Dug in Real Life

Disney posted this because they knew I would post about it. Well, maybe not, but I had to post about it to add to my collection of instances where Disney•Pixar's UP has been brought into the real world.

Found at Cinema Blend.

Carl Spotting

Now this is just downright uncanny. I've done a number of posts on how visual concepts from Disney•Pixar's UP have started to invade the real world but I thought I was done. Until now. Having just found the "real life Carl Fredricksen" on Pinterest I couldn't help but post it here:

And the younger version:

Now we just have to find the real life Kevin.

UP House Now Fully Realized

In previous blog entries here I've showed real-life versions of Carl Fredricksen's house from Disney•Pixar's UP. The first one showed a version where the whole thing, house and balloons, was all one big balloon. The second entry actually showed a scale model of the house attached to many individual balloons and actually floating in the air by balloon power.

A couple weeks ago though I found out that somebody has built a life-sized, inhabitable version of the house in a suburb of Salt Lake City, even receiving approval from Disney. One image is below but more about the house and more images of it can be seen at this AOL Original article.

If this house ever flies to South America on balloon power I hope it makes the news.

UP House Now Even More Real

In a prior entry I showed an inflatable that used to be stationed between Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure that was a replica of the famous house from Pixar's UP. It was kind of neat to see something like the "real thing" in person but the whole thing, house and balloons and all, was basically one big balloon.

But yesterday I found an article that shows an actual scale model of Carl Fredericksen's house with real helium-filled balloons blossoming out of its top as part of an experiment to recreate the spectacular scene from the film.

Read on here.

Russell All Grown Up

Round "UP" UPdated

I hope everyone got to see Disney•Pixar's UP today or that you'll get to soon. Here's links to a couple new articles/reviews about it:

1. Disney Insider: Main Attraction ("Up, Up, and Away with Director
   Pete Docter")
2. Chuck Oberleitner's Review at o-meon
3. The Orange County Register
4. How Pixar's Up House Could Really Fly (from Wired)
5. Lou Romano: Art of Up
6. 'Up' flies high at weekend box office
7. Well-Rounded Boy, Meet Old Square
8. Pixar has found its lucky charm in John Ratzenberger
9. The Korean Face of Pixar's Latest Star
10. Easter Eggs in Pixar's Up
11. 'UP' with Dogs - The Reporter
12. Pixar grants girl's dying wish (OC Register)
13. Readers worldwide respond to Pixar's granting dying girl's wish
14. Mastering the Art of Vocals
15. Man takes cue from 'UP,' floats across English Channel

Here's some links to stories about talking dog collars (real ones) that probably inspired the ones used in UP:

16. Bowlingual Info
17. BowLingual on Wikipedia
18. What's Fido saying? 'Bowlingual' will translate
19. Japan goes barking mad for dog toy
20. Tech lite: At home with Bowlingual, the dog bark analyzer

Disneyland Quick Stop

Made a quick stop by Disneyland earlier today (in and out of the parking lot in exactly an hour and forty-five minutes). In the big courtyard area between Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure they had Carl's house from UP:

And in the animation building at DCA they had a three dimensional poster from The Princess and the Frog:

Click here to see the whole photo album on flickr including more of these same two pictures from different angles or here for the complete photo album from my quick trip.

UPDATE: Here's a video somebody made of the inflatable UP house:

The Up Blimp

Just found this on The Orange County Register ScienceDude blog:



It doesn't mention anything about promoting the new movie UP but that's clearly what it's doing. The best view of this comes near the end.

UP at the El Cap

Got to see a screening of Disney•Pixar's UP tonight at the El Capitan Theatre on Hollywood Blvd. I think people are going to love this movie. As of now it even has a 100% "fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes. A couple parts at the beginning reminded me heavily of Raising Arizona and there was an outright reference to a famous painting and an outright reference to Star Wars.

The adjacent Disney Soda Fountain and Studio Store was themed for UP so I took pictures of everything I could. The theatre itself is still themed for the DisneyNature Earth film.

UP was directed by Pete Docter who previously directed Monsters, Inc. Pete always reminded me of my cousin Adam and even has a Shag-designed shirt that is exactly the same as one I have. And Pete and I were the last couple people with any sort of Disney connection to visit Art Stevens who worked on many Disney films from 1940 until about 1981.

I'm wondering if they'll make an UP ride at a Disney park. Maybe guests can get in a house that floats (or seemingly floats) around by balloon power and travel to Paradise Falls in South America. Come to think of it, that's pretty similar to Soarin' Over California at Disney's California Adventure.

One cool thing about UP is that it was dedicated to Joe Grant (and three others). Joe Grant was a longtime Disney story artist who started in 1937 and worked on many of the classic animated features. I was honored to be able to attend Joe's funeral at Forest Lawn even though I never got a chance to meet him in person. I also went to his life celebration at the Alex Theatre in Glendale and here's a poster they handed out of some of the sketches he had made throughout his illustrious career:


Click on the image to see a nice big version. Notice characters he sketched for Snow White, Dumbo, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Lorenzo, and more. I think Joe is also the only person who worked on both Fantasia films, and that's pretty incredible seeing as how they came out six decades apart. He's also the one who came up with the title for Monsters, Inc.

See the complete photo album here at .

Looking UP

Here's a few new screen grabs from and other pictures related to Disney•Pixar's UP: