History Headscratchers / Up

[[folder: Why is Dug so stupid?]]
* Golden Retrievers are the 4th smartest breed, so why is Dug so stupid?

* Golden Retrievers are the 4th smartest breed, so why is Dug so dumb?

*** Since Carl is in 70s,the construction supervisor probably gave him a pass because, as we all know, legal charges (including misdemeanor ones) against an elderly person are a migraine to deal with for both the police and the courts and trying to probably would have Carl argue that they're picking with him. Also, what exactly would they charge him for, anyhow? Vandalism? Property damage? Criminal Mischief?

*** I was wondering why dude didn't just take a picture or video but then I remembered that those can be be faked and "doctored" photos go as far back as the 1800s, so, yeah, more incentive to go out and find the bird and bring it back alive. What he didn't count on was on how hard it'd actually be to catch Kevin.

** Well, Muntz does have a lot of media in his zeppelin, so it wouldn't be much of a stretch to guess that they've seen a photo of someone in uniform and was told it was a mailman or that they do retrieve things when they go to civilization.

*** Thumping his tail?

** Maybe the airship is more technologically advanced than it looks.

* How did Russell get onto the porch? We never see him during takeoff, but he says he was underneath. It's established very early on that Russell is anything ''but'' athletic. So how'd he get up there?
** Adreneline rush kicked in. People do crazy stuff when their lives are on the line.
* How did Muntz get his hands on the Wilhelm scream sound clip? Wasn't that thing first used in the '50s?
** RuleOfFunny, or maybe he's got really [=WiFi=] and downloaded it.

* Dobermans and Rottweilers make sensible guard dogs, and could probably be used for hunting if you trained them well. But English bulldogs, like the one that went along with Alpha and Beta to hunt down Kevin, are far from athletic enough for such jobs and would probably faint from overexertion if they attempted to perform them. Now, this could be overlooked if he were built more like the original bulldog breed (which was probably still around when Muntz went on his expedition), but he's clearly a modern bulldog. What the crap is he doing going hunting in the South American jungles?!
** Perhaps Gamma is supposed to be a bull ''terrier'': a Staffordshire, an American Staffordshire (Amstaff), or a Pit Bull Terrier. (Clearly not a Bull Terrier.) With the Creative Allowance for Animation, he could easily end up looking more like a bulldog. Of course, he could also be a shout-out to Marc Anthony of Looney Toons fame . . .

* At several points during the movie Russell is referred to as a "small mailman". These are dogs born and bred in the wilderness, how would they know what a mailman was having presumably never seen one before?
** We don't know that they were born and bred entirely in the wilderness or that Muntz hasn't sought out human contact for certain reasons during his time there. Maybe he even has mailman fly out to deliver food and supplies for him and his dogs.

*** But that just begs another question, a jar that size cannot store enough coins to pay for a new roof or medical bills. If this were a super deflationary Universe where you can buy houses with 5 dollars, then maybe, but I don't know if the movie provides evidence to the contray.

*** Furthermore, if Carl intended to die at the falls, would he have done about Russell? Let him die with him?

*** She had a job! She worked in the zoo in the South American Exhibit at the zoo! Carl sold his balloons in front of it! Watch the Married Life Montage again.

** That's what it said in the novelization...does that count as canon or not?
** Wasn't a big part of Carl's Character Arc him realizing that his physical house wasn't home, the people he loved was home - what with him choosing Russel before his house in the climax? I assumed that he willingly moved into the Nursing Home he was being forcibly put into at the beginning of the story - proven by the fact that one of the still pictures from the end credits was him with a bunch of old people in a nursing home being entertained by the dogs.

** They'd have friends and family to take pictures

[[folder: Carl Gets the Blame-Why?]]

*** If the purpose was financial screening they could just investigate the family’s finances like a mortgage company does. They charge a lot because they are companies and have expenses to cover. People who would prefer to adopt for free or close to it can generally adopt through the state. The movie takes place in an earlier era when some people were fairly uncomfortable with adoption. But really it’s probably just a story device - they didn’t want the couple to have kids, so they didn’t.

** Alternatively, if could be a control mechanism- bomb-sniffing dogs are trained to be freakin' OBSESSED with ball so that their handler knows they can get their attention with one. Dog finds bomb, handler shows ball, dog goes nuts for ball, dog doesn't go running off where they could trigger bomb. It could be a similar idea- perhaps Muntz wants the be sure he can call his dogs back from, say, running into the labyrinth. Or it's RuleofFunny, which is probably more likely.

* Way too heavy. They're using an old-fashioned glass water-cooler jug. You remember the scene in Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E15HomersPhobia where Homer is struggling to heave ''his'' family's jug full of coins out to the mailbox and drops it?
-> '''"Hello? China?"'''
His jug was made from more-lightweight plastic, ''and'' he outweighs Carl by around 70lbs (based on his starting weight of 236lbs in "King-Size Homer").

* The ''Spirit of Adventure'' is incredibly valuable. How was Carl allowed to keep it/live on board? It's a Zeppelin that was probably worth around $50-$70 million in today's money when it was ''brand new,'' and is in near-perfect flying condition(minus a few biplanes). It contains tens of tons of priceless, untold historical treasures, fossils, gemstones and artifacts. Not to mention the super-high-tech talking collars and the genetically enhanced dogs. The sheer historical and scientific value of the airship and its cargo is nigh-incalculable, and apparently Carl gets to own ALL OF IT because he not-so-accidentally killed the ship's rightful owner in combat? What is this, the [[JustForPun law of the jungle?]] And how in the blue hell is he capable of ''piloting it?''
** Possession is nine/tenths of the law, Muntz was likely declared legally dead over 70 years ago, Russel is too young to own property, and Carl is the one who found the "Sprit of Adventure", plus the whole story would beggar belief. Plus Carl may have left out the part about killing Muntz, which would be a clear case of self defense anyways. Not that any prosecutor would ever charge Carl with murder due to lack of evidence and figuring out what court had jurisdiction over a spot in the jungle would be a problem.

* In the 1940s/50s, he and Ellie bought and moved into the house they'd met in as children, which c.1935 was abandoned and decrepit (so it had been empty for at least half a decade, if not more, based on the high level of disrepair seen inside), then considering that it previously had been inhabited, it would have been built around the turn of the 20th century-1910s along with its neighbors. As the decades pass, the neighborhood gentrifies, until in the present day it has become a new high-density city centre. How far away is the original city centre that this one has taken over from?

* In the 1940s/50s, he and Ellie bought and moved into the house they'd met in as children, which c.1935 was abandoned and decrepit (so it had been empty for at least half a decade, if not more, based on the high level of disrepair seen inside), then considering that it previously had been inhabited, it would have been built around the turn of the 20th century-1910s.
As the decades pass, the neighborhood gentrifies, until in the present day it has become a new high-density city centre. How far away is the original city centre that this one has taken over from?

** It's been confirmed that Muntz was only somewhere in his twenties around the time of the newsreel shown at the movie's opening, which puts him about in his 90s when the main action takes place. I have a grandma in her mid-90s who is still extremely independent and makes do living on her own; her only handicap is that she's had to have her driver's license revoked due to her failing eyesight. And what's the most exerting thing Muntz does in the movie, anyway? He visibly struggles to swing a sword around at Carl and is able to climb a ladder onto the roof of his airship, which doesn't seem to be at the farthest edge of impossibility.

** It's probably something to do with--SQUIRREL!!