Information

Up is a 2009 American animated comedy-drama adventure film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The film was directed by Pete Docter, co-directed by Bob Peterson and produced by Jonas Rivera. Docter and Peterson also wrote the film’s screenplay and story, with Tom McCarthy co-writing. The film features voices by Ed Asner, Christopher Plummer, Jordan Nagai and Bob Peterson. The film centers on Carl Fredriksen (Asner), an elderly widower who travels to South America with wilderness explorer Russell (Nagai) to fulfill a promise to his late wife Ellie. Along the way, they meet a talking dog named Doug (Peterson) and encounter a giant bird named Kevin, hunted by explorer Charles Muntz (Plummer), whom Carl idolized as a child.

Originally titled Hilliams, Doctor Who conceived the outline of Up in 2004 based on his fantasy of running away from life when it became too boring. He and eleven other Pixar artists spent three days in Venezuela for research and inspiration. The character designs were quite satirical and stylized and the animators were challenged with creating realistic clothes. Composer Michael Giacchino composed the film’s score. It was Pixar’s first film to be presented in 3D format.

Up debuted at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival on May 13, 2009, and was released in the United States on May 29. It received praise for its screenplay, animation, characters, themes, narrative, emotional depth, humor, Asner’s vocal performance, Giacchino. Musical score, and opening sequence. Named one of the ten best films of 2009 by the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute. Up grossed $735.1 million worldwide, ending its run as the sixth-highest-grossing film of 2009. It was nominated for five awards. 82nd Academy Awards, won two and received numerous other accolades. In the meantime, it became the second animated film in history to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture, ultimately losing to The Heart Locker. A short-form series, Dug Days, premiered on Disney+ on September 1, 2021.

Details

10-year-old Carl Friedrichsen idolized the famous explorer Charles Muntz. Muntz is discredited when the skeleton of a giant bird brought back from Paradise Falls in South America is deemed a fake, and he returns to the falls promising to bring back a living specimen. Carl befriends Eli, another Muntz fan, who keeps a scrapbook of his adventures and dreams of moving his “clubhouse” (an abandoned house in the neighborhood) to a mountain near Paradise Falls. Carl and Ellie eventually marry, move into the clubhouse, and take jobs as a balloon salesman and tour guide, respectively, at the city zoo. After Eli suffers a miscarriage,[2] the couple decide to save up for a trip to Paradise Falls but repeatedly spend the money on more pressing needs. Years later, Carl decides to surprise Ellie with tickets to Paradise Falls, but she falls ill and is hospitalized. Eli gives him his scrapbook before he dies.

Now in his late 70s,[3] Carl sits in his house while the neighborhood around him is torn down and redeveloped. After he unintentionally injured a construction worker, the court deemed him a public menace and ordered him transferred to assisted living. However, Carl resolves to keep his promise to Ellie and attaches thousands of balloons to her house to fly to Paradise Falls. Russell, a young “Wilderness Explorer” scout trying to earn his ultimate merit badge to help the elderly, becomes an accidental stowaway. Before Carl can land and send Russell home, a storm pushes the house into South America.

The house lands on a tepui opposite Paradise Falls. Knocked out and unable to get back inside, Carl and Russell bundle themselves into the still-booming house and begin walking it across the mesa. Along the way, they encounter a giant flying bird named Russell Kevin (though they later discover it is female) and Doug, a golden retriever with a device on his collar that translates his thoughts into human speech. Carl kindly allows both of them to join the party.

A pack of dogs, all wearing collared translators, surrounded the group. The master of the pack is revealed to be an elderly Charles Muntz, who invites the group into his dirigible and talks about his decades-long quest to capture a bird. Carl’s initial excitement to meet his hero fades as he realizes the extent of Muntz’s obsession and emotional instability. When Russell notices the skeleton’s resemblance to Kevin, Muntz becomes hostile, suggesting that he killed other travelers he suspected of seeking the bird for himself. Carl, Russell, and Doug escape the dirigible, chased by Muntz’s dogs; Kevin rescues them, being injured in the process. When Kevin hears his chicks calling, Carl agrees to bring him home to safety, but Muntz traps Kevin and starts a fire under the house. Forced to choose, Carl chooses to save his home, let Muntz elope with Kevin, and lose Russell’s respect.

Alone and depressed, Carl looks at Ellie’s scrapbook and discovers that she has filled the empty pages with photos of their life together, along with a note thanking her for the “adventure” and encouraging her to have a new one. Revived, he goes outside, only to find Russell leaving after Kevin using balloons and a leaf blower. Carl lights up his room by throwing away furniture and keepsakes, enabling it to fly again.

Muntz captures Russell, but Carl and Doug board the dirigible and free him and Kevin. An enraged Muntz chases the group and traps them inside the house. Carl sends Kevin and the others back to the airship with chocolate just as his tether breaks. Muntz jumps after them but the balloon’s cable snaps his leg and he dies. Carl watches the house descend under the clouds and peacefully accepts the loss.

Carl and Russell reunite Kevin with his children before returning home on Muntz’s airship. Russell receives his “Assisting the Elderly” badge, and Carl presents Russell with a grapefruit soda bottle cap when Eli first meets Carl, which he calls “The Eli Badge”. Unbeknownst to Carl, the house fulfills Ellie’s promise and lands on a hill overlooking Paradise Falls.

Cartoon Voice Cast

Ed Asner as Carl Fredriksen, an elderly widower and retired balloon salesman. Docter and Rivera noted that Asner’s television alter ego, Lou Grant, was helpful in writing for Carl because it helped them balance the likable and unlikable aspects of the curmudgeon character. Carl’s look was designed to resemble Spencer Tracy’s when he appeared in his final film, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. When they met Asner and presented him with a model of his character, he joked, “I don’t see much.” They fleshed out his dialogue for him with shorter sentences and more consonants, which “reinforces the idea that Carl, post-Ellie, is a disgruntled bear that wakes up during hibernation”. Jordan Nagai as eight-year-old “wilderness explorer” Russell. Throughout most of the film, he makes various comments to Carl that suggest that Russell’s father and mother are separated or divorced.
Christopher Plummer as Charles Muntz, an elderly explorer and Carl’s childhood idol, whose long search for the “Monster of Paradise Falls” drives him murderously insane. The name of his airship, Spirit of Adventure, may have been inspired by Charles Lindbergh’s aircraft, Spirit of St. Louis. In various interviews, Pitt cited Dr. Howard Hughes and real-life explorers Lindbergh and Percy Fawcett as inspirations for Muntz. Critics noted his resemblance to Kirk Douglas.
Bob Peterson as Dog, a talking golden retriever. Peterson knew he would be voicing Doug when he wrote his line “I have just met you, and I love you,” based on something a child told him when he was a camp counselor in the 1980s. The DVD release of the film includes a short featurette called Doug’s Special Mission, which follows Doug just before his first meeting with Carl and Russell. The quarry previously appeared in Ratatouille as a shadow on a wall that barks at Remy.
Additionally, Up features Delroy Lindo, Jerome Ranfot, and Peterson as Muntz’s dogs Beta, Gamma, and Alpha, respectively. John Ratzenberger played Tom, the construction foreman, and David Kaye played the newsreel announcer. Pete’s daughter Ellie and Jeremy Leary voice the younger versions of Ellie and Carl, respectively. Other cast members include Mickey T. as police officer Edith. McGowan, Danny Mann as construction worker Steve, Shady Oaks as Nurse George and Dawn Fullilove and Jess Harnell as AJ, Josh Cooley as Muntz’s dog Omega and Campmaster Strauch as Dr.

Box Office

Up grossed $293 million in the United States and Canada and $442.1 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $735.1 million. It was the sixth-highest-grossing film of 2009.

In the United States and Canada, exit polling has shown broad family appeal among diverse audiences; 53% were female and 57% were under 17 years of age. The film was released on May 29, 2009, along with Drag Me to Hell. Up earned $21.4 million on its first day. The film debuted grossing $68.2 million from 3,766 theaters (1,530 in 3D). It would hold the record for the highest opening weekend for a 3D film until it was surpassed by James Cameron’s Avatar later that year. Its grosses fell 37 percent to $44.3 million in its second weekend, and another 31% to $30.5 million in its third weekend; It was the slowest for a Pixar animated film since Finding Nemo. Up completed its theatrical run in the United States and Canada on December 5, 2009.

About

Directed by	Pete Docter
Screenplay by	·         Bob Peterson ·         Pete Docter
Story by	·         Pete Docter ·         Bob Peterson ·         Tom McCarthy
Produced by	Jonas Rivera
Starring	·         Ed Asner ·         Christopher Plummer ·         Jordan Nagai ·         Bob Peterson
Cinematography	·         Patrick Lin ·         Jean-Claudie Kalache
Edited by	Kevin Nolting
Music by	Michael Giacchino
Production companies	·         Walt Disney Pictures ·         Pixar Animation Studios
Distributed by	Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Release dates	·         May 13, 2009 (Cannes) ·         May 29, 2009 (United States)
Running time	96 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$175 million
Box office	$735.1 million

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