Compared to last year’s cosmic Wall-E, Up is a more humble film, but no less interested in the triumph of courage and the human spirit.

As with previous Pixar movies, the characters who find their courage are unlikely—in this case, old widower Carl Fredricksen (Edward Asner) and young Russell (Jordan Nagai), a Wilderness Explorer scout with a lot of enthusiasm and few friends. Unlikely heroes are the stock-in-trade of animated features, but Up is triumphant in finding humanity in the archetypes of the cranky old man and clueless youngster even as it puts them in progressively wilder adventures.

But it is an adventure that begins humbly. A wordless, uplifting and heartbreaking sequence gives us the scope of Carl’s life, from his childhood as a would-be adventurer to his marriage to Ellie and their time together. It’s a tearjerker of a montage, but it is crucial to understanding who Carl is: He is not simply a grumpy old man, but a man who has let his world become very small. His days are now defined entirely by worn-out old furniture, faded pictures of Ellie and a battle of wills with a land developer.

Carl also sits on a dream unrealized: He and Ellie both aspired to one day travel to a place called Paradise Falls in Venezuela, the last known destination of their childhood hero, explorer Charles Muntz (Christopher Plummer). When his conflict with the land developer comes to a head, Carl decides to leave for Paradise Falls once and for all. And he won’t be leaving his house. Russell, committed to earning his “Assisting the Elderly” badge, becomes Carl’s unwitting stowaway.

This sequence—when a huge mass of balloons explodes upward in a riot of colors, dragging Carl’s house from its foundation and into the sky—deserves special mention. It is the moment when Up shifts from touching human drama to something much more—and much stranger. It’s an uneasy blend at times, this mix of drama and adventure story, but its existence, the mere thought to create it, is inspired.

Not much more can be said about the plot without spoiling the fun. Better to look at what director Pete Docter and writer/co-director Bob Peterson are doing. Mr. Peterson (who also voices two dogs) previously scripted Finding Nemo and contributed to Ratatouille. Mr. Docter directed Monsters, Inc., which may be Pixar’s most underrated movie.

So many Pixar movies—Monsters, Inc. especially—give us a complete world unfolding as its characters, unfazed, move through it. Up has a more pure spirit of exploration. Its world begins mundane and instantly recognizable, and only becomes stranger, more exotic, the deeper the characters move into it. Carl and Russell’s world becomes more beautiful the further they stray from the known.

But that house—and those balloons. The trick that Docter and Peterson pull off with such deftness is to take a childhood fantasy and project it onto the big screen. Adults near me clapped like children; I understood why. This was witnessing a dream quite literally take flight.

Carl’s house sailing through the sky is a perfect example of what makes Pixar one of the single best movie studios in the world. They are not afraid to show us things that are, simply, beautiful.

This review originally appeared in the United Methodist Reporter.