Cinematical‘s got a link to the picture above, purportedly a piece of concept art on display at one of Disney’s studios, where it could be photographed by any old tourist walking through. Pretty good bonus for all that thankless walking and spending sightseers have to do every day.
Director Pete Docter told Time last summer that the Up is a “coming-of-old-age story about a seventy-something guy who lives in a house that looks like your grandparents’ house smelled.” Furthermore, “our hero travels the globe, fights beasts and villains and eats dinner at 3:30 in the afternoon.“
That’s all I need to get interested in the flick. I’ve got a serious affinity for movies with the courage to focus on older characters when typically the story might revolve around a spring chicken. (Like Jackie Brown, or The Golden Girls.) They don’t have to be grumpy, but it helps. This image just confirms that I’ll be just as eager to see Up as I have been; implications of aerial combat are icing on the cake.
NOTE: Don’t let the image fool you into expecting a classic 2D film. While that would be really (really, really) neat to see from Pixar, the studio has always done 2D concept art, and my understanding is that Up will be a CG flick like Pixar’s other films. Anyone with valid info to the contrary is more than welcome to dispute that. I believe Pixar will put their name on a 2D flick eventually, but this probably isn’t it.