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I finally saw Pixar’s Up yesterday. I’d heard great things about it and that everyone loved it. But like most animated movies, I took my sweet time coming around to see it. Frankly I have a habit of avoiding Pixar films, I like them but they’re not one of my passions. Animation just doesn’t excite me, which is tragic because Pixar puts some great story into them.

What I did find interesting was how many story related positions they covered in the movie’s credits. Which shouldn’t be that surprising, Pixar puts a lot of focus on story. It also farms out story duties, not relying on a sole screenwriter or screenwriters to come up with everything.

Away We Go was more akin to a foreign film for me. It has some interesting dialog and characters but the whole time you’re waiting for the movie to start. It’s basically a road trip movie with no outer objective other than to investigate potential places to move. But there’s nothing at stake, there’s nothing to overcome, no villain to defeat. They don’t even try to create an artificial antagonist or ticking clock. No matter how cute the characters are you begin to ask just what the point is.

Saw The Hangover as part of a sneak peak. Seeing the previews and that it’s director also did Old School, I was expecting a lot and wasn’t let down. It has the off beat characters, cameos, and unexpected jokes but doesn’t crush that under too much plot. It somehow also manages to not go off the deep end chasing jokes.

The plot’s pretty simplistic and set up in the first minute. Most comedies deal with character growth – redemption, overcoming a fear, etc. however this one is more akin to an action movie. It’s better for hanging the jokes and doesn’t suffer the third act lag as the character growth comes in.

That said a couple of times it also goes into some uncomfortable territory, especially for mainstream audiences. It’s no Observe and Report where the majority of the movie is spent there, but it does seem to be the trend these days.