Forgive me for being rather corny, but is there anything as sweet and simple as a balloon? No matter how old you are, if someone hands you a balloon your day gets just a little bit brighter. Who out there hasn't taken hold of one and hoped, just this once, that it would take off with you attached? Who hasn't wondered how many it would take to send you flying into the air? Few of us have ever dreamed as ambitiously as Carl (Ed Asner), the elderly hero of Disney/Pixar's "Up," which floats into theaters this Friday. Carl painstakingly figures out just how many balloons it would take to carry his whole house into the sky, and he flies away on the adventure of a lifetime.
In the spirit of Carl, I've decided to list five of Hollywood's greatest balloons. It was tough work, debating whether "James and the Giant Peach's" floating peach counted and how high Lex Luthor's (Gene Hackman) jailbreak in "Superman II" should rank against the rest. In the end, these are the five I decided on. Please feel free to share your favorites in the comments below. Read more...