Analysis of Up.
Carl and Ellie's life vs. Muntz's life and the reversal at the end
In Up, the whole opening montage serves as an interesting Deconstruction of the Goal in Life and Manic Pixie Dream Girl tropes. The opening scene before the montage sets it up like the two might actually go to Paradise Falls. But then, life gets in the way. Carl and Ellie live a long, happy life in a nice neighborhood. Paradise Falls, exotic and distant but seemingly achievable, falls by the wayside. When Carl finally thinks about it, both he and Ellie are retired. So he buys some tickets to South America — possibly as a consolation — but they never even go. Just as his thoughts turn towards Paradise Falls, Ellie passes away. Then the neighborhood, excepting the house Carl and Ellie built, gets razed. Carl's guilt over the whole thing and lack of a source of happiness turns him into a bitter old man with a Tragic Dream, and plenty of time to think about What Could Have Been. Meanwhile, as everything recognizable around him gets destroyed, he keeps his house identical to the way it was when he and Ellie finished it — even keeping the chairs. Then, after his trial, he is faced with a choice — leave behind everything for a retirement home, or cling desperately to his memories of Ellie. He Takes a Third Option and goes off to redeem himself.Charles Muntz, by comparison, serves as a Shadow Archetype for Carl. Both are individuals haunted by past regret, and both have lost something important to them. Carl lost his wife, and Muntz lost his credibility and neither are really to blame for that. They also both have a deep desire to redeem their biggest failures: Carl wishes to redeem his missed chance to travel to Paradise Falls, and Muntz wishes to redeem his tarnished reputation by bringing back proof of the existence of the Monster of Paradise Falls. The difference is Muntz has spent decades obsessing over Kevin and proving he isn't a fraud, and it has made him paranoid, jealous, and violent. The tragedy of Muntz's situation is (as mentioned on the Fridge page) that the methods by which he was discredited, the measurements and the bone fitting, have been discredited by the time the movie takes place.
But as Carl begins his journey towards the last goal, things get twisted for him. Namely, Russel. Russel is symbolically What Could Have Been the child they never had, but also represents a bright outlook on new things, fascinated by the world around them, thinking outside the box in walking the house to the falls, talking about his own dream to get his father to come to his graduation. And then linking up with "kevin". All these things give Carl a chance at finding new purpose in his life, and after escaping from Muntz the first time, it seems he might be coming around. Choosing to help bring Kevin back to her children. But, as mentioned above, then Muntz threatens his past again, and despite the growth he'd gone through, the security of those memories are too strong for Carl, and he lets Kevin get captured, destroying the friendships he'd created from his own anger and bitterness at letting himself be distracted.
But having reached the goal he always wanted, he soon sees that he has nothing else to do. And that's where his Tragic Keepsake of Ellie's scrapbook comes into play. A trick of fate has him finally see and understand that Ellie never held their "failure" against him. Life together was adventure enough, and she'd died happy, only wishing for her husband to "go have another one". And this is enough for Carl to swear to fix the relationships he made, and start flying again.
Speaking of flying, the soundtrack for getting the house going again is "memories can weigh you down". Which in the end is how Carl and Charles end up separating from each other in a very literal sense. In their final confrontation, Charles is following his obsession to the bitter end, openly resorting to attempted murder to get his deed done. Carl meanwhile is only thinking of protecting what he has now. It's not about preserving what memories he had any longer. It's about helping his new family survive. And in the end, through some visual storytelling, it's Carl who stays up high on Muntz's own ship. Letting the past go so it doesn't control him, and finding new purpose as Russel's surrogate grandfather. While Muntz's regrets eventually led to him plummeting from the sky, his memories failing to support him.
