Up A Blu-ray DVD Review	DVD Rated - PG It's 1:36 Long A Review by The Dude on the Right

Unless you have been living under a rock, or at the top of a giant rock in South America, you have seen the trailer for the latest Pixar/Disney release "Up."  The story is pretty simple: We have Carl.  Ever since he was a little boy he has dreamed of being an adventurer, thanks mostly to his idol, Charles Muntz.  Lucky for Carl he meets Ellie, a girl also dreaming of adventure, and as their lives move on, and they become married, they do have their own adventure. However, one thing is missing from their adventure, namely a trip to "Paradise Falls," a place Mr. Muntz has talked about yet no one else has seemed to find.  Sadly, and of course this is a Disney story so the lady has to die, therefore Ellie passes away leaving Carl sort of lonely, with his house about to be taken over by a big, bad developer, but as this is developing, enter Russell.  Russell is a kid looking for his adventurer badge for helping an old person, and low and behold, he picks Carl to help.  As Russell's luck would have it, on the day Carl decides to launch his house into the sky with millions of helium balloons, Russell is a castaway and as much as Carl is miffed at the fact of having a travel companion, of course we find that they both need each other.

In any case, our duo makes their way to "Paradise Falls," participate in a great adventure, find a cool bird and a "talking" dog named Dug, and lessons are learned about friendship, needing people, chasing dreams, and realizing that your boyhood idol can grow up to be an A-1 jerk.

Yup, "Up" ends up a feel-good, is up there with the best of the Pixar flicks, and for the movie it's 5 stars out of 5, and even made me a little weepy.

Now, as far as the Blu-ray and extras go, I have to say that in the "A whole lot of bang for your buck" category, "Up" on Blu-ray is way up there.  First off are the basic extras.  There is a nice little short about Dug the dog that kids will probably find fun.  Yay!  But for me, being sort of artsy and geeky, I was fascinated by the "Adventure is Out There" feature, where the Pixar folks head to the tepuis of South America to do research for the film, seeing elements they would add to the movie first-hand, i.e. the rock formations, waterfall, and plant life.  There is also a nice explanation as to how Muntz came to his demise, and of course you can opt for the commentary view of the film, and all of that is only on Blu-ray Disc #1.  As you pop in Blu-ray Disc #2, if you are even the least bit interested in how an animated movie, or heck, any movie gets "dreamed" up, you get a cornucopia of documentaries of explanations, including the detail that goes into creating characters like Carl and Muntz in "Geriatric Hero" and Russell in "Russell: Wilderness Explorer."  There is a great explanation of the development of the dogs, of Kevin the bird, of the flying house, and heck, even "designing" the house, and if you are a music lover, well, you get some music explanation, too.  But Disc #2 isn't only about how the movie was made, nope, you get the alternate sketched scene of Carl and Ellie during their married life (and I have to agree with the folks that kicked this original concept to the curb resulting in the rewrite that ended up in the movie), and finally, for the kids who are a little older, you get a nice little Blu-ray game, "Global Guardian Badge Game" where the kids get to test their knowledge of states, countries, and such (and I have to admit that I still always get New Hampshire and Vermont confused on a map of the United States).

But wait, if you get the 4-disc Blu-ray pack, if you've got a boring, old, normal DVD player, maybe in your computer, you get a standard DVD of the film, and wait again, there's even more, because the 4th disc is a DisneyFile Digital Copy so that you can watch the movie on the go via your iTunes option or Windows Media.

So, movie alone you are getting a 5 star, wonderful film for the entire family, but spring the extra couple of bucks for the 4 Disc Blu-ray pack because then you are set for years, and you just might learn a thing or two about world geography.