# Carl Fredricksen
**Carl Fredricksen** is the fictional protagonist of Pixar's 2009 animated film *Up*, a 78-year-old retired balloon salesman and widower who ties thousands of balloons to his house and flies it to South America to fulfill a promise made to his late wife, Ellie.[1](https://www.pixar.com/upfilm) He is voiced by Edward Asner.[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/up?name_order=asc)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Film and debut | *Up* (Pixar/Walt Disney Pictures), released May 29, 2009, directed by Pete Docter, written by Bob Peterson and Docter[3](https://movies.disney.com/up) • [4](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/up) |
| Character | 78-year-old retired balloon salesman, widower of Ellie, forced to leave the house they built together[1](https://www.pixar.com/upfilm) |
| Signature act | Ties thousands of balloons to the roof, lifts the house into the air, and sets off toward South America[1](https://www.pixar.com/upfilm) |
| Voice | Edward Asner[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/up?name_order=asc) |
| Companions | Russell, an 8-year-old Wilderness Explorer stowaway; Dug, a talking dog; Kevin, a rare 13-foot-tall flightless bird[3](https://movies.disney.com/up) |
| Design | Drawn with squares and rectangles to signal a man "stuck in his house"[5](https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/how-director-helped-up-take-flight-3232001.php) |
| Recognition | *Up* won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and was the second animated film nominated for Best Picture[4](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/up) |
## Role in *Up*
The film opens with a montage following Carl from childhood to marriage to miscarriage to middle-aged childless happiness and finally to Ellie's death, a sequence the Science Fiction Encyclopedia calls one of the most effective tear-jerking scenes in cinema.[4](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/up) Carl and Ellie had saved all their lives to visit Paradise Falls, a South American mesa that captivated them as children, but she died before they could make the journey.[4](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/up)
In the present, Carl is faced with being forced into a retirement home after a court order, and he responds by floating his house away on helium balloons.[4](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/up) • [5](https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/how-director-helped-up-take-flight-3232001.php) Only once airborne does he discover that Russell, an overeager 8-year-old Wilderness Explorer, has stowed away on his porch.[3](https://movies.disney.com/up) In the jungle near Paradise Falls the pair meet Dug, a golden retriever whose high-tech collar translates his thoughts into speech, and Kevin, the rare flightless bird that Dug's pack is hunting for the explorer Charles F. Muntz, Carl's childhood hero turned antagonist.[1](https://www.pixar.com/upfilm) • [4](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/up)
Director [Pete Docter](https://www.edgepedia.org/pete-docter) described Ellie as the drive through the whole film: without the audience feeling something about Carl and Ellie's relationship, and Carl's need to fill it, he argued, the audience would lose interest.[6](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/making%20magic%3Cbr%3E100%20years%20of%20disney/2023/08/09/up/) Producer Jonas Rivera said the tear-jerking opening was the launch pad for the fantastical adventures that follow, setting the stakes so viewers would accept a flying house, talking dogs, and dog-piloted planes.[6](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/making%20magic%3Cbr%3E100%20years%20of%20disney/2023/08/09/up/)
## Design and inspiration
Docter traces the character to one of his own drawings: an old man with a grouchy sour face and a handful of balloons. From that image, Docter and co-writer Bob Peterson built the rest of the story.[5](https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/how-director-helped-up-take-flight-3232001.php) Carl has Docter's grandfather's shock white hair, and the filmmakers drew on [Spencer Tracy](https://www.edgepedia.org/spencer-tracy), Walter Matthau, and [James Whitmore](https://www.edgepedia.org/james-whitmore), along with the grumpy old men of New Yorker cartoonist George Booth.[5](https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/how-director-helped-up-take-flight-3232001.php) Docter said such characters "can get away with being mean to people and you give them slack."
Shape language carries the characterization: because Carl is a man stuck in his house who wants to stay put, the animators kept drawing him with squares and rectangles, while Russell's rounded design reads as balloon-like and full of life.[5](https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/how-director-helped-up-take-flight-3232001.php) Carl's house was treated like a character in its own right; the Pixar team toured vintage Oakland and Berkeley neighborhoods to cast for the right mix of comfort and familiarity, and Docter identified a string of Victorian houses just off Sixth Street in Berkeley as the closest match, chosen partly because the small, light wooden structure could plausibly be lifted by balloons.[1](https://www.pixar.com/upfilm) • [5](https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/how-director-helped-up-take-flight-3232001.php)
## Reception and legacy
*Up* was the first animated movie to open the Cannes Film Festival, and Docter considered the 78-year-old grump the perfect protagonist even if he "doesn't sell a lot of action figures."[5](https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/how-director-helped-up-take-flight-3232001.php) The film won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature and was only the second animated film ever nominated for Best Picture; it lost the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation to *[Moon](https://www.edgepedia.org/moon-2009-film)* (2009).[4](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/up) On Metacritic it holds a score of 88.[7](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/up/?ftag=MCD-06-10aaa1c)
The character has lived beyond the film. Carl appears as a walk-around character at [Shanghai Disney Resort](https://www.edgepedia.org/shanghai-disney-resort), described in its press materials as "the cranky but lovable protagonist from *Up*."[8](https://shcorporate.shanghaidisneyresort.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Press-Release-Shanghai-Disney-Resort-Celebrates-China-Tourism-Day-with-Construction-Milestone-and-New-Park-Offerings.pdf) A 2014 [King's College London](https://www.edgepedia.org/kings-college-london) thesis on computer-animated film notes that Carl serves as an ambassador for the Hear the World hearing-loss awareness initiative.[9](https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/103271867/2014_Holliday_Christopher_0943585_ethesis.pdf) Commentators have also read the character as an unusual choice of hero: *U.S. Catholic* placed Carl in Pixar's tradition of putting a sympathetic face on life's outcasts, and the film's themes of grief, childlessness, and nostalgia run through what is notionally a children's film.[10](https://uscatholic.org/articles/200908/up/) • [4](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/up)
## References
1. [Up — Pixar Animation Studios](https://www.pixar.com/upfilm)
2. [Up | Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/up?name_order=asc)
3. [UP | Disney Movies](https://movies.disney.com/up)
4. [Up, Science Fiction Encyclopedia (entry updated 15 April 2024)](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/up)
5. [How director helped 'Up' take flight, SFGate (Peter Hartlaub, May 24, 2009)](https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/how-director-helped-up-take-flight-3232001.php)
6. [Up — BFI Southbank Programme Notes (Andrew Osmond, Sight and Sound, November 2009)](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/making%20magic%3Cbr%3E100%20years%20of%20disney/2023/08/09/up/)
7. [Up Reviews — Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/up/?ftag=MCD-06-10aaa1c)
8. [Shanghai Disney Resort press release (2025)](https://shcorporate.shanghaidisneyresort.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Press-Release-Shanghai-Disney-Resort-Celebrates-China-Tourism-Day-with-Construction-Milestone-and-New-Park-Offerings.pdf)
9. [Holliday, Christopher (2014). PhD thesis, King's College London](https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/103271867/2014_Holliday_Christopher_0943585_ethesis.pdf)
10. [Pixar's 'Up' finds the hero in a grumpy old man, U.S. Catholic (2009)](https://uscatholic.org/articles/200908/up/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Film characters and fictional worlds › Animated film characters*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 19, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 19, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license