I love Up, it's one of Pixar's finest. It's one of the most heartfelt movies about love, loss and moving on that also involves a flying house. There are so many aspects to this movie that I'm sure I'll come back to it in future articles. But today I am not exploring the validity of a device that lets dogs talk, or whether it's even possible to fly your house. No, there is a much more pressing issue to attend to, a glaring plot hole that perhaps harbours a dark secret.
Meet Charles Muntz:
A famous explorer back in the day, he was accused of forging the skeleton of a giant bird that he brought back from Paradise Falls, South America. Stripped of his credentials, he vows to go back to Paradise Falls and never return until he finds another specimen.
Well, that was back in 1939, when the hero of our tale, Carl Fredricksen, was just eight years old. We can assume that Up takes place in the present day, which means that by the time Carl goes on his adventure, Charles Muntz has been away for around 70 years. Sure enough, when Carl runs into Charles, he's a distinguished old man:
Looks pretty good for being about 90. But hey, he's not in his prime. He can't go chasing after that bird all by himself, and that's why he has a plethora of loyal doggy companions to track it down for him, as well as cooking for him and who knows what else. He has a lot of dogs, and he tells Carl that he's lost a whole bunch in the labyrinth that is the bird's home. Question is, where do all these dogs come from?
We see at least four distinct species in the movie. First of all, obviously, we have Dug, the loveable bumbling Golden Retriever that tags along with Carl and Russell. There's also the leader of the pack, Alpha, who is a Doberman Pinscher. The majority of Muntz's dogs, though, are made up of Bulldogs and Rottweilers. These species have an average life expectancy of 10-12 years, 10-11 years, 8-12 years and 9-10 years respectively. Not counting the inevitable early deaths suffered through tracking the bird, that's at least six, maybe seven generations of dogs that Charles has bred while camping out in South Africa.
Only problem is, all the dogs in his pack appear to be male, or at least have been given male voice collars. I'm not going to spend hours trawling through every frame looking for dog genitalia, so I'll go with my gut on this one. But not only do we not see females, there are no puppies around either. You'd expect a meticulous and dedicated adventurer like Charles Muntz would have a constant stream of dogs popping out of a bunch of carefully selected bitches. Well, of course he does, but he's a sophisticated man, he's got to keep up appearances for the various guests he ends up murdering. He can't have dog orgies in his museum and puppies ripping up his aviator jackets. So there's only one conclusion we can make, and it's a dark one.
Somewhere, in The Spirit Of Adventure, there is a secret dog sex dungeon.
Well, perhaps not a dungeon per se, but certainly a separate area which is reserved for breeding. A place where females are kept as baby making machines, to be fertilised and to give birth, over and over again. The puppies remain there too, until they are mature enough to join the hunt, unless they're female of course. Then they probably stay there for life. They're probably still looked after quite well, but Muntz is clearly an old fashioned man, who probably values the males a lot more than the females. So while Carl and Russell are enjoying dinner with Charles (you know, before he tries to murder them), little do they know that nearby there are a bunch of dogs, locked in a room, being screwed and popping out babies until they die. Stay classy, Muntz.
