Up

From the desk of The Movie Snob

Up (B+). The animated short that precedes this new Pixar release is called Partly Cloudy, if memory serves. We all know that storks bring new babies, but did you ever wonder where the storks get the babies from? This enjoyable short proposes one answer to that question. You've probably heard all about the feature presentation--a grumpy old widower ties about a million helium-filled balloons to his house and takes off for adventure in South America. A rotund little cub scout accidentally stows away on his front porch. The two of them reach South America and have adventures. Truth be told, the movie kinds of drags in the middle. But the opening sequence, which tells the story of the widower's childhood and marriage in just a few minutes, is marvelous and heartbreaking, and the end of the movie picks up the steam that the middle is sorely lacking. It's worth seeing, but it could have been better