Following the soaring success of the space adventure "WALL·E," Pixar Animation Studios is heading upwards again for "Up." But unlike its robotic predecessor, "Up" doesn't rely on gizmos and rockets to power its new adventure into the great blue yonder: it's going back to basics with the use of helium balloons.

Director Pete Docter and company's work on "Up" began in earnest five years ago, but the genesis of the movie actually goes back to the end of his director's gig on "Monsters, Inc." in 2001. While trying to unwind from his years of work on "Monsters," he spotted a simple drawing that inflated his idea to escape from everyday life.

"We had a drawing of a house buoyed by balloons at the studio, and there was something that was rather poetic and intriguing about it," Docter recalled in a recent @ The Movies interview. "We started asking ourselves, 'Who's in there and where are they going?' So then I drew a picture of these colorful, fun, happy balloons and this super-grouchy guy, and (co-director and screenwriter) Bob Peterson and I sat in a room and developed it all."

Opening in theaters in 2-D and digital 3-D on Friday, "Up" follows the comical yet heartfelt journey of Carl Fredricksen (voice of Ed Asner), a 78-year-old balloon salesman who never quite got the chance to travel with his wife, Ellie, to their dream destination of South America. But when Carl suddenly faces relocation to a retirement home, he inflates thousands of balloons to lift his house off the ground and heads southward -- not knowing there's an enthusiastic 8-year-old boy scout named Russell (Jordan Nagai) on his front porch who's along for the ride.

While "Up" has all the sorts of visual wonders you'd expect out of a Pixar movie, it's just as big on story. At the core of the movie is an emotional tale of a man who has been through the same sorts of personal highs and heartaches that most people experience in real life. But despite the setbacks Carl faces, "Up" ends up being an uplifting tale of optimism -- inspired, no less, by some of Hollywood's greatest movie classics.

"The interesting thing is that the film starts off as anything but optimistic. Carl is this closed-off guy who is shutting the world out and trying to live in denial," Docter said. "But by the end of the movie he's reached out to all these different characters and has become a vital, alive person again, like Rick from 'Casablanca' or Scrooge from 'A Christmas Carol.' I love those sorts of uplifting stories."

Without question, the most emotional scene in "Up" comes in a four-minute interlude early on in the film, that chronicle's Carl and Ellie's life together. Accompanied by fitting music including a gentle piano piece by composer Michael Giacchino, the scene is particularly effective, because, like much of "WALL·E" last year, it has no dialogue.

"I'm really proud of that scene. I grew up in a time where our parents took a lot of Super 8 movies of us. When you watch them, of course it's without dialogue, just the whirr of the projector," said the 40-year-old Docter, a Bloomington, Minn., native. "There's something almost more emotional about it without the sound. With 'Up,' as an audience member you're asked to contribute to the scene and it comes to life in your own head."

Docter said that he and Peterson actually designed the scene with snippets of dialogue, but ultimately decided the "silent" route served it much better. It left Pixar's pioneering director John Lasseter, who also serves as the executive producer of "Up," beaming with pride.

"I think the Carl and Ellie scene is the tour de force of filmmaking. To have so much emotion told in such a short amount of time without dialogue is amazing," Lasseter said in a recent @ The Movies interview. "You know you have something special when it affects you early on. When Pete and Bob read me their treatment -- not even their script but their treatment of that sequence -- I had tears rolling down my face. Everybody around the conference table was crying. We knew that they hit on something."

Even better, the impact of the scene is felt throughout the whole movie. Docter believes it stems from Pixar's commitment to make the characters in every one of its movies feel real, despite the fact that they're really only the creation of an animator.

"From a story standpoint we try to create characters that are relatable in some way, that even though they are fish or monsters or whatever, they have some problem that we see in our own lives," Docter said. "They often times have a hole in their lives that makes them feel like they're not a whole, complete person. Having those holes makes for a richer character."