Disney Pixar’s latest animated flick, Up, offers an unusually practical message. The movie also presents audiences with several themes that are new to both Disney’s and Pixar’s repertoires. The first and most innovative theme is that of elderly characters in prominent roles. Carl Fredricksen, the film’s curmudgeonly seventy-eight-year-old hero, does not fit snugly into either of Disney’s ubiquitous “old people” roles; he is neither wise, kindly grandfather nor evil, wealthy villain. Rather, he is a lonely, working-class widower without children, pets, or any of the other modifiers that children’s movies usually assign elderly characters in order to make them appealing to kids.

The absence of sympathetic elderly characters in children’s movies is likely due to the screenwriters’ and producers’ assumption that children are uninterested in or unable to relate to old people. However, the gasps, giggles, and exuberant cheering on the part of the mostly five-to-twelve-year-old audience at the screening I attended confirmed the decision to portray a new age group to be a worthwhile risk. Although Russell, Fredricksen’s child counterpart, provides a youthful vitality to a film that might otherwise consist solely of backache and dentures jokes, it’s Fredricksen, not Russell, to whom the audience relates. Chubby, gullible, and overly cheerful, Russell is certainly cute, but he is no role model for young moviegoers to admire or envy. It’s Fredricksen who conceives of Up’s South American adventure, Fredricksen whose romantic relationship sets the film’s drama snowballing into motion, and Fredricksen whose walker-wielding skills in a battle against the movie’s villain, Charles F. Muntz, caused the entire child population of the movie theater to erupt into applause when I saw the film.

The second unusual theme apparent in Up is an emphasis on technology instead of magic. Disney films usually lean heavily on magic to move plots along (plus, the word “magic” appears on every piece of merchandise that Disney produces) and Pixar films notoriously involve talking toys, animals, and machinery. Yet nearly all of the whimsical or surreal occurrences in Up result from technological innovations; the flying house floats not by its own volition, but rather suspended by a gigantic balloon bouquet, and Muntz’s talking dogs communicate by means of high-tech collars that convert doggy thoughts into human speech. Indeed, Up takes place in realistic settings and involves flawed, human characters—which suggests to young viewers that the magical beauty of reality could be present in any of their lives.

Another theme in Up that I found particularly refreshing was the loving, non-dysfunctional relationship that Carl Fredricksen shared with his late wife Ellie. Born from a common interest (a passion for Muntz’s explorations), Carl and Ellie’s love is a welcome exception from the evil parents, broken families, and orphans that have always been the darlings of children’s movies.

Just as The Wizard of Oz swept depression-era audiences off their feet with a message that home was the best place to be despite economic strains, Up offers recession-era children (and their parents) an optimistic and non-escapist message: working-class people of all ages can find love and adventure in their own lives and hometowns.

Two words of warning: Up is rated PG instead of G for a reason. Some of the movie’s violence is disturbingly graphic (e.g., bleeding head injuries), which could frighten young viewers. Also, I would not suggest seeing the film in 3D. Although this option adds some depth to the movie’s stunning graphics, the effects are hardly noticeable and not worth the extra dough.