If the thought of Carl and Ellie and their gut-wrenching romantic vignette at the top of Up still makes you tear up from time to time, we’ve got some news. According to a new short starring everyone’s favourite airborne curmudgeon, Carl’s putting himself back out there – and the new short he stars in, Carl’s Date, will play before Pixar’s new feature Elemental, the latest trailer for which arrived yesterday. The tagline – “New adventure. Same wingman” – points to the fact that Dug the dog will be along for the ride too, and no doubt being as helpful as an easily distracted talking golden retriever ever could be.
Carl’s Date reportedly follows Carl, Dug and a new companion as they go on their own adventure, and stands as a tribute to the late Ed Asner, who voiced Carl and passed away in 2021. But don’t worry, Carl’s not looking to shack up with anyone else. “No one will ever replace Ellie for Carl,” writer, director and voice of Dug, Bob Peterson, said at a post-screening Q&A yesterday, as reported by io9 / Gizmodo. “This is just friendship. This is just honouring her, Ellie saying, ‘Go have a new adventure’. And this really puts it to the test. Should he do this or not?”
We last saw Carl floating off home in the dastardly explorer Charles Muntz’s airship having saved Kevin the snipe-horned bird. Pixar-heads will notice that though the house on the poster looks a lot like Carl and Ellie’s clapperboard zeppelin, it’s a different one – this one is number 333 while they lived at number 18, and that particular flying house floated down to settle by Paradise Falls at the denouement of Up. And this is, Peterson says, the conclusion to the Up saga. “It just seemed like the logical next step, and a closure for the story is that he’s finally committed to doing what Ellie wanted.” Bring your own balloons, people. And tissues.
Carl’s Date and Elemental will hit screens together on 16 June