George and A.J.

An accompaniment to everyone's favourite ten minute introductory sequence (I'm holding back the tears already...), this short to 'Up' unravels what happened to the Shady Oaks retirement nurses after Carl moves his house by unleashing thousands of balloons. Let's just say, Carl has now inspired many other individuals in their golden years to inventively move their houses. This includes commanding a hundred cats to pull a house away, a giant drill to dig an underground tunnel and powering a colossal fan to jet across the ocean. It makes for some humour, but that's about all this short has to offer. The rudimentary storyboard animation looks more like fan art than an official Pixar short. Inconsistencies with the feature film, in particular Russell clinging onto the house by hiding underneath it (which didn't happen in the film), indicates that this was made before the film itself. The eponymous retirement nurses lack any charisma and contain minimal expression. And the whole ordeal feels uninspired. It's a downgrade from other accompanying shorts, which is a shame as Pixar usually gets these right. You could say the limited budget was a factor, but if that's the case then don't force the release of something that is of minimal quality. To not put in the effort to fully animate this seemingly deleted scene, well, it's lazy. Animation fans may find it interesting to see the initial conception of this storyboard aesthetic, but unfortunately does not match the quality of its companion feature film.