Up

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Theatrical Release Date: May 29, 2009
Estimated Budget: $175 Million
U.S. Box Office Gross: $293 Million
Worldwide Box Office: $668 Million

Cast
Edward Asner, Jordan Nagai, Christopher Plummer, Bob Peterson, Delroy Lindo, Jerome Ranft & John Ratzenberger

Credits
Music by: Michael Giacchino
Produced By: Jonas Rivera
Story by: Pete Docter, Bob Peterson & Thomas McCarthy
Screenplay by: Pete Docter & Bob Peterson
Directed by: Pete Docter

Tidbits

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  • Up started as a single image: a grouchy old man with balloons. Director Peter Docter then took the concept a step further. “What if those balloons raised the man’s house into the skies?”
  • Docter told the L.A. Times this about the shaping the story: “In the very first draft . . . he just wanted to join his wife up in the sky,” Docter said. “It was almost a kind of strange suicide mission or something. And obviously that’s [a problem]. Once he gets airborne, then what? So we had to have some goal for him to achieve that he had not yet gotten.”
  • An early version of Up, had Carl going caring for Kevin’s egg and trying to get it back home (with Munce in hot pursuit). This egg was key to a Fountain of Youth type potion. This was jettisoned fairly early on and Russell was added.
  • Pete Docter told Fresh Air host Terry Gross that the some of Up‘s influences included everything from Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo to the animated work of Hayao Miyazaki.
  • Docter and several members of the team visited a retirement home as as band, but took the opportunity to observe the tics and habits of the elderly men in residence.
  • Pixarian voices include Bob Peterson (Dug), Jerome Ranft (Gamma) and Peter Docter (Campmaster Strauch).
  • John Ratzenberger voices Tom, a construction worker who asks if Carl is ready to sell his home.
  • There has been much speculation about the ages of Carl Fredricksen and Charles Muntz in Up. Many viewers of the film doubted that Charles Muntz could still be alive when Carl encounters him in the 2nd half of the film (after showing a grown up Muntz via newsreel footage when Carl is a child).  The following ages have been confirmed by director Pete Docter (via Lee Unkrich’s twitter). At the beginning of the film, Carl is 9 years old and Charles Muntz is 23. So, when they meet later in the film, Carl is now 78 years old and Muntz is 92!
  • Disney promoted Up with this theater standee months before its release:

standee