History WesternAnimation / Up

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic: The villain's name is Charles Muntz. Charles ''Mintz'' is the guy who basically stole WesternAnimation/OswaldTheLuckyRabbit from Creator/WaltDisney (along with most of his animators).

* BehindAStick: Kevin tries to hide behind a tall narrow rock at one point.

* {{Defictionalization}}: Though it lacks the balloons and has a basement, someone built a real-life copy of Carl and Ellie's house, complete with a painting over the fireplace. [[http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home2/52141049-183/bangerter-disney-movie-parade.html.csp In Herriman, Utah]].
** Still, a group of people actually ''did'' manage to float a house using helium-filled balloons - appropriately enough, for a TV show called ''How Hard Can It Be?''

** Russell too, during his CrowningMomentOfAwesome. Not as big and impressive as Carl's one, but definitely counts.

** A variation occurs when [[spoiler:[[CrowningMomentOfAwesome Dug defeats Alpha]] and puts ''him'' in the cone of shame, [[KlingonPromotion earning all the other dogs' allegiance]].]]

* AxCrazy: [[spoiler: Charles Muntz. It may not be clear at first, but when he strongly implies that he's actually murdered others in the past just because he was paranoid that they were after his bird, AKA Kevin, it's quite obvious he's gone completely insane after all those years of searching to no avail. And he only gets worse. By the end of the movie, he attempts to kill Kevin, Dug and Russell (a 'kid' mind you), in cold blood with a shotgun.]]

* DeathSeeker: It's strongly implied that this was what motivated [[spoiler:Carl]] to go to Paradise Falls, at least ''at first.'' [[spoiler:After all, with Ellie dead and having no family left to speak of, what better way to go out in style than to do the one thing he was still able to pull off?]]

* ViewersAreGeniuses / DidNotDoTheResearch: Carl and Russell are playing a car spotting game (red one, blue one). Dug looks off camera and says "Grey one" and a red one goes past. The "genius" part is that dogs are red/green colorblind, but the "fail" part is that they're not completely colorblind; Dug wouldn't be able to tell a red car from a green car, but he should be able to distinguish either from a grey car.

* TalkingToTheDead: "Would you look at that, Ellie?" Played for laughs when Russel hears him doing it and starts talking to Ellie himself.
* TastesLikeFriendship: Kevin loves Chocolate.

* EvilGloating: During the swordfight, both fighters throw out their back. [[spoiler:Muntz]] is the first to recover, but instead of attacking [[spoiler:Carl]], he knocks him over asks if he has any last words.

... Anyhow, for information about the short ''Partly Cloudy'', which played before the film, see PixarShorts. For the unrelated Granada/BBC documentary series, see ''{{Series/Up}}''.

* AirVentPassageway: Dug and Carl use it to sneak into [[spoiler:Muntz's]] airship to rescue Kevin.

* AmplifiedAnimalAptitude: Dug and the other ''Spirit of Adventure'' Dogs. They are pretty much [[spoiler:Muntz's]] butlers. Epsilon can ''cook''. They can fly airplanes! Kevin is also pretty smart.

* AwesomeMomentOfCrowning: Tweaked examples.

* BadassBaritone: Alpha, but only when his collar is working properly.

* {{Ceiling Cling}}: The ''George and A.J.'' short reveals that this was how Russell got on the house when it took off. He was clinging from ''the bottom of the house.''

** After the house lands, the rest of the film is a succession of Chekhov's Guns being fired. First, [[spoiler:the Adventure Book appears again, and Carl finally turns the page. Then Russell uses the balloons and leaf-blower. Dug hides under the porch, as Russell did earlier. Dug uses "point!" again, followed by "who wants the ball?". Dug ends up fighting Alpha, and utilises the cone of shame - Alpha's higher voice returns. Carl uses the Wilderness Explorer call to motivate Russell in climbing the hose. Russell then uses SQUIRREL! Finally, the chocolate returns.]]

* ConeOfShame: TropeNamer. The dogs use it as a humiliation device.

* CountingToThree: Carl planned to, but found something better. Still, he invoked it.
* CrackOhMyBack: During the big fight between Carl and [[spoiler:Charles]]. They're going at it ErrolFlynn style, but their advanced age causes them to crack when they lift their weapons.

* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: Ellie's statement on the continent she wishes to live in at the start of the movie.

** Gamma (the bulldog) sounds an awful lot like Murderface from [[{{WesternAnimation/Metalocalypse}} Dethklok]].

* FamilyFriendlyFirearms: WW1 era fighter planes whose guns seem to otherwise act like normal weapons shoot darts. The in-world logic is that the planes were designed for a NonLethalKO of Kevin, given that we see them earlier in the traps. Interestingly, in the climax they go to the detail of showing the copper shell ejecting and damage to the house from [[spoiler:Muntz's]] rifle.

* FoodAndAnimalAttraction: Kevin the bird appears because Russell has a chocolate bar in his pocket.

* FunnyBackgroundEvent: A minor one at the end, when they are eating ice cream. The ladder from the blimp ends at the Disabled Parking lot.

** Carl qualifies, given he outfitted his house with shower curtain sails and a steering system. Carl retrofitted his entire house into an airship in less than ''one night.'' He's better than {{Series/MacGyver}}!

* LawOfConservationOfDetail: Subverted. The inside of the labyrinth Kevin lives in that ''no one can escape ooh scary'' is never visited. {{Word of God}} was that one planned ending was for [[spoiler:Muntz to get lost in it.]] The DVD has it (along with several other endings) as an extra feature.

* LegoGenetics: Averted... sort of. Alpha, Beta and Gamma are a Doberman, a Rottweiler and a bulldog, respectively. All the other dogs in the pack are blends of these three breeds -- they're about the same size as the Rottweiler, with body postures similar to the its and a bulldog's, have a Doberman's pointy ears and a mottled brown/gray coat color. They look like what you would realistically get if you mixed all three of those breed types together over several generations.
* LikeASonToMe: One {{Word of God}} interview says that [[spoiler:Russell was designed to be the child Ellie and Carl were unable to have, in both a figurative and literal spirit. Figurative in that if they had had a child, that child would be very much like Russell (especially at the end when he has both a mother and father figure in his life), and that Russell fills the hole Ellie left behind when she died, much like Carl and Ellie's potential child would have. Literal in that if you look close enough, Russell has features VERY similar to that of both Ellie and Carl...]]

** Carl seems to experience a literal example of this when he first meets Ellie as a kid. [[LuminescentBlush His cheeks visibly light up when Ellie takes his hand, too.]]

* MovingBuildings: Carl Fredricksen's house, when tied to a bunch of helium balloons.

* OhCrap: [[spoiler:When Carl sees the skeleton and realizes Muntz is completely off his gourd. His face just gets more shocked when Muntz starts nonchalantly knocking flight caps of the people he killed to the floor... with him eventually saying:]]

* RuleOfSymbolism: The main reason that the balloon-carried house works so well is because it is tied in to some very effective and heart-wrenching thematic elements of the movie.

** In real life, Charles Muntz was one of the pioneers of television, known as "Mad Man" Muntz. His business model was to control every aspect of television, from programming (the {{DuMont}} Network) to the actual sets. Although he was not able to compete for long against the established radio crossover networks of CBS and NBC, many of his innovations are still in use today.

** In the sequence where the house has just taken flight, it floats past the apartment of a little black girl; she has a [[SigilSpam not-so-Hidden Mickey]] in the form of her Minnie Mouse style hairdo (also known as afro puffs). Also, the ball she's playing with is the one from [[PixarShorts Luxo Jr]] and hidden in the lower left corner is a [[EarlyBirdCameo Lotso]] [[ToyStory3 Huggin' bear]].

** A MontyPython-esque frog wakes Carl up and [[RingRingCRUNCH gets smacked for its trouble]].

* StaringKid: There's one at the window when Carl's house takes off. Russell also occasionally serves this purpose.

* TragicKeepsake: The bottlecap "badge", Ellie's Adventure Book, her photo, the house itself... and the airport passes Carl was going to surprise her with just before her final hours. Really, a huge part of the plot is based around this trope and Carl's need to let go of them.

* VocalDissonance: Alpha because of his broken voice collar. Later repaired, and at the end it breaks again.

* WindowPain: Lots and lots of it.

* AxCrazy: [[spoiler: Charles Muntz. It may not be clear at first, but when he strongly implies that he's MURDERED others in the past simply for being paranoid that they're after his bird, AKA Kevin, it's quite obvious he's gone completely insane after all those years of searching to no avail. And he only gets worse. By the end of the movie, he attempts to kill Kevin, Dug and Russell (a KID mind you), in cold blood with a shotgun.]]

* CannotTellALie: If only Russell were to lay low about his discovery, then they would have given [[spoiler:Muntz]] a harder time in finding Kevin. But he, being the [[ChildrenAreInnocent naïve]] [[WideEyedIdealist boy]], tipped [[spoiler:Muntz]] off to the bird's existence, and therefore, [[spoiler:Muntz]] wouldn't have tried to kill them. But then again, much of the conflict in the movie would've been sapped.

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* SavvyGuyEnergeticGirl: Carl and Ellie.

'''Dug:''' Oh, ''yes!'' I ''SO'' want the ball!

* SteamPunk: [[spoiler:Muntz]] used what appears to be decades-old technology to make collars that can translate the thoughts of a pack of dogs into words.