot, just a series of set pieces. Young Tien takes on a crocodile. Adult Tien takes on a woman who looks like a vampire and growls like a cat – very confusing.
The violence against a woman and an Afro-Caribbean – one fatal, the other comic – veers towards the offensive. I only wish the frequently slow-motion action ballet got me that worked up. Jaa is one of the few not to sign up for Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo coalition of action stars, The Expendables, due out in August 2010. Instead, next year we are promised to see him only, as the voiceover says, if we pray, in Ong Bak 3 – or, as we shall probably be asked to call it, Ong Bak – The Middle.
Patrick Mulcahy
