Pixar Does It Again: Up Opens Today

It's deja vu...once again, Pixar appears to have a four-star hit on its hands with its latest release, UP.

The voice stars include Ed Asner and Christopher Plummer...and yes, Pixar's "good luck charm," John Ratzenberger, has a role as a construction foreman.

USA Today's 4-star review (click title of post) headlines: "Soars with delight...great visuals."

"The company...maintains its standard of excellence. UP will elicit a giddy joy among audience members with its gorgeous visuals and glossy 3-D animation. But the film's exquisite emotional depth puts it in a category of its own... Easily the summer's, and probably the year's, most enchanting movie, UP is a buoyant delight."

The New York Daily News: "Will enchant viewers of all ages." "Every detail...has been tended to by a Pixar perfectionist."

And the Los Angeles Times: "It's not only good, it's one of Pixar's best. Some films are an obligation to write about, UP is the purest pleasure... Rarely has any film, let alone an animated one powered by the logic of dream and fantasy, been able to move so successfully -- and so effortlessly -- through so many different kinds of cinematic territory."

And so the unbroken chain of animated Pixar classics continues...

Saturday Update: Leonard Maltin weighs in, saying the film is "an amazing achievement... I can’t remember the last time I saw an animated feature that even attempted to touch on so many emotions. This one swings for the fences—and connects."