Charm & grace

Pixar sees its role as picking up where the classic Disney movies left off. With Up, the studio continues | Megan Basham

Disney/Pixar

Two weeks before its theatrical release, Pixar's 10th feature film, Up, shaped up to be yet another in a long string of hits. Thanks to an early press tour and a headlining spot at the Cannes Film Festival, critics had an earlier-than-usual peek at the film about an old man's adventure with a lonely boy after his house floats to South America on a bunch of balloons, and reactions so far have been glowing. Of the 20 critiques posted to date at RottenTomatoes.com, a website that averages the reviews of professional film critics across the country, all are positive.

That's quite an achievement for any mainstream release, but it has become par for the course for Pixar, the animation film studio that has managed not only to rack up big box-office numbers with movies like Toy Story, Finding Nemo, and The Incredibles, but also near-unanimous critical acclaim. During last year's Oscar season, for example, writers at New York magazine and Variety expressed the opinion that Wall•E, which won for best animated feature, deserved a best picture nomination as well.