George et A.J.

If you remember the Pixar movie UP, you may recall that a couple of men from the retirement home were coming to take him there when he thwarted everyone (except the audience), by attaching many balloons to his house. In this ultra-short cartoon, they don't know what to make of it, but when local news reports on it, all the other elderly people in town quickly figure it out. Much to the bafflement of those two men.

This partially animated short seems to have first appeared on television. It has shown up on various home video sets since then -- how do you think I saw it? Despite its deliberately poor production values, it is very well written.

I am pretty sure this is just colorized storyboards of rejected gags from the movie UP. If it is not the animation style sure feels like that. There is a amusing daft vibe to this short and most of the gags are funny. But it doesn't have the care of most Pixar works.

This animated short ties in the the Pixar film Up.

George & AJ from Shady Oaks Retirement Village knock on Carl Fredricksen's home to bring in to the retirement home.

Something they have been tried to for a while as Carl is always making them wait or being evasive.

This time the house flies away leaving George & AJ in a state of shock.

Pretty soon other elderly people are inspired to escape in daring ways each time George & AJ come knocking.

An amusing enough animated short but the animation is crude, it does not even look like CGI but something produced in Flash.

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.

This short movie is related to the Pixar movie "Up".

I remember the scene flying house so well. It was a brave and brilliant moment!

According to this short film, there were many ideas to escape to an elderly house.