I was with my mother when I watched Up at SM Marikina last Monday September 7, 2009. It was the first time that my mother and I went to see a movie all by ourselves. Well, she could have let me watch the movie alone but she still went with me. Mother stood up for me again at that time. She stood up for me when we watched “Up.”
Months before Up was shown in cinemas here in the country, I have seen its clips from an appliance store in Sta. Lucia East Grand Mall. I was delighted with the little kid (Russell) because he looked like one of my friends. Among all the clips that were shown on every television display, it was the television that showed Up which I could not take my eyes of. Now I know why it was sticky to my eyes.
There was mother and I with our 3D glasses on waiting for the movie and we sat beside an old couple, I think. When the movie was showing and mother and I would react, I noticed the old woman beside mother looking at us as if delighted with our reactions. After the movie, mother told me she noticed that too. Well, maybe they were really delighted with us just like how Carl felt delighted with Russel in the latter part of the movie or Russel getting delighted with the talking dog and Kevin, the bird.
I thought the movie was just one of the animated movies I saw. But instead of more laughter, the movie moved me and mother into more tears. The life story of Carl and Ellie when they got married, they spent time together in the house and with the kids in the village, they gazed at the clouds with the special formation of the turtle that I love, they found out that they could not have children, until when Ellie died, all these made the rain come out of my eyes. Good thing the tears did not cloud my 3D glasses.
Carl and Ellie’s story was tragic but it also portrays a lot of happiness. Most of the time, when a husband finds out that his wife is sick of some sort and won’t have children, he tends to leave the wife. But to Ellie’s dying days and beyond, Carl remained faithful to her and even succeeded in fulfilling her long time adventure plan and that is to situate their house in the Paradise Falls in South America. But in fulfilling this dream, he realized that going there could not have been his only journey all along and that it would not have been what Ellie wanted him to do for himself. As an old man, Carl took away the stinginess in him and realized another adventure he could endeavour into and that is with this kid Russell who wishes for the “helping the elderly” badge and has accidentally been stowed away when Carl set his house up in the sky with balloons.
Russell’s story touched me as well. He may look like some kind of wacky kid who insists on something he likes from an elderly. But when he camped out with Carl, Kevin, and the talking dog on their way to Paradise Falls, his story was revealed. Just like me, Russell’s father does not come home to them. Fulfilling that last badge would mean something to him because his father could pin the badge for him. This situation is similar to that of For One More Day. A child tries to be someone to please his father. But reality bites. Sometimes, what we wish for would not come true but other people are sent to us as alternatives or even more instead of those we wish for. We just have to be contented and thankful. Russell might not want the last badge anymore because Carl has let Kevin be abducted by the supposed to be role model icon that Carl and Ellie idolized but in the end he still gets it even without his father pinning it to him. Nonetheless, there was the old Carl who stood up like a father for him and gave him even more what he expected. If I would be Russell, I think I would be very fulfilled with all the achievements and adventures I’ve been through with this old man. The badges would mean nothing in the first place. Having saved Kevin and all the dogs from cruelty would already suffice his being a true wilderness explorer.
How I wish I could find the Carl in my life. The first Carl would take care of me as a daughter more than what my true father has done and the second Carl would love me and remain faithful to me until death separates us. How I wish those kinds of people still exist. Maybe that is the adventure I’m yet to go through. Why not? I’m life’s wilderness explorer!
So what have I learned with all the connections this movie has revealed to me? Well, I have learned that in achieving something, there would really be sacrifices. You wouldn’t get hold of something when you don’t know how to let go. Carl wouldn’t have saved more lives if he stuck into pulling his house with him. It was his letting go that made him achieve something bigger. Life is an adventure and we do it for people and for ourselves. Just like what Ms. Annabella Santos-Wisniewski of the Discovery Suites said, “It’s always an uphill battle. Keep on climbing.” Indeed, if we never stop trying and doing the things we do, our only way is up.
Mother stood up for me and the omens were realized. I could relate so much with the movie and I pray that the old couple sitting beside us would be just like Carl and Ellie. It might have been another animated 3D movie but why have I filled three pages of review, reflection, and reaction if it meant nothing? Let us all climb our skies and we’ll see each other up there!
--September 8, 2009
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