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1Headscratchers from ''WesternAnimation/{{Up}}''.
2[[foldercontrol]]
3
4[[folder: It's Not Called "Up and Down"!]]
5* How do Carl and Russell go from walking along the Paradise Falls cliffs (where they first land) to the jungle at the bottom of the cliffs (where they find Kevin), back up to the cliffs (where they find Dug), back down to the jungle again (where Carl tries to get rid of Kevin and Dug), and so on?
6** The jungle they walked through ''wasn't'' at the bottom of the cliffs. There were trees at the top too, which they passed through.
7[[/folder]]
8[[folder: Breaking the Jar]]
9* Why did Carl and Ellie break the jar every time they needed money? Wouldn't they just have to buy a new jar?
10** It's symbolic in the montage that their savings keeps getting wiped out.
11*** InUniverse, though?
12*** It's pretty difficult to take the money out of those jars, especially if you need a lot of it. Maybe they thought it was easier to just smash it and then replace it, it wouldn't cost more than a broken leg or a destroyed roof.
13*** 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 contrary.
14*** While not incredibly common in our timeline, dollar coins are a thing, and if we assume that’s what the coins in the jar are, the amount in there would certainly be enough to pay for those things when taking into account the value of the dollar in the 1950s and 60s. It could be that the movie takes place in a timeline identical to our own except that dollar coins surpassed bills in popularity.
15** This seems like AluminumChristmasTrees. At the time when Carl and Ellie were a young couple, people often did just chuck money they were saving in a cheap glass/ceramic/porcelain/etc. container and then just smash it when they needed to get into it, because they were cheap to replace and there was usually no other way to get the money out once you'd put it in. You wouldn't necessary go out and buy one specially, you'd just repurpose a large glass jar you'd gotten some groceries in or something. Private safes would be expensive and reusable piggy banks and the like didn't really start taking off until consumer rubber and plastics started becoming more widely available, by which point Carl and Ellie were likely just old enough to keep in the habit.
16[[/folder]]
17[[folder: Divorced Equals Disappeared?]]
18* What is the deal with Russell's dad? He's not even at the badging ceremony at the end. I get that Russell's parents are probably divorced, but Russell told Carl all the Dad's would be there.
19** His dad isn't around much. That's kind of the whole point.
20** This is, sadly, TruthInTelevision for a lot of unfortunate kids after their parents split up. Presumably Russell's dad simply wasn't interested in being a father to him. Regrettably, it happens more often than you'd like to think.
21[[/folder]]
22[[folder: Fetching the Voices]]
23* Where did Muntz get the voice samples for the dog's collars? Unless he's ''scary'' good, those voices are even better synthed than the best real-world voice synthesizers (Alpha aside)--but even ''those'' need preexisting voice clips from which to work.
24** Once you accept that he created collars that can ''convert a dog's brainwaves into any human language'', using 1940s technology as a baseline, everything else is small potatoes.
25*** Personally I always felt that the collars just interpret the dog's body language, obviously to a cartoony extreme, but still more credible for me than mechanical telepathy with 40s technology.
26** I always assumed that, once Muntz made those collars, that the dog's voices would be what the dog would sound like if they could talk. If that makes sense.
27** The BellisariosMaxim article provides a sufficient answer. Also, see WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief.
28*** Obviously, Muntz built them with 1940's pulp science. Have you ''seen'' the gizmos characters used in pulp sci-fi back then?
29** I guess he could use the voices of the people who stumbled into his little valley.
30*** That makes him even creepier than he used to be.
31** Maybe he built the dog collars back in America, or maybe he used old gramophone records for voice samples.
32[[/folder]]
33[[folder: Where are All the Lady Dogs?]]
34* And moreover, where are all the girl dogs? If that pack's been self-sustaining since the 1940s, there must be females ''somewhere''. Or do they just all use male voice samples?
35** Perhaps they're all off in a separate room and only used for breeding purposes? It sounds harsh, but Muntz seemed the sort who would think "oh, female dogs aren't as aggressive as males."
36*** If Muntz was half as smart as he'd seemed, he'd know that that's bunk.
37*** Or when each of the dogs died, Muntz found other pups and raised them over again. Like we saw in the opening, he was a dog lover his whole life. Also, I think there used to be some kind of 'Fountain of Youth' subplot associated with Muntz that Pixar abandoned, and they simply thought anything he did would be justifiable in that he was a great inventor as well as an explorer. Didn't quite happen.
38*** Well, Ellie did mention that it is "a land lost in time". Most people don't really remember that part. Heck, I didn't even remember it until someone reminded me of it (I believe it was the scene in which she sneaks into Carl's bedroom... and don't read too much into that sentence.)
39*** "A land lost in time" is just an expression to say it's been untainted by progress, it doesn't mean it's literally out of time
40*** I kinda guessed that he only used male voices for all the dogs, regardless of their gender, so we ''did' see a mix of male and female. They're dogs. What are they gonna care?
41*** I assumed Alpha was female, even after the voice change.
42** Because Muntz thinks that bitches ain't shit.
43*** Oh, clever.
44** I always figured Muntz recorded his own voice for samples (because who else is he going to get to do it?) and tweaked the range to try and make the dogs' voices more individualized, but all attempts to make a female voice for female dogs ended in hilarious failure.
45** Hmm, I actually wondered the same thing while watching the film, and I came to the conclusion that there ''are'' female dogs, but we just never hear them speak. I mean, plenty of the dogs who we never hear speak could have been female - there's nothing to suggest they're not, at any rate. But the idea of Muntz being unable to make female voices for the female dogs ''never'' occurred to me. That may make a bit more sense.
46[[/folder]]
47[[folder: Muntz the Spry, Evil Old Man--How?]]
48* How is Muntz so well preserved? It looks like he was in his mid-20s when Carl was barely even ten. Muntz should be at least twice as old as Carl, and yet they appear to be about the same age. Muntz as the villain also bugs me, as he's clearly after the bird but he doesn't show any sign of wanting to do her any harm until it became necessary to the plot.
49** [[WildMassGuessing Muntz has the One Ring]]. Accounts for his aging AND the insanity!
50** He is, however, willing to murder anyone that he consider an obstacle to getting his bird (even if they aren't) - including a child. That's not villainous in your book?
51** Muntz was twice Carl's age ''when Carl was 10''. The gap's not going to increase as they get older.
52** If Carl is 78, and Muntz was 20 when Carl was 10, he'd be 88. Some people age pretty well, especially if they take good care of themselves, as Muntz no doubt did all his life.
53*** 88 is still too young for him to have hung out with Teddy Roosevelt.
54*** Who said it was Teddy? Might as well have been pre-war Franklin D. Roosevelt.
55*** Also, he could be lying as it’s not the craziest thing he’s shown to to. Carl might have not realized or not care (How many of us would care too much if a childhood hero embellished one of their stories?)
56** As for the bird, well.... a dead specimen's still a specimen, right?
57*** Also, he himself implies that he ''killed'' people who came into the jungle because he was so paranoid about other people finding "his" bird. Regardless of how he wanted to use Kevin, he was clearly out of his frickin' gourd.
58*** He also tries to kill Carl and Russell a few times. He's the villain more because he's homicidally insane than because he wants to capture/kill a mama bird. (See also the Main/MoralEventHorizon area of the main page.)
59** I think he was just so damned determined that it kept him spry. I think we're also supposed to assume a guy who can make dogs talk can also figure out how to slow aging or something.
60** The reason Muntz is the villain-figure is because he was so focused on rectifying something in the past that he grew insane. He's actually a nice guy, as long as you don't try to steal "his" bird, just how Carl is overprotective of his treasures of Ellie. The difference, of course, is that Carl moved on, and Muntz didn't.
61** It'd be wrong to take the bird because she has babies, and do you think he'd bring her back once he was done with her? And her species seems to be rare.
62*** How, exactly, is it wrong to take a Mama Bird? It wouldn't be good for the little birdlets, but that does not automatically make it Wrong. Birds aren't people.
63*** It's a * very* rare species, killing one would be extremely frowned upon, or even might constitute a crime. On the other hand, he was so obsessed with capturing it, he was willing to murder other people. Even children.
64** According to The Art of Up, Muntz's age is calculated to be in his late 90s or early 100s. They were originally going to have some kind of Fountain of Youth storyline, where he would eat Kevin's eggs to stay young but that idea was scrapped.
65** The IMDB answers this one. It was said Muntz was also working on an elixir that slowed the aging process. Kinda lame, but just go with it.
66** The villain in the FiveEpisodePilot of Disney's ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'' lived for 500 years because he was ''that obsessed'' with finding a hidden treasure. Seems to be a Disney trend for evil {{Cool Old Guy}}s.
67*** [[Webcomic/GirlGenius He vowed that he would catch that bird before he died. You need to be better about keeping your promises.]]
68** He's got friends on the other side...
69** Ellie said that Paradise Falls was "a land lost in time". It has some kind of magical influence, which is how Muntz aged slowly and maintained good health. Just look at Carl in the beginning of the film: he has difficulty getting out of bed, getting downstairs, even just walking and running. As he spends more time in Paradise Falls, he gradually gets stronger and more fit. I mean, he sleeps on a * rock* and doesn't suffer any pain from it like he got from sleeping in a normal bed back home; he abandons his cane and seems to get along fine without it; he was running and climbing all over that zeppelin, even hanging off a ladder by one hand when he couldn't even get downstairs before! Clearly, there's something going on in Paradise Falls.
70*** I'd dispute the validity of that statement, but your statements about his dramatic increase in health can't really be explained any other way.
71** Carl's about 10 in the intro, right? Muntz looks fairly young in that film reel, so let's say he's mid-20's. Presuming that intro was in the 40's and the rest of the film takes place in the 2000s, that makes Carl 70 and Muntz about 85. Old, but not incredibly old.
72** Hell, Betty White is 96 and she still seems fairly vibrant, and looks fantastic. Is it REALLY such a stretch that Muntz, in his late 80s/early 90s, would still be pretty spry himself? (And let's not forget, we ARE talking about a movie where a freaking ''house'' can fly by attaching a fuckton of balloons to it, and be easily steered.)
73** He does seem to be the physically active type.
74[[/folder]]
75[[folder: I Made It--But How Do I Get Back?]]
76* So, how was Carl planning to get back from Paradise Falls when his balloons ran out (unless he was staying there full-time, in which case how would he have food?)
77** Who said he was? Someone theorized on the WMG page that he intended to die there, that after what happened with the CorruptCorporateExecutive there was nothing left for him so he wanted to finally have his adventure, then join Ellie. Makes sense to me.
78*** Even if he didn't want to die, he might've wanted to set up camp there.
79*** If Carl did intend to die at the falls, would he have done about Russell? Let him die with him?
80*** Russell coming along wasn't part of the original plan. By the time Carl realized Russell was there, there wasn't much he could do other than bring him along. He never really got the chance to think of what to do with him once he made it to Paradise Falls.
81*** He probably would have accompanied him to a village or airport or made an SOS signal or something.
82[[/folder]]
83[[folder: A Waste of a Honeymoon?]]
84* Why didn't Carl and Ellie go to Paradise Falls ''on their honeymoon''? Where else would they possibly have chosen?
85** It's possible they didn't have the money for it at the time, as seen later on with the jar.
86** Apparently their honeymoon ''consisted of repairing their then-uninhabitable house'' (as they were still wearing their tux and dress in the first HardWorkMontage with the house). No wonder it was so important to Carl...
87** Given that they both had to work, and were using loose change to save up for Paradise Falls, and they had to keep breaking into their Paradise Falls fund to pay for stuff, it seems that they were very probably dirt poor. Thus, as the above troper noted, their honeymoon was repairing the house. Actually (although maybe it was because I had seen this the day before), it reminded me of ''Film/ItsAWonderfulLife'' more than anything, because the exact same thing happens.
88*** FridgeBrilliance : Carl's job isn't exactly high-paying and there's no indication that Ellie had a job other than "occupation : housewife". They were able to buy the house because it had been long-abandoned, and keep it up, save money and have a middle-class lifestyle on Carl's income ''because'' there were never any kids.
89*** 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 MarriedLifeMontage again.
90*** It was strongly implied that Ellie was an ornithologist. They probably spent all of their money putting her through college and repairing their house.
91*** Even if they were not poor and just middle class a trip to South America can be very expensive, particularly to an unexplored zone, in any case Carl did bought tickets to South America at some point as shown in the montage, but Ellie get sick before they can go.
92** A big reason may be that they just didn't care that much. It was an old childhood dream that eventually became a very minor item far down on their bucket-list. If they had REALLY cared about it, they could have found a way in their forty-plus years of marriage. Instead they only contributed nickels and dimes to saving for it, and used the money for other things at the slightest provocation. It's only when she's dead that he becomes obsessed with it, his grief making him see himself as an utter failure for never taking her there.
93[[/folder]]
94[[folder: Squirrels in South America?]]
95* All of the dogs have been living in South America for generations, so how do any of them know what a squirrel is or why they would chase them?
96** Maybe chasing/hating squirrels is just hardwired into their doggy brains. It could be that they call any small animal SQUIRREL! like [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaspar_Hauser Kasper Hauser]] initially called all animals "horse".
97*** Also, I think it's fair to quote the RuleOfFunny on this one. Also, COATIMUNDI! isn't quite as succinct.
98*** For what it's worth, I interpreted it as SQUIRRELS being one of those hardwired dog things that all dogs know and do if they want to be called dogs at all. Just like they should know how to POINT!, run after tennis balls and that anyone with a cap on their head is a mailman (though I'm puzzled as to why, having established this, the dogs didn't try to bite him or the seat of his pants, since that's what dogs have done to mailmen since times immemorial).
99** TranslationConvention. What they're actually thinking is more along the lines of INSERT SMALL SOUTH AMERICAN RODENT HERE!
100** [[AchievementsInIgnorance They aren't smart enough to realize that]].
101** There are Squirrels in South America. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Amazon_Red_Squirrel Zoology!]]
102*** There's a new short on the DVD where Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Dug are talking, and Alpha suddenly says, "Squirrel!" and they all look in different directions... suddenly, I'm lead to think the dogs shouting squirrel is a way for them to have a free moment to do whatever...
103*** They also shouldn't know what a mailman is. If a mailman did show up in their little lair, Muntz would have killed him. Maybe one of the pilot hats belongs to some unfortunate South American airmail bush pilot?
104*** I figured they were saying, "Male man." Or maybe, the closest thought to "man" in a dog's brain comes out as "mailman?" Could even be a bug in Muntz's translators.
105** Muntz is a westerner, and a pioneer in the translation of dog-thought-to-English. I'd wager he was tinkering with the technology as the days go on, and perhaps thought that the thought as originally expressed should be more concise. Also, RuleOfFunny.
106** I thought it could have been 'male man', but the subtitles list it as 'mailman'.
107** We have squirrels here in South America, y'know?
108[[/folder]]
109[[folder: Miscarriage vs Infertility]]
110* Something that bugged me in the opening scene, just after Ellie and Carl decide they're ready for children - did Ellie have a miscarriage or was she simply unable to have children? The scene with them setting up a nursery seems to imply that she was pregnant - you don't usually build the nursery when you're just trying. On the other hand, miscarriages usually happen in a hospital and the bad news was delivered in the doctor's office. Plus she never * looked* pregnant. Hence why it bugs me - it could be read either way. Is there a director's note or something to clarify?
111** A miscarriage isn't the same as a stillbirth. When my mom miscarried when I was 10, she was never hospitalized, and it happened before she was showing. I'm pretty sure Ellie miscarried, possibly from some condition that made it medically dangerous for them to try having kids again.
112*** On the other hand, I had two "hospital" miscarriages and three "home" miscarriages, it depends on the length of time of fetal development.
113** Well, technically speaking there is nothing to stop them from decorating a nursery while just trying. The idea of failing might simply not have occurred to them.
114** There could be any number of reasons why they couldn't try again, like a mistake by the doctor, Ellie being unable to give live birth, etc. It doesn't matter, all that does is that they couldn't.
115*** While for plot purposes, it doesn't really matter, it does, for me, affect my interpretation of the level of tragedy of the scene in question and just how significant Carl's reaction to this is for Ellie. It's not a problem I have with the movie - simply something I'm kinda curious about.
116*** A close friend had a miscarriage due to an ectopic pregnancy, which is when the fertilized egg attaches itself to the fallopian tube. This meant that she also lost her left ovary. She still can be pregnant in the other one, only harder, but if she had any issue, previous or otherwise, with the other ovary, she would not be able to get pregnant at all. Plus, my sister had to try 7 years and a great number of miscarriages due to a number of issues between her and her husband. If it wasn't for very expensive treatments and in vitro fertilizations, both which were not accessible to Ellie and Carl, she would not be able to have children at all.
117** A pregnancy can be confirmed pretty early on and there are regular check-ups/scans on mothers to be. Someone can be pregnant enough to know that they are going to have a baby but it doesn't show physically (apart from them being very hormonal and missed periods) then go for a check-up or scan to discover that the embryo is dead. It is very sad, because some couples start preparing as soon as the doctor confirms that they are expecting. Or it is also a dangerous pregnancy (ectopic pregnancy etc) and that means they can't/shouldn't conceive again.
118** Having a mom who worked in a hospital and a doctors office (at different times) I can tell you it looked like a hospital, sparsely decorated walls, the look of the hallway and the equipment in the room, the lighting all of it has that cold feeling that try as they might a hospital staff can't get rid of. Time of day is harder to pin down but the slightly dimmed hallway lights and the lack of anyone (that I recall) walking by during the scene says graveyard shift to me so not a routine visit.
119*** Submarines will switch to red light when it is supposed to be night. They would probably dim the lights a bit in deference to the employee's circadian rhythm (and power bills).
120** As for "not looking pregnant" - Well, I'm 25 weeks pregnant at the time of writing, and I STILL don't look pregnant! (To put it in perspective for those who don't know, an average pregnancy is 40 weeks)
121** Having had four miscarriages, I can attest that one generally wouldn't go to the hospital for them, and they often happen long before you would "look pregnant" (mine were all between 7-13 weeks along and I never did). That scene as a depiction of a miscarriage, therefore, works pretty well. At the same time I can see why Pixar would want it to be a bit ambiguous, so that parents could simply tell young children 'they couldn't have a baby'.
122** Sadly, this scene invokes Occam's Razor. First, the entirety of the scene uses nonverbal cues to clue the viewer in on what is going on. They never show Ellie with a pregnancy bump, and in order to assume she is pregnant, you'd have to also assume that for some reason, they have abandoned the non-verbal cues concept, specifically for that 6 seconds. You would then have to make the logical leap to her being pregnant, in order to think she had lost the baby. Comparatively, if you go with the concept of only taking what the scene actually shows, it makes far more sense that she was informed of being barren. As many who have commented on this already have attested, you don't stop trying to have a baby after one miscarriage.
123*** Unless that miscarriage leaves you unable to have children afterwards.
124** Actually, I find the whole team of writers and animators managed to make an amazing job on this scene. It's left to us to interpret what happened there. If they had mentioned "miscarriage", "sterile", "abortion" or any other big word, children would be upset, and parents would be upset (rightly so) for having to explain such a concept to a young one (specially if they had mentioned it ''wasn't'' their first try). Now, while we adults can understand the sort of thing that happened and why is such a touching scene, it's not the same for children, whose parent will need to address what happened there.
125** Everyone keeps saying she didn't have another one for medical reasons, but it could have been just because she didn't WANT to. I mean, see this from her perspective; you got pregnant on your first try, you made up the nursery, you got everything ready, and it died. I think Ellie would have not wanted to try anymore because she would be afraid it'd die again.
126*** That's horribly out-of-character for Ellie. She's shown to have a sort of eternal optimism. She wouldn't just give up like that, not unless she absolutely had to. Her final message to Carl is basically telling him to go out and enjoy life instead of wallowing in grief. In short, Ellie isn't the type to let one failure, no matter how crushing it is, keep her down.
127*** This isn't like failing to build or create something right the first time, and that she just needs practice or something. This was a baby, a life that she wanted to bring into the world, raise, love, etc. And she lost it. Even the most confident people can have world-shaking and confidence-breaking moments.
128*** Actually, This tropette has something to say in the regards to Ellie's pregnancy and possible miscarriage, if one considers the fact that she died while in her seventies, at the time she had conceived (which had to have been in the fifties and sixties, as their clothing style may suggest) it wasn't that uncommon to miscarry and be diagnosed as infertile and they didn't really have the technology at that point to really say if that is what it was and who's to really say they haven't tried more than once? Given how health care was starting to improve at this time it could be likely or it could be that they were preparing the nursery before hand (as some often do before they have said child, just as they would with naming, you know, planning ahead) and then discovered that she was infertile, neither of those are outside of that realm of possibility or it could be both, given the fact that if the miscarriage was traumatic enough it could destroy any other chances of conception as it wasn't unheard of at the time, being that obstetrics were pretty far from perfect.
129** The audio description track on the DVD describes Ellie as being distraught specifically over her inability to have children, for what it's worth. It never says anything about her suffering a miscarriage.
130*** To answer some of this, "infertility" or "unable to have children" can mean anything from "being unable to concieve", "being unable to carry", or both, so she could've had a miscarriage (or multiple) or she and Carl were preparing ahead for a baby, only to find out that she can't concieve. The scene can be interpreted any which way.
131[[/folder]]
132[[folder: Where are Russell's Parents?]]
133* Where the hell are Russell's parents? I mean, so what if they're separated, why didn't they seem to notice or even care that Russel was missing for such a long time? All we get to see of his parents is a bit of his mom enthusiastically clapping when he graduates to Senior Wilderness Explorer and that's right after he and Carl land. She's not even a bit concerned.
134** Well, obviously his dad doesn't really care what happens to him, and judging from the lines "Let's play a game: who can stay quiet the longest." "Oh, my mom ''loves'' that game!" his mom would have been happy not having her little boy hassling her for a while. Though that doesn't explain why she doesn't seem too worried after at least three days...then again, we don't get to see what happens back in the city. Maybe she called 911. And we don't get to see the police because seriously, I doubt they'd think he'd be in South America.
135*** "...we don't get to see what happens back in the city." Call this CanonDisContinuity, but Pixar did make this: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hF5KWMX3u4Y]]
136** Even still, you'd think she'd be a ''bit'' furious at Carl for not returning him sooner or contacting her.
137** She was initially angry, but then got hypnotized by Dug's adorable-ness.
138** Well, it really wasn't Carl's fault. He did try and return Russell immediately after he realized he was in the house, but the storm screwed things up. They could have told her the truth and used the ginormous dirigible and pack of talking dogs to back up their story.
139** If we work on the assumption that Russell's Mom is a divorcee, she's probably also a working mom, and wouldn't even know Russell was missing until she got home that evening and noticed he wasn't there -- and by that time, he was halfway to South America already.
140** Maybe she thought he had gone to his Dad's for something, but she didn't want to talk to her ex-husband about it [[spoiler:because he's a f*** tard]].
141** Russell's family situation is intentionally left vague, Phyllis could be his older sister for all we know, Carl is not the type to pry so we never find out and it is ultimately not important. And as for why she is not mad, she probably was at first but figured he made it out alive and got a surrogate father so let it slide on the condition it never happens again.
142** Phyllis could also be his maid.
143*** After thinking about it for a bit, this is what I've come up with: Russell's parents are divorced because his father cheated on his mother. In the divorce his mom got custody, but Russell goes to live with his dad on the weekends. The time spent in South America was when he was supposed to be with his father, but his father didn't even notice he left to get a Wilderness Explores badge and never came back.
144*** Which would make his a terrible father.
145*** No good; the reason Russell wanted the badge was to get the whole collection so he could ''see'' his father at the ceremony. If he saw him every weekend, that wouldn't be much of a motivator.
146[[/folder]]
147[[folder: His Back Seems Fine to Me]]
148* For an old man with a bad back, Carl sure is spry, he can climb an horizontal ladder from below, he's capable of holding up Kevin, Dug and Russel and the length of a full garden hose and its steel wheel (which must not be too light either).
149** Muntz for that matter too (although it's more plausible in his case).
150** Adrenaline.
151** [[Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann Spiral power]].
152** Yeah, he's a regular Yoda.
153** Carl and Muntz's old age is only played up when it's semi-relevant to the RuleOfFunny.
154** Maybe he doesn't have a bad back, maybe he has a bad ''leg'', hence the walking stick, but he'd still be spry for someone with a bad leg.
155** It could also be a "you're only as old as you feel" sort of thing - the grief of losing his wife, who was always the energetic one, and the age discrimination he faced would definitely make him feel old at the start of the film, which could exacerbate any physical ailments. In addition, he probably wasn't taking care of himself as much anymore once Ellie was gone. But being around the youthful Russell and finding the letter from Ellie helps him feel younger again which, while it may not ''fix'' his back (as we see in the fight scene with Muntz), certainly might make it easier for him to push through, especially with lives on the line. Heck, even seeing Muntz looking so fit for his age might have helped Carl see that just because he's older doesn't mean he doesn't have life left to live.
156[[/folder]]
157
158[[folder: How Did Russell Get There?]]
159* How did Russel get on the house's front porch? When the house is taking off, and the retirement home orderlies turn to face it, you can clearly see there's no one on the front porch. When the house is seen flying later (before Russel's let into the house), the porch is still clearly empty.
160** I'm pretty sure he mentioned crawling under the porch, so I guess he had to crawl up it again when the house took off.
161*** Russell explicitly says he tracked the snipe under Carl's house.
162** RuleOfStory and RuleOfFunny. The audience isn't supposed to know that Russell is with him, and to see him actually under the porch would be a dead giveaway.
163** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hF5KWMX3u4Y This Pixar short shows.]] How he got from there to the porch, though...
164*** That raises the question of why he didn't let go when the house started rising. In fact, why would he be clinging to it like that in the first place? Was his reaction to the house rising off the ground to grab onto it?
165*** Sadly, there have been a few tragedies where even trained crewman grab on to landing lines for aircraft and are whisked up into the air by accident- the instinct to hold on is so strong, you're at a fatal height before you even realize what's happening. This happened to the USS ''Akron'' before.
166*** Russell had no way of knowing that the house was taking off into the sky; he probably thought the ground was caving in ''under'' it. Grabbing something that seemed stable would've seemed preferable to dropping into a sinkhole.
167[[/folder]]
168
169[[folder: What Were the Dogs' Destinies?]]
170* What happened to the dog pilots after they parachuted to earth? The airship (if my memory is correct) never seemed to land and the rest of the dogs got taken home in it. Did they leave the pilots to starve or something?
171** Being the doggy lover that I am, I just assumed they were adopted by some very nice people once they landed.
172*** Adopted by some very nice people? In the middle of an uninhabited bit of South America?
173*** Ok failing that, they were able to find small animals to hunt and lived out their life happy and fed, and that is final!
174** Muntz found them and now they live happily ever after in Carl's old house.
175** The dogs have radios. It wouldn't have been hard for them to call the airship and have Carl pick them up. Why wouldn't he?
176*** Tracking devices, as well.
177** Alpha, Beta and Gamma were evidently found and picked up by Carl before he returned home. They can be seen at Russell's award ceremony, and in one of the pictures at the end. Alpha retains the 'Cone Of Shame'.
178[[/folder]]
179
180[[folder: Where Does Carl Live Now?]]
181* Where does Carl live now? In The Spirit of Adventure?
182** That's what it said in the novelization... does that count as canon or not?
183** Wasn't a big part of Carl's CharacterArc him realizing that his physical house wasn't home, the people he loved were - what with him choosing Russell 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.
184*** But in the short Pixar did of the Shady Oaks employees, it's shown that the residents (along with many other old people) have tried to do the same thing Carl did. So there may not be a Shady Oaks anymore.
185** The "Dug Days" series of shorts reveal that Carl sold the Spirit Of Adventure, and he and Dug have now moved into a suburban house.
186[[/folder]]
187
188[[folder: Why Didn't He Fly Into Legal Trouble?]]
189* Why didn't Carl get in trouble with the FAA or the police throughout the film? I mean, he launched a house attached with balloons unregulated into the sky and landed a ''blimp'' on top of an ice cream parlor.
190** "Hello, is this the FAA? Yeah, there's this guy flying in a house. Yes, he's attached his house to a million balloons and he's just flying it down the... hello? Hello?"
191** Somehow, I imagine any calls to the cops or the FAA would be dismissed as {{Cassandra Truth}}s.
192** So in this sense, the blimp at the end of the film as it hovers over Fenton's was simply viewed as a ''promotional'' thing?
193*** [[InsistentTerminology Zeppelin*]]
194*** "Hello, is this the FAA? Yes, the ''Spirit of Adventure'' is moored at our ice cream shop!... ''Spirit of Adventure?'' Charles Muntz flew it to South America around 1940 and was never seen again, but an old man and a Wilderness Explorer just flew it up to our ice cream... hello? Hello?"
195** Or he just sent his army of dogs against them
196** Uh... [[AttentionWhore Balloon Boy]] anyone?
197** You want some FridgeBrilliance? Carl didn't get in trouble because the CorruptCorporateExecutive and his AmoralAttorney had him declared mentally incompetent at the beginning of the film.
198** The House wouldn't have been believed. As for the Spirit of Adventure, given that Muntz was flying it around South America for decades without modern radar picking it up (South America has plenty of regular air traffic after all) it presumably has some kind of stealth system (I mean if Muntz can make talking dog collars.....) And afterwards it's possible Carl got it registered with the FAA as his private aircraft and gets clearance when he goes places with it.
199[[/folder]]
200
201[[folder: There's Something Different About Russell]]
202* Minor, but towards the end when you see Russell graduating with the other scouts, is it me or does Russell look...out of place for lack of a better word? It's hard to explain, but the other kids seem to have more fleshed out faces (re: more noticeable noses and chins) while Russell's is like...not. I know, genes and all, and Russell's design implies he's a bit on the chubby side, but still.
203** Perhaps it's more of a way to show that Russell has changed or is different because of his adventure?
204[[/folder]]
205
206[[folder: Why Didn't He Hand Over Kevin?]]
207* Why didn't Carl simply give Kevin over to Charles while on the Spirit of Adventure? He clearly cared nothing for the bird, and Charles seemed like a pretty reasonable man until he thought Carl was out to ruin him. Even if he was concerned for Kevin's safety, Charles needs Kevin alive for it all to work, if he killed Kevin he'd be right back where he started, since everybody called him fake for presenting the dead specimen many years ago.
208** That's part of Carl's character development. At first, he didn't cared about anyone but himself and his wife dream, once he managed to do that, he realized there were more important stuff, namely, his new friends safety and well being. While he might have not cared for Kevin, he cared for Russell, and losing Kevin (and her babies) would be devastating to him. Also, he was called a fake for bringing a skeleton. He wanted Kevin alive, or at the very least, her fresh corpse.
209** And he crossed-his-heart promised that he would take care of Kevin and not leave her. Those promises are a big deal to him.
210** Also, his wife was an ornithologist who specialized in the preservation of endangered bird species, so he probably wouldn't want to do something that would betray her life's work.
211** There's a much simpler reason. He doesn't realize immediately the connection between Kevin and the skeleton, since it's hard to remember ALL the details of a story you knew from years and years ago. And by the time that he has noticed, just about the same time that Russell recognized the shape of the skeleton, it's more than obvious that Muntz might not be the friendly person he seemed like when dinner began. Really, Carl didn't want to mention the bird because he realized that Muntz's paranoia was too dangerous to risk making him suspicious.
212** When Carl spots Kevin on the roof of his house, before she calls out, he realizes what an awkward situation he's in. Muntz thinks that Carl was really a 'bandit' coming to steal the bird. Think what Muntz would think if he saw Kevin standing on Carl's house.
213** We've been given evidence that the guy killed off innocent people because he was paranoid. Carl saying he had the bird, even if he followed that by saying he could take it, would just be asking him to kill him.
214** With Muntz being a "crazy-ass", who's to say that he wouldn't have taken the bird and killed them both anyway?
215[[/folder]]
216
217[[folder: Why Does Russell Need More Badges?]]
218* Why did Russell need so many more badges than all the other kids to graduate to Senior Wilderness Explorer? At the beginning he shows Carl all his badges and tells him he needs one more in order to graduate, and he has a ridiculously large amount of badges. At the end of the movie, all the other kids graduating have, like, five or ten badges. Why show favoritism to everybody but Russell, Scout Master? Oh, let's pick on the fat kid. To hell with you! Russell's awesome. All those other kids can bite me!
219** Maybe the "helping Senior Citizens" badge was Serious Business for the Master Scout. Notice the other two receive different badges
220** Maybe Russell need a badge signifying an activity rather than research work and "Helping Senior Citizens" was easier to obtain as he wouldn't need to go into the wood to obtain it.
221** I don't remember (no DVD release yet!), but maybe the badge ceremony was just for awarding all the badges earned that month? Russell could've completed his collection while the other kids were still working on theirs...
222*** Nope, having just gotten back from seeing this, that scene is fresh in my mind, and it was definitely a ceremony for graduating to Senior Wilderness Scouts.
223** Having had a moment to think about this, perhaps Russell's badge was the last one he needed out of a set of badges to be promoted, and the other kids were getting different badges from that set?
224** If this was anything like the actual Boy Scouts organization, then badges might work in a similar fashion. In BSA, to become an Eagle Scout, you have to have a minimum of 21 badges. 12 of these are specifically listed badges, and the other 9 are whichever ones you choose. Therefore, for Russell, the "helping Senior Citizens" badge was the last of the specified 12 that are required, rather than fitting into the category of the miscellaneous 9. Therefore, it is possible he had 11 (or however many were required for him) of the specific badges, and a whole boatload of other badges (far more than the required amount).
225** Now that the DVD is available. it can be seen that the other Scouts at the ceremony also appear to have an entire sash of badges; Russell's were just more visible.
226[[/folder]]
227
228[[folder: Is That Not Honorable or Heroic Enough for You?]]
229* Why doesn't Russell get the Scout Badge of Honor/Heroism? I know it's the RuleOfFunny but a Headscratcher still.
230** He gets a much better badge in the end.
231** [[WildMassGuessing He already had it]]. [[NoodleIncident Long story]].
232[[/folder]]
233
234[[folder: Who's the Other Master?]]
235* In the scene where we first see the dogs, they mention something about "other master". Any idea who that could be?
236** Muntz. Their other master aside from him is Alpha, who's in that scene at the time.
237** There is a section where one of the dogs says 'the second master hears about this', as in 'as soon as'- could it be this section you were thinking of?
238[[/folder]]
239[[folder: There are No Hot Dog Stands in the Jungle]]
240* What was that hot dog made of??? I seriously doubt Muntz would have taken frozen hot dogs on a trip. And there are no convenience stores in that part of South America.
241** Uh, hot ''[[{{Squick}} dog]]''?
242** Miscellaneous jungle animals, just like real hot dogs are.
243** They do have convenience stores in other parts of South America these days, you know. Muntz never went back to the US but he could easily have resupplied in cities in South America, airships as big as his had ranges of thousands of miles. And he'd have to resupply, dirigibles need shitloads of lifting gas and fuel refills.
244** Muntz was considered lost. Admittedly South America is a long way away, but * someone* would have told the story of the crazy gringo flying his zeppelin into Caracas.
245*** Maybe Muntz hired people (or sent his dogs) to buy on his behalf.
246** How often do North Americans hear about what goes on in South America? It's possible that Muntz simply passed out of the public consciousness. It's not as if his supplier ''must'' spread news about the man in the dirigible.
247** It's probably just my morbid mind, but this is the first question I thought of when it was revealed that Muntz had been killing people.
248*** [[Theatre/SweeneyTodd Mrs. Lovett would like to trade some recipes.]]
249*** Then good thing Russell couldn't eat his!
250** He probably bought them at a small town, small towns have small convenience stores where you can buy almost everything, and hot dog buns and sausages are really basic stuff to find.
251** It's possible Muntz just traveled out to local cities without bringing his blimp to buy supplies. Given that he'd aged and probably wore different clothing it's possible South American residents in outlier towns wouldn't have recognized him as lost US explorer Charles Muntz.
252[[/folder]]
253
254[[folder: Who Took the Pictures?]]
255* My suspension of disbelief is pretty schizo- I can dismiss the flying houses and talking dogs and all of that stuff, but there's just one tiny thing that bothered me: when Carl was looking through the "Stuff I Want To Do" in Ellie's adventure book and seeing all the pictures from his life with Ellie... who took all those photos?
256** Stuff like the wedding photos would have been taken by other people. Others could have simply been taken with a timer. But I totally understand the idea of random things impeding one's suspension of disbelief
257** They'd have friends and family to take pictures.
258*** This could be the standard answer. Carl and Ellie DID have other relatives, after all. To me, it adds further meaning to many things in the film. The presence of photos taken by other people ''only when Carl had Ellie, and after he befriends Russell'' suggests that after Ellie died, Carl isolated himself from society; but the adventure and Russell made him reconnect with people again. I'd bet the "new adventure book" photos were taken by Russell's mom, other Wilderness Explorers staff, and by friends at the retirement center.
259** This troper thought they were paintings, and that Ellie was a painter.
260[[/folder]]
261
262[[folder: He Didn't Read the Book All That Time?]]
263* Really? Carl only ever looked through their Adventure book up until that one page, until the day he happens to take his house out ballooning, to the Amazon? And THEN, then he notices the other stuff after that page? It's explicit that Ellie put that all in there before she died. Did he never see her doing her scrapbooking?
264** Given how absolutely berserk Carl went when his letterbox got damaged, it's fair to assume he didn't want to 'soil' the Adventure book by thumbing through it after Ellie's death. He didn't strike me as being a nosy chap, at any rate.
265** Ellie is seen with the book in her hospital room before Carl arrives for a visit. Judging from the message she wrote in it and the fact that, if I remember correctly, some of the photos were out of chronological order maybe it actually had been empty for most of their life and she stuck the photos in as a memorial to the happiness they'd had together just before she passed away.
266*** Symbolism in other words? He's focused on the past and ruminating on memories rather than celebrating his life with Ellie and creating new memories in honor of her.
267*** Perhaps, since she always told him that the book was for her adventures in South America, he always assumed that those pages were empty and didn't bother to look at them. If I remember correctly, he only went past that one page because it slipped a little and he saw the corner of a photo.
268*** Exactly. When Carl reads it towards the beginning, he's thinking "we need to get to Paradise Falls and fill in the rest of the book!" It never occurs to him that the rest of the book has already been filled. Every time he flicks through, he closes it upon reaching the section where the stuff in Paradise Falls goes. Coincidentally, when he finally flicks through, he closes the Adventure Book on such an angle that the page slips and reveals the edge of the first photo.
269** Look closely at the hospital scene. Right next to Ellie is a tape dispenser, so she only put the book at the end of her life.
270** The only thing that bugs me about that is that a book filled with photos is usually easy to tell from an empty one.
271*** There's another little bugging thing: assuming Ellie did the scrapbooking lovingly from her hospital bed, as the film hints at... where'd she get the photos ? And if she didn't and put the photos in over time throughout their lives, as her little secret that he'd only find out after she died: boy, was that girl morbid or what ?
272*** Perhaps she asked Carl to bring her a box or two of mementos for her to look through because she knew she wasn't going to make it and he honored the request, then was too heartbroken to look at the box(es) afterward and notice what was missing. And I'd call it less "morbid" and more "wanting to leave something to remember her by, acknowledge they did have a long, happy life that was an adventure of its own, and tell him it was okay to move on".
273[[/folder]]
274
275[[folder: Nobody Gets the References?]]
276* It bugs me how there are several ''really obvious'' references to studio Ghibli films in this movie, yet nobody notices. If it were from any other animation studio, I would have passed it if as coincidental, but knowing Pixars relationship with Studio Ghibli, it is very logical to assume that:
277** The premise itself is obviously inspired by the ending of the Miyazaki film ''Anime/HowlsMovingCastle''.
278*** Are you sure you don't mean ''Creator/DianaWynneJones'''s ''Literature/HowlsMovingCastle''? Or her own sequel, ''Castle in the Air''? Miyazaki only based his adaptation somewhat loosely on that.
279*** The house looked a lot more like the end of Miyazaki's version that Miss Wynne-Jones's black, smoking, chimney-pot like structure (which was never more than a foot off the ground according to WordOfGod) so no, the first poster meant Miyazaki's version, although I sympathize with being annoyed by AdaptationDisplacement.
280** The zeppelin Muntz rides in looks very reminiscent of the first zeppelin in ''Anime/CastleInTheSky'', particularly during the chase scenes on its exterior.
281*** I'm pretty sure * every* big airship looked at least a bit like Muntz's on the outside.
282** When Russel takes some balloons and uses them to ride the leaf blower, it bears a striking resemblance in animation movements to frames in ''Anime/KikisDeliveryService'', particularly when near the zeppelin.
283** The biplane flying dogs are reminiscent of ''Anime/PorcoRosso''.
284*** They would have been reminiscent if they were anthropomorphic dogs, like how [[Anime/PorcoRosso Marco]] was human in everything but his head. The reference is very distant at best.
285** Someone's definetely mentioned at least once outright that Ghibli was an inspiration. I felt the end, between the music and the shot of the sky, with the mundane shot of two people just being normal, was ''very'' Ghibli.
286*** [[OlderThanTheyThink ...but not unique to (or invented by) Ghibli Studios by a long shot.]]
287*** Normal? There was a TALKING DOG.
288*** Technically non of the dogs talk, the special collars whether interpret their body languages and translate it into human words (my personal theory) or read their brainwaves.
289[[/folder]]
290
291[[folder: Who's Phyllis?]]
292* Who is Phyllis meant to be? When I watched it, I got the impression she was a nanny hired by Russell's dad, yet when I talked to my mother, she had assumed that she was a secretary he was having an affair with.
293** I think she's just the woman that Russell's dad ran off with, that's all. I don't remember anything being said of how he met her.
294** I assumed that she was merely his secretary, and that Russell's dad was too busy to spend time with his son.
295** My first thought was that she was Russell's stepmom. In any case, the implication was that she was the woman his father took up, meaning that Russell's parents were no longer together.
296** Personally, I found Carl's reaction to Russell saying "Phyllis isn't my mom" to be rather telling. Once the information sinks in, he gets very quiet and avoids looking at Russell; there's a few moments of awkward silence before Russell moves the conversation along. It seems safe to assume that Phyllis is the new wife/lover of Russell's dad (whether or not she was having an affair with him can be left up to the viewer). Then again, you can argue that this was Carl's reaction to who he ''assumed'' Phyllis was; for all we know, she ''could'' just be a secretary.
297** I thought she was his older sister, but I could be wrong.
298** I think she's the maid.
299** Am I seriously the only one here who's first thought was that Russell's mom hooked up with another woman after the divorce?
300[[/folder]]
301
302[[folder: Carl Gets the Blame -Why?]]
303* Why does Russel think that it ''Carl's'' fault that the Muntz took Kevin, when he obviously didn't do anything? Carl just dropped the knife to save his house, and Russel just stood there and watched.
304** If Carl had kept cutting rather than stare at Muntz and then run off, Kevin would have reached the labyrinth.
305** He's a kid.
306** Why was Carl cutting the net anyway? He could have just, y'know, pulled it off the big rock.
307** I was myself wondering why Russel didn't at least try to pick up the knife and cut the rest of the ropes, since he was just standing there being useless while Carl was pulling his house out from over the fire and putting out what parts had caught. And I thought that the net couldn't just be pulled off the rock because Kevin had wrapped it around the bottom edge of the rock while pulling at it.
308** In a sense, you might say Carl actually saved their lives by putting out the house instead of freeing Kevin. With Carl distracted, Muntz just takes the bird and leaves, and Carl and Russell and Dug are alive to rescue her (which, eventually, they do). Without Carl distracted, Kevin gets freed and (hopefully, though I can't forget that broken leg) escapes, leaving Carl, Russell and Dug with a very angry Muntz and his team of attack dogs.
309[[/folder]]
310
311[[folder: Ignoring the Option of Adoption?]]
312* Here's one. Why didn't Carl and Ellie just ''adopt'' a kid? Really, if having children was ''that'' important that it seemed to be one of their greatest regrets, you think they would have just done the obvious.
313** They aren't really that well off, if they could never afford a South American trip over the course of their entire lives. Adoption agencies prefer parents with enough money to live comfortably. Also, some people just don't really consider that option. See also: People who spend astronomical amounts of money on fertility treatments.
314** Adopting even from within your own country is pretty damn expensive.
315** The montage from the movie seems to imply that they decide on the trip for Paradise Falls instead of considering adoption. It is not a far stretch to conclude that they had two choices with their finances - either adopt a child, or put the same money towards moving to Paradise Falls.
316** ...By the way, aren't there ways of adopting without having to go through an agency and pay a bunch of money? Because, if not...that seems kind of unfair to people who can't have children themselves...
317*** Adoption agencies have limited budgets themselves and a duty to the children in their care. They want to make sure the prospective parents are actually able to take care of the kids without needing help from others.
318*** 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, hence Russell ends up becoming Carl's surrogate son (or grandson, as the case may be).
319** Going by how old Carl is (I think he's about 78 or 79), adoption probably wasn't too common of a thing back in that time they would've tried for a baby.
320[[/folder]]
321
322[[folder: Kevin's Not a Killer]]
323* Wait, Kevin seems to be a Ratite, which are birds such as ostriches, emus, etc. Ratites have very powerful legs, and ostriches are known to kill lions with a single kick. ''Why doesn't Kevin just kill Muntz's dogs if they're ticking her off so much?''
324** She might have done so offscreen. Muntz notes in passing that he's lost a lot of dogs in the labyrinth with the Snipe nest. But every time we see Kevin in the movie, she's being pursued by multiple dogs and so would do better to run away.
325*** "Lost" doesn't mean "killed". Lost means [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin "lost"]]. They got lost in the labyrinth, never to return. Granted, they ''then'' died either of starvation or being kicked by Kevin, but they got lost first.
326*** How would Muntz know if they were lost or if they had been killed? He might've just said lost because of Russell's age.
327** Kevin doesn't look so much like a ratite to me as she looks like a colorful [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phorusrhacidae phorusrhacid]], which would make sense considering it takes place in South America. Most likely she is omnivorous (as she eats pretty much anything she can find), so its not much of a stretch that most of the "lost" dogs were her meals...
328*** Not disputing the main point - that beak is pretty darn phorusrhacid - but [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhea_%28bird%29 being in South America doesn't mean she couldn't be a ratite]].
329** Design-wise, Kevin is a mishmash of bird species and, in ''Up's'' universe, she could be in a genus of birds that bridges the two. She does live in a "land that time forgot"
330[[/folder]]
331
332[[folder: How Does He Know His Name?]]
333* A mere continuity error -- Russell calls Carl "Mr. Fredricksen", even though Carl never told him what his name was.
334** I think he'd vaguely known him before just from being around the neighborhood. At least I hope so, because little kids shouldn't just be going up to stranger's houses like that.
335** Someone with a copy of the DVD can fact-check me on this, but isn't it commonplace to put the last name on the mailbox? I don't remember if Carl does, but it wouldn't be unusual.
336*** Alas no. It has Carl and Ellie's names handwritten, along with their hand prints.
337** This is probably one of those cases where everyone in the neighborhood has heard of the weird GrumpyOldMan Mr. Frederickson who sits on his porch all day grumbling at the construction workers
338** WordOfGod says that originally Russell was going to have been stalking Carl for two years prior to the film, trying to get his badge. Considering Carl's immediate frustration, it could be this is not his first encounter.
339[[/folder]]
340
341[[folder: He Knows a Lot But Still Believes in Snipes?]]
342* If Russell has been a Wilderness Explorer long enough to get all those badges, how come he doesn't realize there's no such animal as a snipe? What do they teach those kids at those meetings?
343** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snipe
344** If it's anything like the Boy Scouts... not very much to be honest. Mostly just arts and crafts and how to tie knots. The 'real' stuff happens when you're a teen or older. The point is less about the stuff you learn and more about the values the organization instills.
345*** I think you may be getting the Boy Scouts mixed up with the Cub Scouts (though granted Wilderness Explorers seem more of a Cub Scout Expy anyway). I actually was in the Boy Scouts when I was younger, and learning how to identify animals is one of the rank requirements fairly low down.
346** The whole idea of hunting for a 'snipe' is an old (but still practiced) Boy Scout tradition. As the below poster points out, sometimes its a fully ritualized activity. In other units (like the one I was the Scoutmaster of) it's a off-hand prank played by the older 15-18 year old scouts to get the younger boys out of the way for a couple of hours. A variant of equal fame is the 'smoke sifter', a non-existent camping gadget young scouts are sent to borrow from another troop camping at the same site.
347*** So much memories that brings up. I walked over to the next campsite and asked if anyone there was left-handed, explaining that they never said the smoke had to ''stay'' sifted.
348*** That said, the whole 'snipe hunting' tradition has been falling by the wayside in the last decade or so as society gets more lawsuit-happy and Scoutmasters realize the risks of sending boys into the woods looking for imaginary animals.
349** Actually, when a Cub Scout gets to about the rank of Webelo, they're usually taken out by older scouts or adult leaders on a "Snipe Hunt." They're told the legend of the 'rare snipe bird' and are given paper bags or nets, then told to spread out in a line and walk a field just after the sun sets while the adult leaders or older scouts go to the other end of the field to try and 'flush out some snipes.' In reality, they're just rolling stones to make it look and sound like something is moving about in the grass. This could be a case of ShownTheirWork.
350[[/folder]]
351
352[[folder: How Could a Cane Make That Much Pain?]]
353* How did Carl manage to injure the man in the beginning and get branded a public menace for hurting him pretty badly when it's what appears to be an aluminum cane with tennis balls on the bottom? Sure, if someone hits you with it it might hurt, but come on, he's like seventy years old. And while he was pretty upset over the mailbox, he hit Muntz with the cane in the ''same exact way'' later in the film, yet Muntz doesn't seem to be affected. And ''he's'' at least ninety. Rule of Drama?
354** I think they exaggerated what Carl had done in order to get him out of the house.
355** Carl was just batting at Muntz with the tennis-ball end, but he hit the guy in the beginning full-on with the "thick metal rod" part.
356** HollywoodLaw. Also, Carl makes a comment about pouring sugar in the workers' gas tanks IIRC, suggesting that he may have been pulling pranks on them, which an AmoralAttorney could have spun into a campaign of sabotage.
357*** Prune juice. But still.
358*** Carl's cane accidentally rebounds off Muntz's head and hits Carl's head. You can see the bruising afterwards. Besides, both men are shown to be pretty sprightly and strong for their age in that fight scene.
359[[/folder]]
360
361[[folder: Distracted Dogs]]
362* Why are trained dogs distracted by a ball (or a squirrel)? Working dogs are taught not to be.
363** As crazy as Muntz was, he did loved the dogs, so he probably left the dogs play, or even played with them himself. On the other hand, it's also possible he trained the first ones, and then, seeing how smart the dogs really were, he left the raising to the parents.
364** 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.
365[[/folder]]
366
367[[folder: Russell Has Many Skills But Building Tents is Not One of Them]]
368* While Russell seems to be a bright kid - can survive camping away from home, knows how to bandage a bird's leg, etc. - how does he know how to start and use a weed-blower, but not know how to set up a tent? ...Since, presumably, you'd need a yard to use a blower in, and once you have that, there's backyard camping...
369** This editor assumed someone else built the tents for him.
370** Doesn't he confess to Carl that he never actually went camping? Given that those dome-tents (whatever you call them) can be pretty tricky to set up...yeah, most likely he'd never set one up himself.
371** Have you ever ''tried'' setting one of those things up? All those poles that keep hitting you in the head and elastics and the thing keeps falling over when you try to put the thing in it? And then there's those dealies on the bottom with the little holes in them that you're supposed to put those other doohickets into to hold the other stuff up and they never fit and then it starts raining and that thing that goes over the other thing keeps blowing away and THAT'S when you have a team of adults working on it. Doing it by oneself is nigh-on ''impossible''. And Russell's just a little kid ...
372** Also, having a yard does not necessarily indicate that Russel lived in a neighborhood safe enough that his parent(s) felt comfortable with letting him sleep outside at night.
373** Are leaf blowers really that hard to use, that they ''require'' some prior experience or knowledge of them? Just because Russell knows how to use one by pulling on a cord doesn't automatically point to him having a backyard. He could have seen them on TV, or at a friend's house, or something like that...
374*** Leaf blowers can be heavy like any other power tool but, no, they don't require much experience to use, other than knowing how to use one and not get hurt.
375[[/folder]]
376[[folder: How Did He Obtain and Fill Up So Many Balloons in One Night?]]
377* How did Carl get so many balloons in one night? And if they're all in the house all along, how did he fill them all with helium so quickly? He's got serious back problems after all.
378** He's a determined man.
379** So the balloon company has no problem with delivering a massive number of balloons/helium tanks to a retired employee who is being sued for physical assault?
380** It is ''implied'' that he did all that in one night, but considering that a court decision would likely take weeks/months he probably prepared everything much earlier.
381*** This seems improbable - through him asking "What do I do now, Ellie?", the film implies that it was something he hadn't come up with until the night before, and the officer who brought him home told him the folks from the retirement home would be there to pick him up the next morning.
382** Which means that Russell's SnipeHunt went on for weeks/months. Shall we call MST3KMantra on this? Awesome movie, BTW.
383** He's very dedicated to getting that badge.
384** And who says he has serious back problems?
385*** Carl used to sell balloons, so he probably had a crap-ton laying around his house from those days. No clue as to where he'd get helium, tho.
386[[/folder]]
387[[folder: Who's the Real Master?]]
388* More of a continuity error, but Dug wishes for a new master in the short. All right. He ''still'' refers to Muntz as his master, and says of Carl that he loves him ''like'' his master and calls him master at the same time. A change only really becomes apparent after the cone of shame, which Muntz had nothing to do with.
389** Maybe Dug respected Carl's decision to not be his master, and only accepted the change when Carl accepted him as his dog.
390*** When Carl and Russell are following Muntz and the other dogs into the Spirit of Adventure, you can see Dug, prior to being put in the Cone of Shame, lagging behind and looking really depressed. Presumably, he's upset about the prospect of his newfound friendship coming to an end, and also feels guilt because it was he who inadvertently led the other dogs to them in the first place. When he calls Carl "Master" during the chase sequence, it's clear that he has now switched sides completely, but it had previously been foreshadowed that he would.
391** Dug still loved Muntz as his "master" for a while, up until he and his dogs tried to kill him.
392[[/folder]]
393[[folder: Cropping Alpha's Ears]]
394* Why did Muntz bother to crop Alpha's ears?
395** Ear-cropping wasn't originally just an aesthetic practice; it had a practical root. Long or floppy ears on a working dog can be needlessly harmful: they can be caught on branches and other such snares and torn and bloody, which is very painful for the dog. People cropped their working dog's ears so they'd be out of the way. Seeing as how Alpha was always running around in the underbrush, having natural floppy ears would be an unnecessary hazard.
396[[/folder]]
397[[folder: How Did He Get His Cane Back?]]
398* Something that my brother pointed out to me: after Carl and Russell were blown off-course by the storm cloud, and when they were trying to slow the house down before being suspended off the cliff edge, Carl dropped his cane somewhere in the fog, and left it behind to catch Russel and the house. How does he recover it?
399** Maybe he had another one elsewhere in the house.
400*** This is probable; lots of people do.
401*** The house was still out of reach at the time, though; as evidenced, neither Carl nor Russell were able to get up there.
402*** Watch closely. The cane falls onto the ground not too far from where they stopped the house. Certainly not far enough away that they couldn't just walk and get it.
403[[/folder]]
404[[folder: He Can Hold a House, But Not a GPS]]
405* How exactly did Russell, a chubby preteen who can't even hold a GPS device without accidentally throwing it, get a good enough hold on the house's underside to stay there for a few minutes and then climb up to the front porch? The house didn't seem to have any large hole under it, and even someone who has never heard of [[SnipeHunt snipe hunts]] would've had enough common sense to not start by looking in holes. Not to mention that he could've simply jumped down when the house was starting to ascend.
406** He panicked when the house was ascending. I didn't see him either. Maybe he was caught in one of the cross-slats at the edge? That always bothered me. But the point of why I was answering is that Carl didn't tell him what a snipe was, just that it had beady eyes and ate hydrangeas. Russel was chasing a large mouse or a small rat under the house in the belief that it was a snipe.
407** OffscreenTeleportation, used so that when Carl found out Russell was on his porch it would be a surprise for the audience, too. That's the out-universe explanation. In-universe? Maybe Russell went under the porch, came out at the back of the house, and climbed from window to window back to the porch and the front door?
408** Also: while it might seem hard to believe a boy who couldn't even climb the garden hose due to being out-of-shape and untrained could have climbed out from under the porch, adrenaline and fear are great motivators. Not to mention he later proves capable of it during his HeroicResolve SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome.
409[[/folder]]
410[[folder: Why Did Russell Think Kevin Was a Snipe?]]
411* Why did Russel think Kevin was a snipe? Carl hadn't told him snipes were birds back at the house, and more importantly, you wouldn't think that a relatively small creature that lives in populated North American areas would also live in the Venuzuelan jungle, or that a Kevinoid could be mistaken for a large mouse.
412** The first part (that he thought the same animal would be in Venuzuela) is definitely a bit of a stretch but to be fair to Russel on the second part, he implies that he thinks Kevin is a giant version of the 'Snipe' he was hunting in America.
413** He probably wondered himself if it was or not, seeing as he has to ask Carl if they're tall, very colorful and lovers of chocolate.
414** Didn't Carl describe the snipe as 'Bird. Six feet tall.' when he was explaining it to Russell? In addition, maybe he figured the bird stowed away somewhere on the house and he happened to meet up with them as they were traveling.
415*** Carl said a "snipe" was something that comes out at night and eats his azaleas, with not much else. Kevin so happened to be a bird that eats, well, anything and, since Carl didn't say what a snipe is or describe what its supposed to look like, there you go. The nature of a snipe hunt is that the animal is vague enough as to where it could be anything; a bird, a snake, a small rodent, or whatever the hell.
416[[/folder]]
417
418[[folder: Did Carl Find the House?]]
419* Did Carl ever find that the house had landed next to the waterfall? Or did he not bother to go back because the house was gone (as far as he knew), so there was for some reason no point in ever going back to Paradise Falls? My mum insisted (prior to the credits) that Carl had never gone back, but I didn't see anything aside from him bringing Russell back, attending the award ceremony, and visiting the ice cream shop, plus a bunch of photographs, many of which weren't particularly location-specific.
420** "It's just a house". The turning point in Carl's characterization is when he sees all the photographs of his marriage and the message from his late wife that she enjoyed their adventure and that he should now find a new one. So despite all the attachment he shows towards it prior to that point, there is no remorse when the house eventually flies away. Now considering that the credits involve many, many photographs with Russell, it seems pretty clear that Carl's new adventure is being a father figure for him.
421** I'm definitely sure Carl would've found out about the house eventually anyway.
422[[/folder]]
423[[folder: Why Not Send an Army and Sell the Collars?]]
424* The whole point of Muntz's lifelong trip was proving the scientists wrong, right? So why not earn millions or billions from the dog collars (most dog owners would pay through the nose to have a device to actually communicate with their dogs) and presumably, other inventions that he might come up with in his spare time and send a freaking army to find that bird?
425** As clearly established, Muntz is so paranoid another human will find that bird that he tries to kill everyone he meets. The best he can do is send as many dogs as possible after it, which he does.
426*** Why does he give a rats ass who finds it? whoever finds it, it will prove him right. as stated before, he doesn't need the money (if there is any to be had from finding the bird), he can sell his inventions, or just keep living like he's been doing, which apparently doesn't take much if any money, since he's been doing it for ~60 years with no income.
427*** Because he considers himself a great explorer. If someone else found it, and brought it back, they'd probably take a look at it, eventually admit maybe Muntz was right. But it wouldn't anywhere near the acclaim that he was used to and considered his right. You can't call yourself a great adventurer if you sit around pawning dog collars while someone else goes out and has your adventures.
428*** This is a man who was on top of the world for at least a decade, and then he has to have the scientific community laugh in his face, call him a liar, and discredit all of his adventures. Talk about the ego popping of the century, even a not crazy person would become obsessed after taking that big a blow.
429*** To follow along from these points, it's a common trope (particularly in adventure literature like Doyle's "Lost World" and H. Rider Haggard's Darkest Africa stories) for an explorer to be focused on winning the acclaim and scientific reputation ''himself''. It wasn't just that he wanted to prove the existence of the bird to exonerate himself--he wanted to also be given the credit for finding it, thus earning his place in history/scientific achievement. Even if he assumed the one who found it would give proper credit to him as the initial discoverer (hardly guaranteed, since even aside from not knowing who he was or having an ulterior motive to discredit him, this person could be just as interested in hogging all the glory for the discovery as Muntz himself was), that still wouldn't feel as satisfying or vindicating as standing there himself, taking the credit and being lauded by the scientific community.
430** Muntz is clearly more concerned about the fact that they didn't believe him. He did announce that he would not return until he captured it. People might have thought that was a rhetorical flourish at the time. Perhaps Muntz is fixed into the trap that IGaveMyWord and no amount of reason could make him do otherwise. Being isolated and paranoid for so long couldn't have improved his reasoning faculties.
431** Been a while since I've watched the movie, but in-universe, it would hardly be out-of-character for Muntz to simply ''not care'' about anything else. He's very old, very much mentally exhausted, and clearly insane; by this time, catching Kevin may have become a personal, irrational obsession, and his original intent of regaining his reputation and whatnot may no longer be the point, if there's even a point now besides "catching that damn bird at any cost".
432[[/folder]]
433[[folder: Killing Kevin?]]
434* Muntz wanted at least one ''living'' specimen of Kevin's species. It would have been bad for Kevin to get caught by Muntz as-is, because she had chicklings to take care of. I do not recall Muntz ever acknowledging that the bird he is after has children. Since killing the birds is pretty much the last thing Muntz would ever want at this point, wouldn't it have been simpler for everyone involved to point out the babies to Muntz and give him the option to take the ''whole family'' back? Kevin and the chicks are put in a high-class zoo, ensuring their safety from predators and starvation. Kevin's species is officially recognized and categorized as "endangered;" further protecting any other relatives that pop up later. Muntz has his reputation cleared, and has a good chance to snap out of his goal-oriented psychosis. No one else gets killed. Everyone gets a puppy.
435** It would've been an option if Muntz didn't derail into a murderous, paranoid psychopath by then.
436** Also, Dug's explaining to Carl and Russell about Kevin gathering food for her babies implies that Muntz did know that the bird he was hunting was a mother; it's unlikely Dug could've figured something like that out on his own.
437** At this point, Muntz just wanted to prove to the world that he was not a fraud.
438[[/folder]]
439[[folder: Where's the Jungle?]]
440* I've only seen this movie once and a few days ago, but i don't remember seeing a jungle on the path leading to the waterfall, unless they took some off-screen shortcut. Also, it may just be me but, that path did NOT look like it would take three days to cross. Granted, it's a very old man and a chubby kid carrying a giant house on their back, so what do I know?
441** If you look at their path when they start, you see a jungle. And Carl said they had three days before the house would fall due to helium leaks, not that it would take three days.
442[[/folder]]
443[[folder: From Where Did They Retrieve the Retriever?]]
444* I'm going to guess that Dug is a Golden Retriever of some sort, or at least mixed. But as I look at all the other dogs, they all have features of Bulldogs and Pitbulls and Rottweilers. I didn't see a single fluffy, blonde dog in the pack, so where did Dug come from?
445** Maybe Dug belonged to someone Muntz killed? It might also explain why Dug isn't as deeply loyal to Muntz as the other dogs are.
446** Maybe Dug is the last in the long, but very thin line of Golden Retrievers that Muntz had originally brought with him to South America strictly for pleasure and company, whereas the other, tougher dogs were used to hunt the bird. Over time, though, as Muntz became more and more crazed and depraved, he finally decided to send Dug or one of his predecessors out to aid in the search so that, in his mind, he would be using all resources as efficiently as possible. This would be why the other dogs look down on Dug so much, because they don't consider him worthy of being a member of their ranks, and why Dug is so much more disloyal to Muntz than they are, because all love and attention he got from his master got swept aside and he pretty much lost everything he'd ever come to know.
447** Well, Golden Retrievers are actually hunting dogs. Maybe Muntz wanted some soft-mouthed breed to, well, ''retrieve'' the bird after it had been caught. For all we know, he has spaniels around to help flush it out! And don't we see some hounds in there? They'd be better at tracking the bird. Alpha, Beta, Gamma should be team leaders, organizing the pack's hunts, rather than running around themselves. And why doesn't he have a Poodle or a Border Collie in there, too? Unless those breeds proved ''too'' intelligent and independent for Muntz's purposes . . .
448[[/folder]]
449[[folder: Where Did They Get the Helmets?]]
450* I enjoyed the film immensely, but one tiny bit bothered me near the end. Carl and Russell are both seen with aviator's helmets on as they prepare to go home. Are these Carl's old helmet and Muntz's original one, or did they borrow a few from Muntz's [[RoomFullOfCrazy "collection"?]]
451** Muntz's dogs are shown wearing helmets and goggles during the film's climax, so it can be drawn from that that he does have some extras stored somewhere in his airship. Additionally, I'm not so sure his "collection" was meant to be taken literally as keepsakes he'd taken from the bodies of his murdered competitors.
452[[/folder]]
453[[folder: They Think He's Always Wrong Now?]]
454* All over little Ellie's bedroom walls there's newspaper clippings with headlines such as "MUNTZ CAPTURES YETI." So just because they thought Muntz was wrong about this one thing, suddenly all his other accomplishments don't matter?
455** It wasn't that they thought he was ''wrong'', it's that they thought he was a ''fraud''. If his latest discovery is fake, that casts doubt on anything else he does or has done.
456** FridgeLogic/It's entirely possible one of Muntz's jealous rivals bribed the scientists in order to disgrace him.
457*** [[WesternAnimation/MonstersInc Did said Yeti sound oddly familiar? Did he like snow cones?]]
458[[/folder]]
459[[folder: Missing the "Point"]]
460* Dug is presumably some form of Labrador or Golden Retriever. Why does he point? He's not a pointer.
461** He points because he was trained to point. Just because he's not the breed technically called "pointer" doesn't mean he's physically incapable of it.
462** Besides, he's obviously lousy at it. The first time we see him point, he's tracking Kevin and points at a bush. Kevin is on the roof of Carl's house.
463** [[{{Pun}} Completely Missing The Point]].
464** I have a black lab and he points. I'm not sure about his lineage (I've never bothered to look at his papers), but as far as I know he's a purebred. And I maintain faith that he was never trained to point by his previous owners. They had to give him away because he was so ill-behaved.
465*** I should also say that I realize that Labradors aren't pointers. You could just get lucky and get one that knows to point without training.
466*** My dog's a Golden Retriever like Dug, and I can say with one hundred percent certainty he was never trained to point, but he does it anyway.
467[[/folder]]
468[[folder: How Did Scientists Suspect the Skeleton was a Scam?]]
469* How could the scientists think that Muntz's skeleton was fabricated in the first place? Admittedly, TechnologyMarchesOn, but it can't be that hard to tell real bone apart from fakes, right?
470** Real bones could be put together in a fake way. Compare the first reconstructions of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iguanodon Iguanodons]] to more modern interpretations.
471*** Don't forget the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilt_down_man Piltdown Man]]. A simple modification of Human, Orangutan and Chimpanzee bones managed to keep the anthropological world fooled for a good forty years.
472** Also the possibility that it actually is a fake. Scenario: Mutz finds wild new bird, but can't catch it. Frustrated, he builds a replica of the skeleton. He is discovered.
473*** People thought a platypus specimen was fake (or had to have been faked) until they actually saw a living one. DNA tests didn't exist at the point Muntz disgrace happened so they couldn't confirm that it was real without any concrete iron-clad proof beyond, you know, "the bones are real but the bird ain't".
474[[/folder]]
475[[folder: Setting the house on fire]]
476* I don't get why Muntz just out of the blue set Carl's house on fire. Muntz doesn't know how important it is to Carl, but he just sets it on fire just randomly. Explanation?
477** It's the man's house, which he brought all the way to Paradise Falls with him, and was carrying around on his back when Muntz found him. Why ''wouldn't'' Muntz think it was important?
478** Also, whether or not Muntz was aware of the house's sentimental value to Carl, he had to know Carl would want to protect it simply because it was his only way back to civilization and was also the only place he could live.
479** Carl did explain, however briefly, to Muntz, how it had been his wife's dream to move to live at the falls...I fail to remember whether he mentioned the house as being part of that dream, but Muntz may just as easily have figured that a man doesn't tie thousands of balloons to his house and tear it loose from its foundation unless he wants especially to bring it with him to Paradise Falls for sentimental reasons.
480** Even if the house wasn't of sentimental value to Carl, it was still his shelter from the elements and probably contained food. He wouldn't have lasted long without it.
481[[/folder]]
482[[folder: Replacing the Receptacle?]]
483* Okay, I'll forgive the first jar being of a glass sort that was intended to be broken for their vacation to Paradise Falls. But after the first emergency, that thing should've been replaced by something simpler and reusable. A coffee can, or a piggy bank with a corked hole in the bottom, or something. Glass jar after glass jar, glass shard pile after glass shard pile, that's just ''dangerous'', especially as they grew older. You'll note I'm forgiving enough to not insist on a savings account at the bank.
484** I always saw it as more symbolic; you could say that their dream of going to Paradise Falls was "shattered" each time they had to delve into the savings.
485*** But InUniverse?
486*** In-universe, a glass jar like that also serves a decorative purpose, meaning it can be left in a high-traffic part of the house for them to deposit some loose change as they happen to pass by it, without seeming out of place. This troper's family has kept a near-identical jar in their sitting room for the same purpose. Not only would a tin can or a piggy bank not nearly be large enough to contain the funds they need for the trip, but neither one is something that they could leave lying around somewhere. The ''real'' question is why they smashed the jar open with a hammer each time they needed the money for something, instead of just tipping it over and pouring the money out.
487* 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 lightweight plastic, ''and'' he outweighs Carl by around 70lbs (based on his starting weight of 236lbs in "King-Size Homer").
488[[/folder]]
489[[folder: It's My Spirit of Adventure Now]]
490* 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 law of the jungle? And how in the blue hell is he capable of ''piloting it?''
491** 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.
492*** You could say that Carl didn't really ''murder'' Muntz - all he did was lure Kevin back onto the airship through the window. He might not have figured Muntz would be stupid enough to try and jump out after her, and even if he did, it's not up to Carl to be responsible for Muntz's stupidity/insanity.
493*** Muntz didn't jump, he was pulled out of the window while trying to grab Russel, but yes still it wasn't Carl's fault.
494*** No, he didn't get pulled out. Kevin barged past him and broke through the front window to get to the chocolate Carl was holding, knocking the gun out of Muntz's hands, and he proceeded to jump out of the window after her without realizing that he wouldn't make it back onto the airship.
495*** And besides, the only person who we know for sure knows how Muntz died is Carl, and he's not going to tell the story in such a way that it makes him out to be responsible. Russell can vouch for the fact that Muntz was trying to murder them, and the dogs would be able to testify as to all the times they were set loose on others Muntz thought were after his bird. No one has any evidence that would lead to Carl facing legal trouble - he could probably say that he found the Spirit of Adventure abandoned, and everyone would assume Muntz died decades ago.
496** The "Dug Days" shorts reveal that Carl did indeed sell the Spirit Of Adventure-and presumably the artifacts/antiques inside of it, too.
497[[/folder]]
498[[folder: A Bleeding Inconsistency]]
499* At the start when Carl knocks the man on his head with his walking stick, it draws blood. He does the same thing to his hero later in the film and no blood is drawn. Shouldn't it have done the same thing?
500** Why should it have? It's not some stock "attack" that Carl has that is always going to draw blood. Real life doesn't work that way. Sometimes when you hit people you draw blood, sometimes you don't.
501** The second time, he pretty clearly hits Muntz with the tennis balls affixed to the ends of the cane's feet for precisely the purpose of guarding sharp edges (though mostly for the sake of floors rather than heads). Hence the fact that it bounces back to hit him in the face after. The first time, it looked like he managed to hit with one of the angled bits just above the feet - unguarded metal. (Even if you're going to insist he made the exact same motion both times - unlikely - he was standing closer to Muntz.)
502[[/folder]]
503[[folder: Just Building Around Someone's House?]]
504* Why would they just build around someone's house? What were they planning to do, wait until Carl gave it up?
505** Yes.
506** Also, Carl is 78 years old at the start of the film and, more importantly, seems to have given up on everything except for the house after Ellie died. The developers could have just decided to wait until he passed away (which, at that point, seemed like it would happen sooner rather than later), avoiding any legal disputes in the process.
507** This isn't actually an uncommon concept in real life; Up itself is associated with the story of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Macefield Edith Macefield]], who similarly refused to sell her house to developers and got a mall built around it for her trouble.[[labelnote:Disclaimer]]Contrary to popular belief, however, her story didn't inspire the movie; production began a couple of years before her story.[[/labelnote]] And that's just one example of someone being stubborn enough long enough for the development companies to decide it's less trouble to just build around them.
508[[/folder]]
509[[folder: No Hitting or No House]]
510* How did smacking someone on the head with his cane result in Carl losing his house/being sent to a retirement home?
511** The man in charge of the construction nearby used it to convince the jury that Carl was a menace and not fit to keep his home anymore, so that the exec could level his house and build there as he wanted.
512[[/folder]]
513[[folder: What Would've Happened to Russell?]]
514* If Muntz hadn't shown up and changed all the plans, what was going to happen to Russell? Carl seems very unconcerned with what he's going to do with him after the storm wrecks the first plan. There isn't really any way to get him home after they land that house.
515** South America isn't just one big uninhabited jungle except for a crazy old man. He could have taken him to a village and saw to it that he made it to one of the countries with airports and got him a flight back to the US.
516[[/folder]]
517[[folder: Why Was Russel Mad at Carl?]]
518* Why exactly was Russell so mad at Carl for not helping save Kevin while Muntz was kidnapping her? I know that she was important to him, but meanwhile Carl was trying to save his house from burning down! That's not exactly a very petty excuse. And Russell quotes it as "You just let them take her..." as if Carl had just sat there drinking soda while he was given two hours to save Kevin. Except most people wouldn't be expecting a seventy-something year old man to be able to fight through a herd of angry dogs in the dark. And the house was filled with items of sentimental value. Isn't it a bit understandable why Carl would go to save the house first? I was finding it a bit tough to tolerate Russell at the beginning of the movie, but this scene just made me hate him.
519** Because angry people like to throw blame around, and angry kids even more so? It's easier to accuse someone of failure than to accept that there was nothing anyone could have done.
520** Because what Carl did ''was'' selfish. Instead of continuing to help free Kevin, he deliberately fell for Muntz's distraction and proved that, up to that point, he had only truly cared for himself. Sure, the stuff in his house was valuable, but as we see later on, Carl realizes, by re-reading Ellie's book, that there's more to life than fond memories of the past. When he finally reaches the other side of Paradise Falls, notice how he sits down and suddenly understands how boring and lonely it is, and that he instead should have worked hard to make other people's lives happy as well (which he of course does in the film's epilogue). Therefore, Carl ''is'' in the wrong in that scene, and Russel had every right to get angry at him.
521** That may be true, but I think the point they're trying to bring up is that Russell acts as though Carl saving his house instead of the bird ''wasn't'' the smarter option. To be fair, I know Carl's reasons for wanting to save the house at the time weren't good ones, but if he'd just kept cutting the rope, Muntz would be without a bird, their only way back to civilization would've been burned to the ground, and both of them would've been left with nothing but a crazed old man with a rifle, sword, who knows what other weapons, as well as an army of attack dogs. And even if Russell was too naive to realize the harm that could've come to them or how dangerous Muntz was (which I'm not saying is bad or wrong, for him to be a little naive - he's a kid), that still doesn't make him right.
522*** Muntz being extremely angry at them if the bird got away is a good point, but the house not so much. The house was never supposed to be their ticket back to civilization; Carl wants to set it down next to the falls and not leave, and Russell never raises the question of what he's going to do when that happens, instead just asking if he'll sign for his badge if he helps him. What exactly he was planning on doing we'll never know, he probably hadn't thought that far ahead yet, but still, the house wasn't meant to get them home.
523*** Yes, I guess what I meant was...If the bird had gotten away and Carl's house had burned, there wouldn't have been any way for them to escape Muntz and his dogs and, in the offchance that they decided to, return to civilization. Without the house, they would've been trapped there.
524*** There's also the fact that Russel is a kid and as a result, he wouldn't be able to think about the situation like that. As far as he can probably understand, Carl made a promise to protect Kevin but Kevin got caught.
525[[/folder]]
526[[folder: Taking Down the House from Below?]]
527* At the film's climax, Muntz gives his dogs an order to "take down the house". The dogs use their planes to fly out to the house and proceed to start shooting at Russell, who is dangling from a gardening hose in midair ''below'' the house. Why don't they just fly up higher and start shooting all the balloons?
528** These are the same dogs who totally lose focus when someone says "squirrel" or holds up a tennis ball. Don't expect them to be all that clever.
529[[/folder]]
530[[folder: Where Did He Get the Leaf Blower?]]
531* Where did Russell get that leaf blower he uses to go after the Spirit of Adventure? The only thing remaining of the exterior of Carl's house is his porch, and we never see or hear him going inside the house while Carl is looking through the Adventure Book.
532** It was the same leafblower at the start of the movie. As for how he got it, I don't know.
533[[/folder]]
534[[folder: Russell's Back-How?]]
535* Soon after Carl lets Russell into his flying house, Carl tries to lower Russell down to the ground but accidentally lets go. Then we see Russell back in the house. How does Russell get back in?
536** That never happened. The old man was just imagining things.
537[[/folder]]
538[[folder: Why Didn't Russell's Mom Pin on His Badge?]]
539* At the badging ceremony, we see a happy woman with Dug. That must be Russel's mom. If she was there, couldn't she give him the badge? Of course despite this his dad should have been there but still.
540** I'd like to think that Carl told her that he'd be there to give Russel the badge. She didn't seem to make a commotion while Russel was standing onstage without his father.
541** The real answer, of course, is that it symbolically cements Carl as Russell's father figure. In-universe, Carl almost certainly got the okay from Russell's mom, who equally was almost certainly happy to have a positive paternal role model enter Russell's life.
542[[/folder]]
543[[folder: Is it More than Just a Bunch of Animal Noises?]]
544* Was there anything significant to Carl using the "Caw-caw! Rawr!" call to get Russel's attention as he was climbing the outside of the blimp during the climax? I always thought it was meant as sort of like "Russel! Pick up the slack, take out those planes, and get me some help over here!", but I couldn't help but wonder whether there was something else to it that I missed.
545** I think it was kind of a rallying cry, as Russell and him were now a team (as opposed to a reluctant guardian and tagalong) facing grave danger.
546** There was indeed something else to it that you missed. Earlier in the film, Russel tells Carl that if he's ever in danger to use the Wilderness Explorer cry for help, which happens to sound like random animal noises: "Caw-caw! Rawr!"
547[[/folder]]
548[[folder: If Muntz is Crazy, Why Did He Spare Them?]]
549* If Muntz was so off his nut and paranoid at this point, why did he spare Carl and Russell in the beginning? Since it is implied he murdered anyone else who stumbled upon his cove, why didn't he just wait in the shadows and watch the dogs rip them apart?
550** It's implied that he only murdered people he had reason to believe were after the bird - when he saw that Carl and Russel were dragging an entire house along behind them, he decided that no one would've gone to such lengths just to try and fool him, and that they were innocent enough to be trusted. It wasn't until Russel mentioned Kevin later on that he changed his mind, and it's possible (as suggested on the NightmareFuel page) that similar circumstances were what befell his other victims, to whom he was initially trusting, until a perfectly innocent comment or remark sent him over the edge and they became dog chow.
551[[/folder]]
552[[folder: Being the Perpetrator of a Prune Juice Prank Doesn't Cause Problems with the Police?]]
553* If Carl was caught pouring prune juice into the gas tank of the head of construction around his house, why didn't the construction company press charges? Pouring foreign fluids into a car's gas tank can do a lot of damage to it.
554** I'm guessing nobody saw him do it, so they didn't have enough evidence to press charges. Prune juice isn't always unique to a specific jug like fingerprints or DNA, and it's entirely possible for a defense attorney to reasonably argue that a troublemaking kid was pulling what he thought was an innocent prank on the construction boss.
555** Prune juice, though? Little kids don't drink prune juice, unless they're extraordinarily ill.
556** Unfortunately, "little kids don't drink prune juice!" isn't legally admissable evidence. While it's ''suggestive'', it's still circumstantial evidence (since it could be plausibly argued that someone was trying to set him up).
557*** Since Carl is in his 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?
558[[/folder]]
559[[folder: Never Catching the Bird?]]
560* How could Muntz have been out to catch one specimen of one species of bird and never have come close to catching it for '''70 YEARS?!'''
561** From what we see in the film, he seemed to leave his dogs to do most of the work, and while they're certainly possess more dexterity than the average dog, they're still not the sharpest knives in the drawer. Couple this with how fast Kevin is, how strong her legs probably are, how her species might be endangered, and the fact that she lives in a deadly labyrinth that's impossible to navigate...and with Muntz seemingly going a little too far of the deep end over the years, and it's plausible that he never had the chance to catch her. (Especially since his claim to the world was that he would bring the bird back ''alive'', which limits severely the means his dogs can use to catch her very easily.)
562** And he had absolutely no chance to refine his techniques in all that time?
563** Clearly, he must've tried. It just didn't work, obviously. As stated, trying to capture the bird alive and uninjured is probably much more difficult than just killing it, since it's too fast to capture easily ''without'' injuring it in some capacity.
564*** 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. Of course, other than the skeleton, it's not really clear if he knew what Kevin's species looked like or just guessed.
565[[/folder]]
566
567[[folder: So what part of town did Carl live in anyway?]]
568* In the 1940s/50s, he and Ellie bought and moved into the house they'd met in as children, which was abandoned and decrepit ''c''.1933 (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?
569** Probably was a suburb that was more urbanized.
570[[/folder]]
571
572[[folder: "Small Mailman"?]]
573* 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?
574** 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.
575** 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.
576** Plus, RuleOfFunny. Dogs chasing mailmen is a very common joke.
577[[/folder]]
578
579[[folder: The photographer]]
580* Who was taking pictures of Carl and Ellie's intimate moments (her birthday, feeding pigeons and just laying out together)?
581** A friend who passed later on, I guess.
582** They used a camera with a time-delay shutter, mounted on a tripod. [[Tropers/{{Kalmbach}} This troper]] used that process to photograph his own wedding.
583[[/folder]]
584
585[[folder: Dog breeds]]
586* 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?!
587** 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 . . .
588[[/folder]]
589
590[[folder: Age]]
591* Carl is eight years old at the start of the film, whereas Muntz is an established explorer, probably around thirty if not older. They meet again when Carl is 78, ''seven decades later''. Muntz is now either close to or over 100 years old, and has been living without any sort of healthcare or modern medicine for all that time. How is he even able to walk by himself, let alone swing a sword or give chase to a man over twenty years his junior across the top of a flying airship?
592** The guy made dog collars that allow the wearers to talk, he probably [[{{Steampunk}} steampunked]] himself up some sort of [[Franchise/{{Batman}} Lazarus pit]], Ra's Al Ghul style.
593** This is a film that features talking dogs and a man who gets his house to fly by tying a physically-inadequate amount of balloons to it. Why can't people just wrap their heads around a particular elderly character having aged mildly well?
594** 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 Muntz visibly struggles to effectively use the sword against Carl; he's clearly not that adept with it anymore.
595[[/folder]]
596
597[[folder: All for naught?]]
598* Why was there the whole conflict with Kevin and Muntz in the first place? Yeah, Kevin is pregnant and Muntz is crazy, but why can't they get Kevin to bring the babies with her, and then bring all of them back home? Or have someone take a photo of her, and be done with it? Nothing else, they just take her home briefly, Fredrickson and Russel take care of her in the mean time. I understand that Muntz is crazy, and that only Kevin can go in and out of the labrynth at will, but would it be too much to just bring the nest outside, or wait until the children are more grown. Or find the father? This makes it really hard to watch the film as it feels like an HonorBeforeReason plot that goes the way it does because it says so, and makes it hard to not just intellectually understand the plot.
599** You've hit upon it without realizing it: Muntz being crazy due to prioritizing HonorBeforeReason is the entire source of conflict in the second half of the movie. One of the themes of the story is that you'll waste your life away in misery if you're intent to hold yourself to promises that are inherently unkeepable. Muntz swore that he wouldn't return to the States until he succeeded at capturing Kevin alive, and to him, no other solution would be preferable to that one. Even if it had been, he's been driven so crazy that he wouldn't listen if Carl and Russel were to try suggesting it, since his paranoid mind assumes that they're also after the bird.
600[[/folder]]
601
602[[folder: Porch Stowaway]]
603* 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?
604** Adreneline rush kicked in. People do crazy stuff when their lives are on the line.
605[[/folder]]
606
607[[folder: Wilhelm Scream]]
608* How did Muntz get his hands on the Wilhelm scream sound clip? Wasn't that thing first used in the '50s?
609** RuleOfFunny, or maybe he's got really good [=WiFi=] and downloaded it.
610[[/folder]]
611
612[[folder: Dug's Knock]]
613* After Carl's flown off in the house again to give chase to Muntz and Russel, he once again hears knocks on the door and opens it to find Doug on the other side. How the heck did the dog ''knock?''
614** By rapping his claws against the door? Or hitting his head on it? Dug is quite a big dog, it's not like he's too small to produce a knocking noise.
615*** Thumping his tail?
616[[/folder]]
617
618[[folder: Dogs Cooking]]
619* How do the dogs cook dinner? To quote Creator/RickyGervais, they haven't got thumbs, never mind opposable ones.
620** Maybe the airship is more technologically advanced than it looks.
621** If ''WesternAnimation/{{Ratatouille}}'' taught us anything; is that anyone can cook!
622[[/folder]]
623
624[[folder: Why is Dug so stupid?]]
625* Golden Retrievers are the 4th smartest breed, so why is Dug so stupid?
626** I don't think Dug is stupid, actually, he's really just new and still a rookie, so he doesn't know better.
627[[/folder]]
628
629[[folder: Assistance]]
630* At the beginning, to fulfil Russell's stupid badge requirements, why couldn't Carl have just dropped his cane or his glasses or a tennis ball and tell Russell to pick them up or let him help him walk a couple meters to the mailbox? He probably wouldn't trust Russell to clean his mailbox without starting a forest fire, but anything can be counted as "assisting the elderly", right?
631** Carl didn't want Russell to help him at all. Carl is so lonely, grouchy and bitter at the beginning of the film that making a child happy isn't something he plans on doing, even if it would be really easy. So he decides to make Russell run around looking for a snipe instead, which he thinks is funnier than simply giving Russell what he wants.
632[[/folder]]
633
634[[folder: Fabulous Return]]
635
636* How did Russell end up back on Carl's house after going two blocks away to hunt for the snipe?
637** Maybe he figured the sneaky snipe had slipped past him and doubled back?
638[[/folder]]
639

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