Disney’s new film set for glory with Oscar

But while the story of a grumpy old man might not seem to be the natural successor to Wall-E, so far their new film Up has picked up an award at Cannes and taken top spot when it opened in the US last May.

Director Pete Docter, who worked on Monsters, Inc, prefers to play coy when it comes to the early Oscar buzz surrounding his new film.

”It’s cool,” he says, with a shrug.

”You never know (what will happen). We just try to make the best movie we can.”

Despite his modesty, some believe the 10th Disney-Pixar film and the first to be shown in 3D, could be one of Disney-Pixar’s finest filmmaking moments yet.

Carl Fredrickson (voiced by Edward Asner) is an unlikely hero for a Hollywood film.

Lonely and miserable after the death of his wife, the old man decides to head off on a great adventure to the wilds of South America, and is inadvertently joined by young explorer Russell (Jordan Nagai) and talking dog Dug (Bob Peterson).

”It was based out of that feeling everybody has,” says Pete. “There are days when the world is too much, you just have to get home, and hide under your bed or go to your happy place, and for Carl, his happy place is this floating house.”

Early on, Pete and his co-writer Bob Peterson came up with the image of a floating house held aloft by balloons, which, he says, “seemed to capture what we were after in terms of escaping the world”.

”That, coupled with wanting really to do something with an old man, a grouchy, old curmudgeonly guy who would have a lot of strong attitudes and opinions about things,” he continues.

”Bob and I had some fun thinking about an old man character like the ones we love from the George Booth cartoons and all those great Spencer Tracy and Walter Matthau type of guys who are grouchy but you still like them.”

Many of us will have also dreamt of getting away from the monotony of everyday life and escaping to tropical climates.

”Sometimes at the end of a tough day at work when you’re just so overwhelmed with people and the chaos of the world, I would have this fantasy of being shipwrecked on a desert island in the Pacific,” says Pete.

The film is sure to tug at the heart-strings, perhaps even more so than previous Disney-Pixar offerings.

”In this case, we knew we had a lot of comedy, a lot of fun, action, adventure and some really goofy stuff too so I felt like it was necessary to ground that in an emotional foundation,” says the Minnesota-born director.

”You look back at some of our favourite films — Dumbo, It’s A Wonderful Life, Casablanca — they all have this great balance of humour and action and that emotion is really crucial.”

He adds: “For me personally, what makes a film worth watching is when you go home and you’re still thinking about it, not only the next day, but the next year.

”In order to have a film affect you that way, it has to have real emotion and resonate in some way with your own life.

So even though the stars of the film may be monsters or bugs, you identify with those characters on the screen and you understand what they’re going through. It’s important to have that foundation of real truth and an emotional attachment to the characters.”

Pete used his own experiences to help build Carl’s journey towards finding the true meaning of life, ”Every year, my family takes a road trip. For about two weeks, we set out on the road and head off to National Parks and other interesting places to see this amazing country that we live in. It’s great to see the world, but spending time together as a family is equally, if not more, important.

”What the world is really about is relationships, and that’s what Carl comes to discover,” says the Oscar-nominated filmmaker.

He recalls: “A few years ago, I went to Europe with my wife and kids.

“We stayed in fancy hotels, ate amazing food, visited castles and had this big adventure.

”One night, we were having hot chocolate at a small department store cafe in Paris — nothing special — and I was laughing and joking with my kids. It was an amazing trip to a fantastic place, and what I remember most is the small stuff.”

Despite his two decades of experience, Pete denies that making movies is always a challenge.

”It never gets easier,” he admits.

”There are always new ways that the story conspires to trick us, to fool us into thinking we have the right solution. It’s only with a lot of reworking — and reworking and reworking — that you get good stuff.

”We still don’t know everything, but we allow ourselves to make mistakes. I hope we never think of ourselves as experts — we learn something new on every film.”