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Young Carl Fredricksen (Jeremy
Leary) is a shy and quiet boy who has long idolized renowned explorer
Charles F. Muntz (Christopher Plummer). To his dismay, he learns that
Muntz has recently been accused of fraud upon his return from a trek in
South America, vowing to return only upon catching an elusive creature he
had discovered there. One day, Carl befriends an energetic and outgoing
tomboy named Ellie (Elizabeth Docter), who is also a passionate Muntz fan.
Detailing her ambitions in her personal scrapbook, she tells Carl of her
desire to move her clubhouse to Paradise Falls - a majestic waterfall
cliff in South America, and makes him promise to help her. Carl and Ellie
eventually wed and grow old together in the old house where they first
met, working as a toy balloon vendor and a zookeeper, respectively. Unable
to have children, they repeatedly try to save up for the trip to Paradise
Falls, but other financial obligations arise. Just as they're finally
about to make the voyage, Ellie dies of old age, leaving Carl a lonely and
bitter widower.
As the years pass, the city grows around Carl's house with new
construction, but the now elderly Carl (Edward Asner) refuses to move.
Carl ends up in a tussle with a construction worker over his broken
mailbox, and is forced by court order to vacate into a retirement home. He
then comes up with a scheme to keep his promise to Ellie: by turning his
house into a makeshift airship, using tens of thousands of helium balloons
to lift it off its foundations. Russell (Jordan Nagai), a Wilderness
Explorer trying to earn his final merit badge for "Assisting the Elderly",
had stowed away on the porch after Carl had sent him on a snipe hunt the
day before.
After getting caught in a thunderstorm, they find themselves landing on a
great plateau across a large ravine facing Paradise Falls. With their body
weight providing ballast (allowing Carl and Russell to pull the floating
house), the two begin to walk around the ravine, hoping to reach the falls
while there's still enough helium in the balloons to keep the building
afloat. They later encounter a tall and colorful flightless bird, which
Russell names Kevin (Pete Docter) (despite it being a female), and then a
dog named Dug (Bob Peterson) who wears a special collar that allows him to
speak. Dug's owner is found out to be none other than an elderly Charles
Muntz, who has since failed to retrieve the live specimen he had been
searching for to restore his reputation; namely a large species of bird.
Muntz invites Carl and Russell onto his immense dirigible, and though Carl
is initially thrilled to meet his childhood hero, Muntz quickly learns of
Kevin from Russell (who innocently discloses that he had been luring her
around with chocolate), and hints that he would kill them both to acquire
her. Carl, Russell, Dug, and Kevin then flee from Muntz's army of vicious
dogs, but Kevin is injured during the escape. As the group assists Kevin
to her chicks, Muntz and his dogs arrive in tow (led by a tracking device
in Dug's collar) and set a fire beneath Carl's house, causing Carl to have
to choose it over Kevin; Muntz quickly has his dogs capture the bird and
departs. Carl eventually gets the house on the ground overlooking Paradise
Falls per Ellie's wish, but he has earned Russell's enmity as a result.
Finally settled into his home, Carl is sadly pondering over Ellie's
childhood scrapbook when, to his surprise, he discovers photos of their
married life added in the formerly blank pages, and a final note from
Ellie thanking him for "the adventure", with an encouragement to go on a
"new one." Invigorated, he goes outside to find Russell, only to see him
flying away with some balloons to save Kevin by himself. Carl lightens the
weight of his house by dumping his old furniture and other sentimental
possessions, allowing him to give chase. Russell ends up being captured,
but Carl arrives just in time to save him and free Kevin. Muntz pursues
them about the airship until he manages to corner Dug, Kevin, and Russell
inside the house with a hunting rifle while Carl tries to anchor it down.
Once Muntz breaks inside, Carl lures Kevin out a window with a chocolate
bar as Dug and Russell hang onto her, causing the insane Muntz to leap out
after them — only to snag on some balloons and fall to his death. Snapped
from its garden hose tether, the house descends below the clouds and out
of sight, but Carl decides to let it go.
Carl takes Muntz's dirigible and returns Kevin to her chicks, and then
flies Russell and Dug back to the city. When Russell's father misses his
son's Senior Explorer ceremony, Carl fulfills that role himself to proudly
present Russell with his final badge: the grape soda cap badge that Ellie
gave to Carl when they first met. Russell adopts Carl as his father
figure, while Dug takes to him as his new master. As the three set out on
many new adventures, the house is revealed to have since landed perfectly
on the cliff over Paradise Falls. |
