History Characters / Up

Carl Fredricksen (born 1931) is the protagonist. He is a cranky and widowed 78-year-old retired balloon salesman.

Russell is the deuteragonist. He is a Junior Wilderness Explorer who accompanied Carl Fredricksen to Paradise Falls.

Dug is a Golden Retriever who is the low dog in Charles Muntz' dog pack, who can speak via a voice device on his collar. He also appears in Dug's Special Mission as the protagonist and in George & A.J. as a minor character.

%%* CanineCompanion: Eventually to Carl.

* HeroicDog: He's a dog who is one of the main heroes.

* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: It's implied that all of Charles' dogs consider him unfit to be one of them.

* BigBad: The main antagonist of the film. He is trying to capture Kevin, and he will kill anyone who gets in his way.
* BrokenPedestal: As children, Carl and Ellie idolised Muntz and both wanted to be explorers like him, and the older Carl even claims that he and Ellie were Muntz's "biggest fans". Though Ellie doesn't live to see Muntz's true colours, Carl loses his admiration for him when he sees the madman that Muntz has turned into.

* SmallNameBigEgo: By the time the film's main events take place, Muntz has largely faded from the public's memory, thanks in part to his previous humiliation over Paradise Falls. When they meet Muntz, Carl still idolises him from his childhood, but the younger Russell has never even heard of him. Modern society is also much more knowledgable of South America than it was in Muntz's time, so even if he did bring Kevin back, few would care about or even notice his achievement.

->'''Voiced by:''' Jeremy Leary (child); Creator/EdAsner
->'''Dubbed by:''' Music/CharlesAznavour (French), Creator/ShozoIizuka (Japanese), Tito Resendiz (Latin American Spanish), Fred Maire (German), Otto Schenk (Austrian German)

[[caption-width-right:290: "The wilderness must be explored!"]]

* HeroesWantRedheads: Fell in love with the FieryRedhead Ellie.

* CatchPhrase: "Adventure is out there!"

* ChildrenAreInnocent: Goes hand and hand with CannotTellALie.

* CloudCuckooLander: Dug's mind is in the clouds most of the time.

* WhenEldersAttack: To fight off elders.

If you want to hear what he has to say for himself, click [[SelfDemonstrating/CarlFredricksen here]].

* DoesNotLikeShoes: Ellie was barefoot in two of her childhood scenes.

->'''Voiced by:''' Jeremy Leary (child); Creator/EdwardAsner

* MeaningfulName: Carl means "strong man". Considering the physical and emotional obstacles Carl does through in this movie, it's definitely fitting.

* ParentalSubstitute: Acts a father figure to Russell.

* WalkingSpoiler: Very little can he said about this character without revealing that he's the film’s BigBad. Though this didn’t stop the [[TrailersAlwaysSpoil marketing from telling us that.

[[folder:Charles F. Muntz]]

* AffablyEvil: Muntz is normally friendly and polite. He loves his dogs. He's a good host. But when Muntz thinks [[spoiler:someone else is trying to catch Kevin, he turns homicidal]].
* AlasPoorVillain: Carl shakily gasps in horror [[spoiler:when Muntz falls to his death]].
* AllForNothing: [[spoiler:His obsession to prove the bird skeleton wasn't a fake leads him to spend sixty years in Paradise Falls hunting down a live bird and slowly descending into madness. By the time the film's main events take place, the age of explorers is long gone, the majority of Muntz' naysayers are probably dead, and South America itself is no longer considered the mysterious lost world that it was in his generation. [[MeaninglessVillainVictory Even if he had successfully captured Kevin and returned to civilisation, he'd be far less relevant and his discovery would quickly fade from the public eye, if it was ever noticed to begin with.]]]]

* AxCrazy: It may not be clear at first, but when he strongly implies that he's [[spoiler:actually murdered others in the past just because he was paranoid that they were after his bird, AKA Kevin]], it's quite obvious he's gone completely insane after decades in isolation. And it goes FromBadToWorse from there. By the end of the movie, [[spoiler:he attempts to kill Kevin, Dug, and Russell (a ''[[WouldHurtAChild kid]]'' mind you) in cold blood with a rifle.]]

* BigBad: The main antagonist of the film. [[spoiler:He is trying to capture Kevin, and he will kill anyone who gets in his way.]]
* BrokenPedestal: As children, Carl and Ellie idolised Muntz and both wanted to be explorers like him, and the older Carl even claims that he and Ellie were Muntz's "biggest fans". [[spoiler:Though Ellie doesn't live to see Muntz's true colours, Carl loses his admiration for him when he sees the madman that Muntz has turned into.]]

* CoolOldGuy: The guy's in his nineties, and [[spoiler:he almost takes Carl Fredricksen down in a sword fight and designs collars that allow dogs to talk!]] Some of the other adventures that we only hear bits and pieces of sound pretty epic. Many decades in the South American rainforest haven't diminished his charisma one bit. [[spoiler:His sanity, on the other hand...]]

* DetrimentalDetermination: As a young man, he was humiliated with accusations that the skeleton he brought from Paradise Falls was actually fake and declared that he would bring another of its species alive if it was the last thing he did. The film shows exactly ''what'' that mindset can do to a person if they don't give up [[spoiler: by having Muntz become ''obsessed'' over his hunt to the point of paranoia and insanity, killing anyone that he encounters that he believes is simply after the bird he was after. When Carl and Russell see this side of him, Carl instantly loses all respect of his former idol and declares him to be crazy. And Muntz's sanity just goes downhill from there, even after he catches the bird alive, since now he is determined that it stay that way no matter what happens.]]
* DisneyVillainDeath: [[spoiler:It really does not get more dramatic than falling to one's death from 10,000 feet.]] Notable since the creators went to great lengths to ''avoid'' this trope, coming up with numerous other ways for Muntz to go, but defaulting back to the trope when it became clear that it was the only appropriate option. It's also a much more abrupt, realistic take on the trope than usual; no dramatic slow-motion arm flailing here, [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome he just plummets like a stone.]]
* EgomaniacHunter: [[spoiler:Muntz has become one of these, ad nauseum. While he doesn't seek to kill Kevin, having vowed to capture her alive, he still plans to remove the bird from its natural environment to regain his honor and reputation.]]

* EvilCounterpart: To Carl. Both of them were fixated on the past, and on living their adventure. [[spoiler:One was able to move on, the other wasn't.]]

* FaceHeelTurn: After being called a fraud, he returned to Paradise Falls to capture the bird, and after many, ''many'' years of failures, [[spoiler:he obviously lost sight that keeping the bird with her family was more important than proving himself right.]]

* GunNut: [[spoiler:Towards the end, he goes completely off the rails and tries to kill Russell, Kevin and Dug with a ''rifle''.]]

* OffscreenVillainy: [[spoiler:It's all but outright stated that Muntz has murdered other explorers that crossed his path in Paradise Falls. These explorers all had their own reasons for being there and were uninterested or possibly even unaware of Kevin's existence, but Muntz's [[TheParanoiac obsessive paranoia]] led him to believe that they were trying to find his prize and steal his glory]].

** Muntz has a moment of shock when [[spoiler:he sees Russell on his dirigible's windshield.]]
** He has a similar reaction when [[spoiler:his foot gets snagged on some balloons, leading to his DisneyVillainDeath.]]

* TheParanoiac: To Muntz, ''everyone'' is out to take the bird from him. If the scene where Carl and Russell first meet him is any indication, he has to be convinced by some seriously extreme evidence to not assume people he meets are out to get him, and it takes very little for him to backslide into turning on them. [[spoiler:It's also heavily implied that Carl and Russell are not the first innocent explorers that have had to face his wrath.]]

* ShadowArchetype: [[spoiler:To Carl. Charles represents what could've become of Carl, had he not let go of his past dreams. The creators outright say that if Carl had not met Russell and formed a bond with him on his adventure, he would've continued down his obsessive path to the point where he'd become just like Muntz.]]
* SlasherSmile: Gives one when [[spoiler: he turns against Carl and Russell.]]
* SmallNameBigEgo: By the time the film's main events take place, [[spoiler:Muntz has largely faded from the public's memory, thanks in part to his previous humiliation over Paradise Falls. When they meet Muntz, Carl still idolises him from his childhood, but the younger Russell has never even heard of him. Modern society is also much more knowledgable of South America than it was in Muntz’s time, so even if he did bring Kevin back, few would care about or even notice his achievement]].

* WalkingSpoiler: Very little can he said about this character without revealing that [[spoiler:he's the film’s BigBad]]. Though this didn’t stop the [[TrailersAlwaysSpoil marketing from telling us that]].
* WiseOldFolkFacade: Muntz is initially quite cordial with Carl (who's a big fan of him) and Russell, [[spoiler: but turns against them when they refuse to help him hunt down the bird he's been pursuing]].
* WouldHurtAChild: He has no qualms [[spoiler:killing Russell if it means getting to Kevin]].