Daily Dialogue — July 6, 2019

“Movietown News presents, ‘Spotlight on Adventure.’ What you are now witnessing is footage never before seen by civilized humanity: a lost world in South America. Lurking in the shadow of majestic Paradise Falls, it sports plants and animals undiscovered by science. Who would dare set foot on this inhospitable summit? Why, our subject today, Charles Muntz!”

— Up (2009), screenplay by Bob Peterson & Pete Docter, story by Pete Docter & Bob Peterson & Tom McCarthy

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Movie Theater.

Trivia: Many possible endings were proposed for Charles Muntz. At first, the animators considered redeeming him by having him iron out his differences with Carl after their fight on the zeppelin. However, this ending was deemed too dull, as it would amount to both men simply standing and talking for a length of time. In another scenario, Muntz’s obsession with catching Kevin took him inside the dreaded labyrinth against his own recommendation, where he would eventually get lost and die (much like Jack Nicholson’s character in The Shining (1980)). As the animators wanted to keep the climax situated in the air, they considered having Muntz lured into Carl’s house by Kevin and then dying as the house fell off the zeppelin with him still inside. However, they did not want to associate the house, which symbolized Ellie, with a violent death. Another potential ending had Muntz getting tangled into some balloons and getting lifted away rather than falling. But animators felt this was too ambiguous and did not give proper closure to the character. In the end, the directors decided that this was Carl’s story, and therefore, Muntz’s ending was to be kept simple.

Dialogue On Dialogue: Pixar are masters at handling exposition and with the Movietown News newsreel, we efficiently learn all about Charles Muntz… and a young boy seated in the audience enraptured by his hero. That boy, of course, is Carl Fredricksen.