Spoiler Alert: If you haven’t seen the movie Up, then what are you waiting for – hire it and watch it ASAP. This post doesn’t go into a detailed look at the plot, but it does spoil the movie, if you haven’t watched it.
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Recently, I watched Pixar’s fabulous movie, Up. I watched it twice, actually, as it was the movie under study in the Senior English course at the high school where I work. (Ironically, the first time I watched Up was on an aeroplane at 30,000 feet up in the air, heading to America, but I digress.) Of the recent viewings, I watched it first just to enjoy it, and then watched it again with the director’s commentary and jotted down notes and observations.
Although I didn’t consciously notice on a casual viewing how prevalent they were, what leapt out at me the second viewing was the way the extensive use of SYMBOLS throughout the story. This use of symbols is something that John Truby goes into detail about in a chapter entitled ‘Symbol Web’ in his book The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller.
Truby has this to say about symbols on page 220.
“A lot of writers think of symbols as those pesky little things that were only important in lit class. Big mistake. If instead you think of symbols as jewels sewn into the story tapestry that have great emotional effect, you’ll have some idea of the power of this set of story techniques.”
There are a number of symbolic objects in Up. I’ll deal with three ‘B’ symbols in this series – badges, balloons, and Ellie’s adventure book.
Badges.
In Up, badges are one of the earliest symbols to appear. Each of the three primary characters, Carl, Russell and Muntz, have a desire that is represented by a badge.
Muntz’s Badge.
In the opening montage, Charles Muntz, the childhood hero of both Ellie and Carl, is stripped of his badge by scientists who claim he has fabricated the legendary Monster of Paradise Falls. Muntz sets off in his dirigible, the Spirit of Adventure, having vowed never to return until he has captured the creature and cleared his name.
When Muntz reappears later in the movie, the dim outline of the missing badge is still visible on his jacket – a subtle reminder of Muntz’s mission to capture the bird. His desire for acknowledgement by the scientific community consumes him, and he loses his humanity in his single-minded pursuit of his goal.
Russell’s Badge.
When we first meet Russell, he is a try-hard Wilderness Explorer (think Boy Scout) whose goal is to assist the elderly so that he can attain the final badge he needs to become a Senior Wilderness Explorer.
Russell’s desire for this badge is, in fact, a desire for his father. He believes that if he achieves his last badge, his father will be the one to place it on his sash, and that he and his father will go camping and be together more.
Russell does assist the elderly, but his reward is something far more meaningful than a Wilderness Explorer badge – It is the Ellie Badge.
Carl’s Badge (AKA The Ellie Badge).
As a child, Carl is given his badge by an adventurous girl who shares his spirit of adventure. Her name is Ellie, and it is from her that the badge derives its name. The badge itself is a grape soda bottle top connected to a safety pin.
This badge is representative of the spirit of adventure that Ellie had in spades, and Carl longed for but never really possessed. It represents childhood innocence and adventure. For Carl, it represents all that was good about his life before his wife’s death. Following Ellie’s death, Carl retreats from meaningful human contact, deeming himself a failure for being unable to fulfill his wife’s dream of living at Paradise Falls.
It is in following through on her dream that Carl teams up with Russell, and meets his boyhood hero, Charles Muntz. The badges are a great way of showing theme in action. Muntz becomes dehumanised in his pursuit of reclaiming his missing badge. Similarly, Carl drives the characters in his life away when he becomes consumed by his desire to carry move his house to Paradise Falls. It is only in giving up on his dream, and valuing the people in his life that he finds fulfilment – something Ellie herself realised.
The culmination of the badge symbolism occurs near the end of the movie, during the Wilderness Explorer ceremony. Russell waits expectantly, but his father does not arrive to take part in the ceremony. Carl steps up and becomes a father-figure to Russell. In an emotional and highly symbolic gesture, he pins the Ellie Badge to Russell’s sash.
This crossover of symbols serves to comment on theme by comparing and contrasting the characters. We, the audience, are lead to see that Muntz’s path leads to isolation and heart-ache, whereas the path that Carl ultimately chooses is the way to life, happiness and community – and the Ellie Badge is key to this revelation.
In the next post, I’ll look at two other ‘B’ symbols – Balloons and Ellie’s Adventure Book.