The folks at Disney and Pixar have released a teaser trailer for the upcoming animated feature Up. The adventure story involving an old man, a young boy and a flying house is slated to hit theaters on May 29, 2009. Director Pete Docter (Monsters, Inc.) introduced exclusive footage of the movie at Comic-Con in San Diego over the weekend. The general public can get a glimpse at www.disney.com/up.
Up stars iconic actor Ed Asner as the voice of Carl Frederksen, a 78-year-old man who is about to be evicted from his home when he unleashes a plethora of helium balloons that lift the house off of its foundation and into the sky. Determined to fulfill a dream he shared with his late wife, he sets a course for an exotic, largely uncharted part of Venezuela, where he plans to set the house down and live out the remainder of his life atop a remote plateau. At 30,000 feet in the air, he hears a knock at his door and realizes he has a stowaway. Russel is an eight-year-old boy who has collected every Wilderness Explorer badge except one, the badge for assisting the elderly. Together the two embark on a thrilling adventure and develop an unlikely friendship. The voice cast also includes Christopher Plummer, Delroy Lindo and, of course, John Ratzenbeger.
‘This is honestly the highlight of my career,’ Docter enthused during the Comic-Con panel on Saturday, noting that Up is hard to slap a label on. ‘It’s not just a comedy or a buddy picture,’ he said, ‘It’s a love story and it’s a Pixar movie, what more do you need?’
Docter told fans that Up was inspired by Disney’s Nine Old Men, whom he wrote letters to as an aspiring animator. ‘I realized that these old guys had done all these amazing things and then I began to look at other elderly people and wonder ‘what’s his story?’
Co-directed by Bob Peterson, Up will be Pixar’s first movie designed for stereoscopic 3-D presentation. Toy Story 3 will also be release in 3-D in 2010, following 3-D re-releases of Toy Story (Oct. 2, 2009) and Toy Story 2 (Feb. 12, 2010).
