I just got back from my Advanced Screening of Up (3 weeks ahead of the general release), and my Crowd Report was certainly memorable!
For one thing, it began with a crisis! Yes, the dreaded Murphy’s Law strikes again… lemme explain.
Firstly, I arrived at the theatre late (I got up later than expected, and entered the lobby exactly at 11, after taking a cab). The ‘jump the queue’ queue was ironically longer than the walk-in line, but I took my chances. I didn’t print the ticket cos’ they said you can just quote the customer reference number (and I actually planned to arrive at the cinema earlier just in case they needed me to print it and I could then run to the Internet cafe downstairs). But all the folks in front of me were clutching printed receipts! 
Needless to say, I was nervous. I didn’t want to miss the trailers, much less the short or opening sequence! 
Thankfully, the box-office guy accepted my quotation and printed the ticket and handed the glasses to me then. I got through the usher and entered the theatre, expecting to hear the ads or something, but the pre-show screenings hadn’t even started! This was about ten minutes after the scheduled start-time. So I sat in my seat in the back-row to the left of this kid (He was British judging from his accent) and his family, with a spare seat to my right. A plump young woman with glasses was breathing heavily to the right of that spare seat. Crowd turnout was pretty good, almost all of the seats were taken save for a few rows at the front, so folks here must have been as enthusiastic as me to watch this early.
So I lay back, and the lights dimmed about a few minutes later. They started with the awful Aliens in the Attic trailer, but right about the same time the first reel played, loud static noise screamed out of the speakers (the kind you hear when a TV channel has poor reception and the screen’s all fuzzed). So the noise overpowered the original trailer’s audio (thank goodness for that!), but after it finished playing, they cut the projector. Then a service rep came out and apologised to the audience. He explained “this was the first time they are playing this movie in Digital 3-D in Sydney” and that they were encountering “technical difficulties with the download” (because digital movies play off a server instead of an actual film reel). So he asked us to sit tight for five minutes while they sorted out the problem. For the next few minutes, they played the Aliens in the Attic trailer and the Disney intro logo repeatedly, but the noise still remained. Then they cut the projector once again and ‘radioed’ each other while people squirmed in their seats.
After a while (it was almost half past by then) he came out again and announced they were trying “last-ditch attempts”, and needed “five more minutes”, failing which “we will be asked to leave and collect our comps (I assume he meant compensations)”. He apologised once again, and told us if it got fixed, that they would skip straight to the main feature without the trailers. I was praying it would work, to have waited for this day only to be offered a refund or worse yet, a replacement ticket would be a real disappointment. I took the opportunity to pop out to get a Coke from the snacks bar.
When I came back, the screen was still a black-out. Upon settling back into my seat, the Disney intro logo once again played, on mute. You can smell the tension in the air, it was palpable! Everybody was holding their breath, probably willing the sound system to work. After several tense seconds, the all-familiar tune of ‘When You Wish Upon a Star’ suddenly blared out, and the whole theatre burst into cheers and applause! It was almost magical and as I would later tell my brother, “something straight out of a movie”, and whether it was because of Disney’s ‘magic touch’ or the collective prayers of the entire audience, I’ll never know. 
Anyway, the feature started proper (I was really disappointed they didn’t play Partly Cloudy, probably due to the loss of time. At least I’ll have it to look forward to for my repeat viewing…) and everyone fell silent. It was fun to see the Pixar logo in 3-D (complete with opening swivel) for the first time.
There were a lot of ‘awws’ with [spoil]the young Carl at the theatre scene[/spoil]. The first big laugh came when [spoil]Carl fell through the floorboards[/spoil]. Everyone fell deathly quiet during the beautiful [spoil]Carl/Ellie montage[/spoil], although I didn’t hear anyone cry loudly. There were a mostly a lot of chuckles throughout the movie, a couple of cooing when [spoil]Kevin cuddled Russell[/spoil], and the occasional howls of laughter for the more hilarious moments (which were mostly from the trailer, and for some reason, elicited huge laughs with this crowd. Maybe they went in having not watched it or knowing little about the film). A couple of big audience reactions I could remember off the top of my head were when [spoil]Carl imagined Russell’s death, Kevin ate Carl’s walker, Dug’s first “Squirrel!”, Alpha’s squeaky voice, Russell being dragged across the windshield, and Carl and Muntz twisting their backs while fighting[/spoil]. The reactions I heard the most came from that plump woman one seat apart right of me.
There was one point during the poignant turning point scene where [spoil]Carl learns from Ellie’s message to “have his own adventure”[/spoil] that someone’s phone chose to rang. It was annoying, and snapped me and possibly other moviegoers out of the ‘mood’.
But overall, this crowd was more reactive and appreciative of the movie (probably because the ones who actually bothered to pay and make time for an advance on a Sunday morning have to be devoted fans to some point), and was quite ‘well-behaved’. Some of them (including Brit kid and family) even stayed back till Luxo switched off (with Brit kid complaining there was no after-credits scene).
When I exited the theatre later, a guy was even humming the ‘Carl Goes Up’ theme outside the toilets! So in the end, I was a bit miffed about the technical issue which led to missed opportunities to see possible G-Force, Princess and the Frog and maybe a trailer or two from 9 and Cloudy Meatballs, and especially the short Partly Cloudy, but other than that, my ‘peripheral experience’ outside of the movie itself was quite okay (No crying babies or yobbos). Needless to say, I was quite pleased with the bunch whom I shared my experience with.
You’d think these twits would’ve learned to turn off their phones by now… I felt like bopping the fool on the head with Carl’s walker! 