Deep Dive Pixar: Wes Looks at Up

Well, after Bolt predictably turned out to be an uninspired dud, let’s up this movie is a step… Up. Get it? GET IT? My questionable sense of humor aside, I’ve been meaning to watch this movie for some time but just never got around to it until now. I’m well aware that this movie is considered one of Pixar’s best and I can honestly say it lived up to the hype. Our story centers around Carl Fredricksen. As a child, Carl met Ellie an intense and adventurous girl his age with whom he bonded over their mutual admiration over renowned adventurer, Charles Muntz. Years later and Carl and Ellie are happily married. As a married couple, Carl and Ellie dreamed of one day living together in Paradise Falls South America, a place that Muntz was famous for exploring. Various setbacks in life kept them from the adventure of their dreams but the two nonetheless shared a long and happy life together. Unfortunately, in their twilight years, passed away, leaving Carl a crotchety, cynical loner. When Carl is forced to relocate to a retirement home following a misunderstanding that leaves a man injured, he escapes that fate by rigging his house with enough balloons to lift it off the ground and sails it towards Paradise Falls. Much to Carl’s surprise, he finds that his new flying house has a stowaway, a wilderness scout named Russell who’s trying to earn his helping the elderly badge. Carl is annoyed by the interloper but since he isn’t a terrible person, he resists the urge to punt the kid out of an open window. Once they reach Paradise Falls, the two must carry the house to the desired location like a parade balloon. Along the way they meet Kevin, a member of a very rare species of bird and Dug a lovable talking dog who turns out to be owned by Charles Muntz, who has been hunting Kevin for decades. It’s also made clear that Muntz has gone a little crazy over the years and now, in order to keep his new friends safe, Carl must choose between the dream he once had for him and his wife and stopping Muntz from capturing Kevin. It’s a surprisingly powerful movie even despite the absurd sounding plot I just described. Let’s dive right into, Up.

Main Character:

First thing’s first, Carl is voiced by the always incredible Ed Asner, known for numerous roles across many decades both as a voice and screen actor. I believe my long-time readers are likely to know Mr. Asner best as none other than Hudson from my favorite TV show, Gargoyles. Carl is a crotchety old fuck, but endearingly so. Think of him kind of like a PG version of Walt Kowalski from the movie Gran Torino, though thankfully without the blatant racism. Carl is ultimately a very sentimental guy who just wants to be left alone. He obviously loved Ellie with all his heart and with her gone, he’s desperate to cling to her memory in whatever way he can. If that means turning his house into a hot air balloon and living out his days by a secluded waterfall in South America. I do also like that while Carl’s not happy about having a prepubescent interloper, he and Russel do form this really sweet bond that ultimately grows to the point where Carl almost becomes something of a surrogate grandfather to the kid.

Villain:

Initially, Charles Muntz is seen as a hero and an inspiration for a young Carl and Ellie. However, Muntz turns out to be the embodiment of the phrase never meet your heroes because he’s a seriously twisted fella. Having spent decades in Paradise Falls hunting the legendary bird with only his technologically enhanced dogs for company, you can understand how a man can go a little nuts. He’s not the most interesting villain, but he serves his purpose and can be pretty intimidating when he needs to be. The ways in which Carl and Muntz parallel one another is something I’d rather save for the story section.

Side Characters:

Russel can be annoying at first but he’s mostly harmless and you have to admire his determination. I mean, the kid travels all the way to South America just to earn his helping the elderly merit badge. Still, I do appreciate the bond Russel and Carl form over time, especially when we learn that Russel doesn’t exactly have a stable father figure in his life.

There really isn’t anything to say about Kevin, she’s just a huge bird who likes chocolate. Still, it’s adorable watching Russel play with him.

Dug is a talking dog who becomes enamored with Carl somehow. One of my favorite moments in the movie was when Carl finally accepts Dug as his dog. Also, SQUIRREL!

Memorable Scenes:

This is an absolute no brainer. Of course I have to talk about the opening scene. Despite never having seen this film prior to this retrospective, but even I knew all about this film’s legendary opening scene. Hell, the opening scene is so incredible that it warrants its own Wikipedia article separate from the one for the actual film. I’ve never even seen anything like that before. Watching this movie though, I can honestly say, it’s worth all the hype it’s given. It opens with a very young and shy Carl meeting Ellie. Ellie is a little intense, but also incredibly sweet and the two bond over their mutual love of the idea of adventure, Ellie even bestowing a badge made out of a grape soda cap to symbolize their relationship. Ellie later shows Carl her Adventure Book, a journal of sorts that details all the adventures she’s had or plans to have and her dream of one day living by Paradise Falls. Carl swears that one day he’ll take them there. What follows is an incredible montage presented with zero dialogue that details Carl and Ellie’s life together. Se see them getting married, buying and fixing up the dilapidated house where they first met, painting their mailbox complete with handprints, having romantic picnics, getting jobs at the local zoo, deciding they want children only to be hit with the tragic news that Ellie is unable to conceive, something that initially devastates her. To cheer her up, Carl and Ellie instead begin saving up to move to their childhood dream home in paradise falls. However, various setbacks keep forcing them to dip into those funds and the dream keeps getting delayed. Still, Carl and Ellie remain happy together throughout their days if just for the simple fact that they have each other. One day, when the couple has reached their twilight years, Carl finally decides to pull the trigger on that big trip to South America, only for Ellie to have a heart attack before he can tell her the good news. Before she passes away, Ellie gives Carl her adventure book and Carl is seen heading home from the funeral, devastated by the loss of his beloved wife. It is simply one of Pixar’s most emotional and powerful scenes ever put to film and even I have to admit it got the waterworks going for me. It shows that there was real effort put in to make this movie something truly special, which is a hell of a lot more than I can say for Bolt.

Story:

At its core, Up is a story about letting go, something that both our hero and our villain seem to be unable to do. Let’s start with Carl. Obviously, Ellie was deeply precious to Carl and when she dies it leaves Carl a broken man desperate to hold on to anything that reminds him of her. At the beginning of the movie, there’s a construction company trying to buy the deed to Carl’s house and even offering him a significant sum of money, money a normal man would be crazy to turn down, but Carl, still grieving his wife will not let it go. To him, this is not just a house, it’s all he has left of the woman he loves. From an outsider’s perspective, Carl’s plan to sail his house to a secluded part of South America using balloons seems insane, and truth be told, it kind of is, there’s actually a popular theory that Carl is entering senility, but when you know how much Carl loved Ellie, you know he’d do anything to keep his promise and keep her memory alive. What Carl is forced to learn is that the house, the pictures on the wall, the furniture, that’s not Ellie, it’s what’s holding Carl back from moving forward with his life. Ellie would not have wanted her husband to sit sad and alone in a decaying house, she would have wanted him to go out and have his own adventures, something Carl figures out when he allows the house to drift off in order to save Russel. Muntz is very similar to Carl in that his obsession with capturing the legendary bird has clearly driven him insane. Muntz was disgraced when he brought home the skeleton of such a bird that was later accused of being a hoax, he vowed to bring back a live specimen and refused to come back to the states until he did. Muntz, like Carl, was unable to let go and move on, something that ultimately drove him insane and led to his demise.

The Dark Disney Factor:

Five minutes into this movie and a small child is horrible maimed. That’s not quite on the level of Frollo attempting to drown a baby, but still, yikes. Also, I suppose that Muntz’s dogs (with the obvious exception of Dug) can be pretty scary to little kids. However, the real dark moment in this movie comes when Carl has an argument with a construction worker who damages his mailbox. Remember, Carl and Ellie painted that Mailbox together so someone messing with it is enough to really set Carl off. There’s a scuffle and Carl cracks the guy over the head with his cane. What caught me off guard is that the worker actually draws blood, and they show it on screen, in a kid’s movie. I can honestly say I wasn’t ready for that. The court deems Carl a public menace and orders that he be placed in a convalescent home, prompting Carl to set up his balloon-based escape. So, yeah, Carl is actually a fugitive from the law. Add kidnapping charges due to Russel stowing away and possibly murder charges for the death of Muntz and it’s honestly shocking to me that Carl wasn’t arrested upon his return to the states.

Final Thoughts: This movie lived up to the hype in the best possible way. It was emotional but not without its fair share of laughter and excitement. The character of Carl was endlessly endearing in that crotchety old man sort of way and I cannot stress enough that the opening scene is one of the best I've ever seen. I regret waiting this long to watch this film but I'm so very glad that I was able to for this article. Next time we have a big one on our hands as we cover a film that I've been looking forward to for a very long time now. In our next article we analyze Disney's big return to form as we look at The Princess & The Frog.