[Gemini Cricket]

Stuff I loved:

Spoiler:

I loved the talking dog collars. "I love you temporarily" line had me in stitches. The malfunctioning collar had me rolling, too.

LOVED the beginning montage of him as a kid. So cute as a little boy. That is primo storytelling right there. Ten thumbs up.

Loved Russell. Great character. He was Asian and they didn't have to bring up his race to hammer some point in or something like that. He was Japanese... so what. I liked that.

I love that Pixar made a hero out of a 80 year old guy. That's brilliant. But... see below...

Stuff I didn't love:

Spoiler:

The director spent all this energy showing us a capable elderly man on an adventure and then takes it all away with the stereotypical fight between the two men. False teeth, cane, oh my back went out... you know, all that stuff. Meh.

Once they got to their destination, I started to lose interest in the story.

I liked the payoff in the book. Ellie was trying to tell him something from the grave, but as much as he missed her, wouldn't he have scoured that book from cover to cover at some point prior to the trip?

The reveal of the balloons at the beginning. I agree with iSm's other post.

I didn't think there was enough time spent flying in the house. I thought that would be neat seeing how they cope with being inside a house that is constantly shifting, swaying, etc.

I didn't love the constant Ellie-reminder moments. Yes, that's her picture again and again...

I wasn't blown away by the villain. Part of me was bothered that he was duped, the freaking bird really did exist. But yeah he murdered all those people. And I'm thinking not by himself so those dirty dogs at the Wilderness Meeting at the end were accomplices... maybe...

The Russell scene where he's being smeared across the windows of the zeppelin reminded me of Homer's butt being smeared across the Crystal Cathedral during an episode of the Simpsons...

I didn't care for Partially Cloudy. Clever idea, yes... but... I thought the payoff to the movie should have been the stork seeing how much joy he was giving to the parents of the animals he had to deliver. Yeah, they were dangerous and all but not to their loving parents who will without a doubt love them no matter what...