63 Fun Facts About Up Movie

Who voices Carl Fredricksen, the grumpy widower at the centre of Up?

Ed Asner was nearly 80 when he voiced Carl; the writers tailored the lines to his delivery, favouring short sentences with plenty of consonants.

What breed of dog is Dug?

Dug is a Golden Retriever, the friendly outcast of Muntz's pack; the collar Muntz built translates his thoughts into speech, which is why he keeps announcing squirrels mid-sentence.

Which merit badge is Russell trying to earn when he stows away on Carl's porch?

Assisting the Elderly is the last badge Russell needs to become a Senior Wilderness Explorer, which is why he knocks on Carl's door offering to help him cross the street.

What does young Ellie make Carl do to seal his promise to take her to Paradise Falls?

Cross his heart: Ellie makes Carl swear he will take her there in a blimp, and decades later Russell gets the same gesture out of him, as a promise not to abandon Kevin.

Where did Carl and Ellie both work as adults?

The city zoo employed them both, Carl selling balloons from a cart and Ellie as a zookeeper; the money they saved for their big trip kept going on more pressing needs.

What is the name of Charles Muntz's airship?

Spirit of Adventure is the dirigible's name, perhaps a nod to Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis; in the follow-up series Dug Days, Carl sells it to buy a house in the suburbs.

Which veteran actor voices the villain Charles Muntz?

Christopher Plummer voices Muntz, a fallen hero Pete Docter modelled partly on Howard Hughes and on real explorers such as Percy Fawcett, who vanished in the Amazon while hunting a lost city.

At the end of Up, what does Carl pin on Russell as the 'Ellie Badge'?

A bottle cap Ellie gave Carl when they first met as children, so it has been on his lapel for the whole film.

What does Carl find Ellie has filled the blank pages of her adventure book with?

Photos of their life together fill the pages Carl thought were empty, ending with Ellie's note: 'Thanks for the adventure – now go have a new one!'

What is odd about the voice that comes out of Alpha's collar?

It is squeaky and high-pitched because his collar has been bumped, as Beta and Gamma point out before laughing at their fearsome pack leader.

What breed is Alpha, the leader of Charles Muntz's dog pack?

Doberman Alpha outranks a Rottweiler named Beta and a bulldog named Gamma, and the three keep the misfit Dug busy with a 'special mission' of his own.

In Up, what is Dug made to wear as punishment for losing the bird?

The Cone of Shame is a plastic cone around Dug's neck; in the finale he jams one over Alpha's head instead, and the whole pack laughs at its leader.

Dug made an early cameo as a shadow barking on a wall in which earlier Pixar film?

Dug's shadow appears barking at Remy on a wall in Ratatouille (2007), two years before Up, an early nod to a character Pixar was already developing.

Which gift from his dad does Russell toss out of Carl's window?

A GPS unit: Russell boasts that with it they will never be lost, then tosses it out of the window with one careless wave of his arm.

How many balloons did a technical director calculate it would really take to lift Carl's house?

23 million was the estimate, yet the film shows only about 10,000 to 20,000 balloons, drawn larger so they read on screen.

In which city did Disney tie balloons to a real holdout's house?

Seattle's Edith Macefield had refused a reported $1 million for her little house, so a retail complex rose around it; Up was already in the works before her stand.

Which country did Docter and a team of Pixar artists visit to research Up's tabletop mountains?

Venezuela's tabletop mountains set the scene: the team took three days to reach Mount Roraima by plane, jeep and helicopter, then sketched among ants and scorpions.

Which real bird did the animators study at the Sacramento Zoo to design Kevin?

Kevin was based on the Himalayan monal, a pheasant with iridescent plumage the animators studied at the Sacramento Zoo; new software had to be written just to render those feathers.

Russell's look was modelled on which Pixar artist?

Peter Sohn was the model: Docter called him such an entertaining guy that basing a character on a colleague like him gave the team a head start.

How did Jordan Nagai end up being cast as Russell?

He came along to his brother's audition: older brother Hunter was the one trying out, until the casting director asked Jordan to read as well.

How did Pete Docter get real laughs from Russell's young voice actor?

Tickling did it: Docter remembers picking the boy up upside down, tickling his tummy and telling him to say the line.

Up's Carl was designed to resemble which Hollywood star as he looked in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?

Spencer Tracy's last screen role gave Carl his look, and the head was drawn square to show a man closed off and set in his ways.

Which TV newsman was the signature role of the actor who voices Carl in Up?

Lou Grant began as the gruff boss on a sitcom, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and was then spun off into a one-hour newspaper drama of his own.

Who voices young Ellie in Up's opening prologue?

The director's daughter voices a girl who does nearly all the talking, as she tells the silent young Carl herself: 'You know, you don't talk very much. I like you.'

What treat does Russell use to make friends with Kevin, the giant bird?

Chocolate from Russell's bar wins the bird over, and Muntz's dogs later pick up its smell on the trail alongside the bird's own scent.

Pixar good-luck charm John Ratzenberger voices which character in Up?

Construction foreman Tom is the hard-hat who tells Carl his boss will double his last offer for the house; Ratzenberger had voiced a part in every Pixar feature up to then.

In the newsreel that opens Up, scientists accuse the explorer Charles Muntz of faking what?

A giant bird skeleton from South America is branded a fake, so Muntz is stripped of his membership and vows not to come home until he catches the creature alive.

What is the name of the retirement home a court orders Carl to move into?

Shady Oaks is the home whose nurses George and A.J. arrive to collect Carl; the pair got their own 2009 short, George and A.J., about the fallout after they watched the house float away.

In Up, a construction worker damages what, provoking Carl into hitting him with his cane?

His mailbox, the one Carl and Ellie painted together, which is why a small dent sets him off and lands him in court.

Russell chases after the airship using a bunch of balloons and what household item?

Russell ties himself to a bunch of balloons and steers with a leaf blower; Carl then throws all his furniture out of the house so it is light enough to fly after him.

How does Muntz meet his end?

His leg tangles in balloon strings and he falls as he leaps from the house after Kevin; the team also tried endings where he survived or was redeemed.

Which short film played in front of Up in theatres?

Partly Cloudy stars Gus, a lonely grey cloud who makes the dangerous babies, such as crocodiles and porcupines, that his long-suffering stork has to deliver.

How did Up make Cannes history in 2009?

First animated film to open the festival in its 62 years; as the opening-night film it screened out of competition, so it was never in the running for the Palme d'Or.

Dug won which tongue-in-cheek Cannes prize for the best canine performance?

Dug won the Palm Dog, the unofficial Cannes prize for best canine performance, in 2009; the award itself is a leather dog collar.

Up was Pixar's first film released in which format?

3D was a first for Pixar, and it paid: more than half of Up's opening-weekend takings came from 3D showings, though most of its theatres showed it flat.

In Up, what did Carl pour into the gas tank of the developer who wants his house?

Prune juice in the boss's gas tank was Carl's answer to an earlier offer for the house, as a builder reminds him when he turns up with a better one.

Which Sam Raimi horror film opened on the same day as Up in the United States?

Drag Me to Hell was Raimi's return to low-budget horror after his Spider-Man trilogy; it opened against Up on 29 May 2009 and took less than a quarter as much.

Up won two Oscars at the 82nd Academy Awards: Animated Feature and which other?

Best Original Score was a first for a Pixar film: earlier Pixar scores, such as the one for Monsters, Inc., had been nominated and lost.

Which was the first animated film nominated for the Best Picture Oscar?

Beauty and the Beast (1991) was the first animated film nominated for Best Picture, in a five-film field; Up (2009) and Toy Story 3 (2010) followed once the field widened to ten.

Which film beat Up to the Best Picture Oscar?

The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow's Iraq War drama, won Best Picture over Up and the rest of the ten-film field, also beating her ex-husband James Cameron's Avatar, the year's biggest film.

Who composed the music for Up?

Michael Giacchino was scoring video games such as Medal of Honor when J.J. Abrams gave him his break in television, the road that led him to Pixar.

Which cue from Up's score won the Grammy for Best Instrumental Composition?

Married Life plays under the wordless montage of Carl and Ellie's years together; it won its Grammy at the 2010 ceremony, the same night the full score won one of its own.

Carl first gets rid of Russell by sending him to catch which bird?

A snipe that raids his azaleas is Carl's invention to shoo the boy away, yet Russell comes back saying he tracked it under the porch.

In Up, whose musical theme grows from a simple piano melody to full orchestra as the house lifts off?

Ellie's theme carries the lift-off; Docter said the music makes it feel as if Carl is almost waltzing with Ellie as the house takes off.

What do Muntz's dogs pilot when they chase Carl's house?

Fighter planes let Muntz's dogs stage a literal dogfight, which Russell ends by shouting 'Squirrel!' so that every pilot looks the wrong way.

Docter won the Best Animated Feature Oscar for Up, Soul and which other film?

Inside Out won in 2016; Docter's first film as director, Monsters, Inc., had lost the very first Best Animated Feature Oscar to Shrek.

Which future Spotlight director, filling in for Bob Peterson, created the character of Russell?

Tom McCarthy stood in for three months and wrote two drafts; Docter admired his film The Station Agent, an early model for Up's story.

In Up, what does Russell confess he has never actually built before?

A tent: 'Tents are hard,' he sighs, and then admits that for all his badges he has never been camping outdoors.

Up's scene of Carl hauling his house through the jungle has been compared to which Werner Herzog film?

Fitzcarraldo (1982), in which Herzog's crew dragged a real steamship over a hill, was the comparison; Docter watched it and The Mission for further inspiration.

In Up, what do Charles Muntz's talking dogs call Russell?

The small mailman is Gamma's name for the boy on first glimpsing him, and it sticks: Alpha later reports to Muntz that the small mailman has returned.

Before Up opened, what worried toy dealers about its prospects?

Its elderly hero looked hard to sell, and Pixar's regular toy maker produced no Up merchandise at all, yet the film took $735 million worldwide.

In Colombia, Up got free publicity because Carl looked just like a former what?

President Julio César Turbay Ayala was the look-alike: the magazine Semana wrote that Carl's glasses, bow tie and hairstyle looked copied from him.

The Simpsons parodied Up's opening in an Itchy & Scratchy short with what title?

The short, titled P.U., appears in the 2010 episode Loan-a Lisa; Scratchy and his wife stand in for Carl and Ellie until Itchy intervenes.

Which TV series recreated the story of Up's Carl and Ellie with Rumplestiltskin and Belle?

Once Upon a Time gave the montage to Rumplestiltskin and Belle in 2017: the two settle down for a lifetime together, and Belle grows old and dies as Ellie does.

Outside which real Oakland ice-cream parlour do Carl and Russell count cars at the end of Up?

Carl and Russell end the film on the kerb outside Fentons, the Oakland creamery Russell used to visit with his father, counting red and blue cars over ice cream.

The short Carl's Date premiered in cinemas in 2023 in front of which Pixar feature?

Carl's Date played before Elemental in June 2023 after being pulled from a planned Disney+ release, the first new Pixar short attached to a Pixar feature since Bao in 2018.

In Carl's Date, what does Carl do to his appearance that leaves Dug confused?

Carl dyes his hair black, eyebrows included, which baffles Dug; before that he rehearses a dance and a dinner with the dog.

At which Walt Disney World park has Up's Kevin roamed among guests as a walk-around character?

Animal Kingdom let Kevin wander Discovery Island instead of standing in a meet-and-greet line like Russell and Dug, so catching the bird for a photo took luck.

In Up, what is Kevin the bird trying to get back to?

Her chicks: Russell named the bird Kevin before anyone knew it was a mother, and hearing her babies call is what makes Carl agree to take her home.

Which Charles Muntz catchphrase do young Carl and Ellie adopt?

Adventure is out there is Muntz's thumbs-up sign-off in the newsreel young Carl watches, and Ellie, another young Muntz fan, is soon shouting it too.

What does Carl pull off his cane to distract Dug?

A tennis ball from the foot of his cane sends Dug bounding away, and Carl uses the moment to try to give the talking dog the slip.

What grade did CinemaScore's opening-night audiences give Up?

A-plus is CinemaScore's top grade, and the word of mouth showed: Up went on to take more than four times its $68 million opening weekend in North America.

Russell is noted as Pixar's first lead character of what heritage?

Asian American Russell was voiced by Japanese American newcomer Jordan Nagai, and the theatre company East West Players honoured both the boy and the studio.