High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Up is a 2009 computer-animated film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. The film, which premiered on May 29, 2009, in North America, became the first animated 3D film to open the Cannes Film Festival. It was directed by Pete Docter, co-directed by Bob Peterson, and produced by Jonas Rivera. The film centers on an elderly widower, named Carl Fredricksen, and a young Wilderness Explorer, named Russell, who fly to South America in a house suspended by helium balloons. The movie received both critical acclaim and box office success, opening in 3,766 theaters domestically, debuting at number one with $68,108,790 and grossing over $731 million worldwide.