Surprising Messages in "Up"

Somewhat begrudgingly, my husband dragged me to see “Up,” this past weekend, Pixar’s latest animation flick that has been holding it’s own in the box office. I don’t want to write an all-out review of the movie here, the NY Times already did that beautifully. But I do think it is important to share what the Times left out: the film’s subtle, yet extremely poignant message about animals.

The main character in “Up” is Carl Fredricksen, a recent widower who decides to take off on an adventure to South America and embarks on the most unlikely route to get there. He also gets stuck with the most unlikely of company, a young Boy Scout in pursuit of a badge of honor for assisting the elderly.

When they arrive in South America, they come face-to-face with Fredricksen’s childhood hero-turned-villain, and a pack of talking dogs with which the villain has been hunting a rare bird.

There’s a scene in the movie where three dogs are in hot pursuit of the brightly-colored, rare bird. My heart sank when I saw the dogs – depicted as rabid hunters – and sank even more when the little kid sitting on my left asked aloud to his mother if they were pit bulls.

The alpha dog was a Doberman, another was an American bulldog, and the other was a Rottweiler. To make matters worse, the one dog that is squeezed out of the pack and winds up becoming Fredricksen’s pet, was depicted as a yellow, fluffy golden retriever.

Fast forward into the movie and lonely old Fredricksen is now a geriatric action hero, warding off the enemy and his pack of dogs – several dozen of them pit bulls – while trying to save the bird, his new found pet, and the young boy he has begrudgingly become a grandfather figure to.

***Spoiler Alert***

In the end, Fredricksen accomplishes killing off the bad guy, saving the rare bird, and returning back home with the boy and his new dog. But what also returns back home with them is the remainder of the villain’s pack of dogs, the pit bulls. They are shown flying with their new master peacefully, and then again sitting dutifully in the audience as the young Boy Scout receives his badge of honor for helping the elderly.

It is a message that animal advocates, and pit bull advocates, drum-home daily. Animals, and especially pit bulls, can do bad things under the direction of bad people, like the animated dogs did when they lived with the bad guy in “Up.” But as soon as the villain was out of the picture (no pun intended), the pack became good dogs under the direction of a new, and good master.

The folks at Pixar also did a wonderful thing by calling attention to wildlife and the importance of protecting it, especially those species that are rare, as was the case with the bird.

What started out as disappointment about the way in which animals were being depicted in the movie, ended up as relief, and later on, even pleasure. Pixar, with its subtle but powerful way of making progressive messages, made an important one about animals in this movie. And for that reason as well as others, I highly recommend seeing “Up” if you have not done so already.