Ready for this...
I did not love Up.
There, I said it. And I don't feel dirty for doing so.
Make no mistake, Up is a very good film, but falls far short of most of the films in the Pixar universe. I would rank it around Cars and A Bug's Life at the bottom of the Pixar list. It is not close to Wall*E, the Brad Bird films, Nemo, Monsters Inc, or Toy Story-- that's for sure.
There were huge problems with the Up story. The timeline was all messed up-- especially the age relationship between the Carl and the bad guy (which should have been 20+ years but appeared to be nothing). Even my kids were bothered by the way they flew all the way to SAmerica seemingly in just a few hours. I know it seems silly to complain about realism in a story about a man who uses a bunch of balloons to fly his house to the Amazon, but it did bother me and my kids kept on asking me questions because it was bothering them.
It did not feel to me like all that much interesting stuff happened in the story. It was pretty flat and ordinary from an exposition standpoint and had none of the depth that, for example, Wall*E had. The quality of the animation was good, it always is in a Pixar film, but I was surprised that I was not more impressed with the SAmerican vistas. I vividly recall being breathless at the animation in Nemo, Monsters Inc, and Wall*E-- that never happened in this film.
Make no mistake, it was a good movie and an enjoyable one. If you are looking for a kid flick, you could certainly do a lot, lot, lot worse. But, it will not be one of the top 5-10 movies of the year as most Pixar films are and I will not be going back to see it again.
--Jason "the stork and cloud short was cute and funny" Evans