Up

[oyceter]

First: I laughed and laughed and even cried while watching this, had a great time, love it to pieces, thought it was extremely well executed, and loved the voice acting.

Second: I am also a giant fan of having an old protagonist, especially in action scenes, as well as having an Asian-American lead (with actual Asian-American voice!) and making no big deal about it at all. Overall, I love the movie

That said...

I know I've seen quite a lot of feminist critique of this movie, along with Pixar's other work (rightly deserved). Has there been similar post-colonialist critique of it? Because while I love 40s exploration and Indiana Jones as much as the next person, can we have critique of it some time, as opposed to people pointing out that yes, it's a throwback, but oh, isn't it fun? We all know it's fun. But at some point, if you want to keep that sense of "Pow! Bang!" and the dashed paths going across a sepia world map and the fedoras and 40s pin-curled hair and the propeller airplanes, you gotta start making something new, not just doing the same old evocation of the atmosphere while doing nothing further.

And about the squee... I totally get needing the squee. But wouldn't the squee be even better and more awesome, if, say, you had reimaginings of the 40s exploration movies with a queer woman of color in propeller airplanes and fedoras and khaki going across the unexplored areas of Europe? Steampunked (I know the era's different, but you know what I mean) wheelchairs? Wouldn't it be so much cooler to keep the fun trappings and to add another level with a social justice twist?

ETA: spoilers in comments

Comments

[laurashapiro]

We just saw it on Friday, and my thoughts were similar. I wondered if it wouldn't have been better for Russell to have an Asian last name, if he was too assimilated, what my friends would think.

But mostly I wondered about the "South America" visited in the film, how curiously empty it was, of ecosystem, of people. It would almost certainly have been worse if there *had* been people there, given Disney's typical treatment of POC. But I was somewhat reminded of Mammothfail: rather than fuck this up, we'll just erase all those troublesome brown people.

OTOH, they did make Muntz evil, implicitly condemning a certain type of colonialism -- mostly in the shape of environmental damage, wanting to own things that can't be owned (Kevin! I loved Kevin) in order to prove something to the white world. That message is there in the film. I'm not sure it's enough, what with the utter lack of South Americans. But it's there.

On further reflection I wondered if it would have been less problematic to create a fictional continent for Muntz to have explored, so that at least real people were not being erased. Not sure.

[vito_excalibur]

Oh yeah, I totally thought MammothFail. And you know what? I was glad. :/ A novel has enough space that it can address issues. That movie? Where would it have shoehorned it in between the tragedy and the talking dogs?

My expectations, so low.

[laurashapiro]

Yeah, I went there, too.

[oyceter]

Ha, so true! I was thinking: I am so sure if there were people Pixar would have screwed them up.

[oyceter]

Yeah, right after I posted, I was thinking even though I love having Russell in there and not making a big deal of it, I probably would have liked it more had it had a little something about him being Asian Am without it being a big deal. I did very much like seeing his mom there though, and that his relationship with his dad was not miraculously cured.

Very with you on the emptiness of South America and not being sure if not having people is better than having brown people and messing it up.

I do like that they made Muntz evil, but I wasn't entirely sure if the thing about him stealing not just Kevin, but also all the other artifacts were in the subtext. I think so, but... not sure. Also, every time Muntz mentioned how people were trying to steal his stuff, I kept thinking it would be South American ppl, as opposed to presumably white explorers.

But yeah, I am not sure if there is an easy answer to it. Mostly I wanted to know if the critique was out there, because I get sick of people picking up the feminist stuff and not post-colonialism or vice versa and etc.

Just seen the film

[jesuswasbatman]

Agree in general about the dodginess of the lack of any local people. But I think Muntz only caring about white explorers stealing his stuff is in character for a man like him both emotionally and ideologically - he would probably behave horrifically to any indigenous people he met but he wouldn't consider them human enough for them to trigger his paranoia in that way.

Re: Just seen the film

[oyceter]

*nods* That does make sense. And I know it'd be hard for the movie to distinguish between who he thinks will steal his stuff vs. who would actually steal his stuff, though I'm now kind of curious about an Up with Venezuelan Karl and Jordan...

Re: Just seen the film

[jesuswasbatman]

I am hopeful because I think Pixar actually does listen to critiques of the subtexts of their films: Ratatouille keeps the respect for natural talent in The Incredibles while overtly rejecting the creepy subtext of worshiping blood nobility, and Russell's uncommented-on corpulence in Up might be an apology for the fatbashing some perceived in WALL-E.

Re: Just seen the film

[oyceter]

Oh! I had not noticed that progression, but you're right. Here's to hoping for a female protagonist too...