Up is the latest offering from Disney/Pixar. It is something of a departure from more light hearted recent offerings. The central character Carl Fredricksen who we first meet as a small boy who idolises his hero the explorer Charles Muntz. He meets a young girl Ellie, to whom he makes the solemn promise that he will take her to Paradise Falls - where their hero Muntz was last seen. We then see Carl and Ellie marry, we see their life together through a series of snapshots, but their dream, Carl's promise to Ellie remains unfulfilled, at the very point at which he has the tickets to keep his promise, Ellie Dies.

We then see Carl as he lives with his loss. When tragedy strikes and he is being forced to go to a retirement home he decides to escape. Tying hundreds of balloons to his house he lifts off headed for Paradise Falls to keep his promise. Unbeknown to him he has picked up a young boy (Russell) trying to earn his assisting the elderly badge. What follows is an adventure story in which Carl learns Ellies last wish was for him to have his own adventure, their marriage having been enough of an adventure for her.

One of the major questions that Up! raises is that of meaning in life. It is clear that without Ellie Carl has lost his meaning in life. Their big dream was to make it to Paradise Falls, it is what gave them hope, what they were aiming for, it was their purpose in life. Without Ellie Carl is purposeless and it is only when he is about to lose the house they built and lived in that he gets a new purpose, to fulfil that promise he made so long ago. But what then? Instead Carl embarks on a new adventure, he has a new purpose with Russell.

But is that really all their is to life? Is our lifes purpose defined by the relationships we are in? Surely their must be more to life than that. As Carl finds out the problem with even the greatest marriage is that one of you is invariably left alone and then what?

I think if Jesus met someone in that situation he would encourage that longing for adventure, nurture that desire for relationships. He would remind us that we are made just as he made us - we are made to know and be known, we are made to relate to people because we are made in God's image. But I think he would also provide a challenge, not to make someone else our idol, but actually to get to know God through him, and in so doing discover the true purpose of life.

Christianity & Culture