On a flight from LA to Tokyo, I finally watched the Pixar film UP. Generally, I am not one to love animated films, but my brother boasted about this and I had to see it. Ten minutes into the film, I knew the entirety of it would pull at my heart (or balloon) strings.
It’s with older age, I can appreciate the rich nature that the sentimentality of these films have to offer. There’s such a bittersweetness in watching this elder character carry out his hero’s journey. The storyline begins with two lead characters, Carl and Ellie, who meet in childhood bonding over their love for adventure and explorer Charles Muntz, whose life work was to venture and conquer the unknown in South America. Within a several minute montage, one witnesses Carl and Ellie’s love affair, marriage, home renovation, career, miscarriage, celebrations, and daily rituals. We witness the characters connect, dream, deal with setbacks, surprise one another, age into their retirement years, slow down, and eventually we reach her death. Since childhood, Ellie utilized techniques of manifestation to live an adventurous life, through speaking dreams into her reality, creating a book that served as a vision board, and painting out her future reality in South America. But life gave them setbacks, whether it be their finances, health, car problems, home repairs, or other mishaps. Ellie and Carl never did make it to South America, particularly to Paradise Falls as they envisioned they would have their home one day. The lead character Carl Fredricksen vowed to carry out Ellie’s dreams which were displayed in her Book of Adventure.
As the film progresses, Carl (who appears to be his 70s or 80s) is being pushed out of the home he had built with his wife, and forced into a retirement home. Yet within him still stirs a wild desire to live life more fully, and he is willing to put up creative fight. It’s the call to adventure. A threshold is crossed, obstacles arise. Sidekicks and villains appear as we navigate being in the belly of the whale. Transformation ensues and atonement, and he eventually returns home. The whole hero’s journey was exemplified in UP.
In our own lives, although we may set out goals for how we want to lives to go, our plans pivot for one reason or another. We may meet our heroes and are disappointed. We attain our dreams, and then realize we must let them go to allow our current life to unfold. Sentient beings enter our life in unexpected ways who may need our support. We are guided and taken care of, by mentors and surprising characters. There is a realization that caring for others sometimes must take precedence over our own egoic goals.
At one point in the film, Carl is reviewing his wife’s Book of Adventure, which he assumed just included images of their travel dreams. But as he allowed himself to look further, he found she had posted images of their happy daily life together, which was full of connection and laughter. At the end of the book, she signed a message to him “Thank you for the adventure, now go have an adventure of your own.” It was her blessing from beyond. Sometimes we are living with the ghost of who we once were, in trying to honor another we can constrict what is emerging in the current moment.
There is strength in letting go of what we once hoped to allow a new creative opportunity to flow. Tears streamed down my face as the film neared it’s ending. It was surprising how poignant the life lessons that were exemplified in a cartoon. Whenever we engage with a bittersweet piece of art, we cant help but reflect on how this impact our lives. Watching films such as this can be a contemplative practice, noting how it lands with us today, what emotions arise, and how do we want to direct the narrative of our own stories from this point forward. Films such as this can be catalyst to course correct one’s journey to live in alignment with one’s current authentic values, not those of the past.
It Only Takes A Smile 