When Pixar Studios – creators of computer animated films including Finding Nemo and The Incredibles – made Cars, it was a bad sign. That film was supposedly about the value of old things, especially mourning the death of Route 66. But it was really about the director’s (John Lasseter Pixar CEO ) love of toys. John Lasseter seems to be about one-third suit and one-third geek. It’s too easy to say that the final third of him is “artist,” but with only Toy Story coming from deep within him, that’s not quite right. The final third is “impresario.” Lasseter’s genius is to nurture and develop a stable of artists who can delight an audience. And Up is nothing if not a garden of delights. This is the kind of movie that Hollywood used to do so well: an unabashedly broad, story-driven, fantasy-fueled adventure that changes the very connotation of “factory-made.” The story involves a crotchety old man, Karl (voiced by Ed Asner) who gets fed up, attaches a billion balloons to his house, and floats away to South America. Like Cars, that idea implies an interest in old things – but this time, a much deeper one. Old folks are invisible in our use upset culture; when they aren’t productive workers any more, they’re tucked away, their wisdom lost to us. To make Karl really VISIBLE, writers show us his whole life.