Dug's Special Mission

Jonas Rivera, producer of Disney/Pixar’s upcoming animated film Up, revealed to SCI FI Wire that the film—like previous Pixar movies—will be accompanied by a short film in its theatrical release, called “Partly Cloudy,” and that a second short, focusing on the talking-dog character of Dug (voiced by writer Bob Peterson) and called “Dug’s Special Mission,” will be featured on the film’s eventual DVD and Blu-ray release.

The first film will be unrelated to Up, but the second will be in the tradition of such previous Pixar short films as “Jack-Jack Attack,” which accompanied the DVD release of The Incredibles, or "BURNE" for WALLE: a short movie featuring one of the supporting characters from the main feature film.

“You can imagine we collect so much stuff along the way that doesn’t make it in,” Rivera said in an exclusive telephone interview Thursday. “There’s, like, volumes and volumes, and we could fill books with all of the different ideas and the artwork. We are going to do another short film, and I don’t know if you’ve heard anything about that. There will be. There’s a short film on the front of the movie that’s called ‘Partly Cloudy,’ and it’s directed by Pete Sohn, and Pete Sohn is one of the great story and animation artists at the studio. He was the voice of Emile in Ratatouille, and he was also the inspiration of the character of Russell in Up; if you found an adult version of Russell, Pete’s him.”

Rivera also said that the forthcoming home video releases will include behind-the-scenes footage of the making of the film and documentaries about the locations that provided the animators with visual inspiration for Up’s picturesque vistas. “There’s tons of documentaries and stuff like that we did, making-of stuff, a pretty cool documentary on the tepui [flat-topped South American mountains] and stuff. It’s really cool. I can’t wait to get it out.”

Rivera added: “We’re also going to do a short film on the DVD that’s exclusive for the DVD and Blu-ray, sort of like ‘Jack-Jack Attack.’ Did you ever see that, on The Incredibles? We’re doing one called ‘Dug’s Special Mission,’ [spoil]and it’s a little bit of the backstory of what Dug was actually doing out there on this mysterious mission when we meet him[/spoil]. It’s really cool, and it’s directed by Ron Del Carmen, who is our head of story on the film.”

Now that book makes sense!

scifiwire.com/2009/05/ups-compan … -films.php

That sounds so cool! I’m pleased that this extra short is focused on Dug- he sounds like such a cool character. Thanks for the heads-up, JD!

I can see this going in so many hilarious directions :laughing:

I guess this will be good, but I think Dug has come to be a little overrated. :neutral_face:

I agree with woody though that this could go into some hilarious directions :laughing:

I agree. Dug isn’t the most interesting character from what I’ve seen in previews, but I’m sure that this short will have its qualities and be very humorous.

Well, dog-lovers are bound to love Dug. :slight_smile:
I am and I love his character. In a way, he seems to be almost like one of my dogs… Except he’s a beagle. This dog is almost like the beagle version of Dug. Small, yet fat, always happy, always on his “missions” sniffing out the place. :laughing:

Anyways, that’s really cool that they will make a short film based on him. I could imagine a lot of interestingly funny directions it could go.

You had me at “it’s directed by Ronnie del Carmen”. I definitely look forward to this.

Thanks for the information, JD! :smiley:

– Mitch

I have a feeling it’ll be along the lines of Jack-Jack Attack or BURN-E in that they’ll detail events that occur simultaneously within the movie from a different character’s P.O.V.

Excited Dug voice “Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!” :smiley:

Oooh, I hope so, thedriveintheatre! I hadn’t thought about that! I do love it when Pixar do that, because it makes their films seem even more real in that there’s so much stuff going on behind-the-scenes that the audience doesn’t always get to see.

I agree. I’m always glad when Pixar makes the shorts as related to the original story as possible.

Oh you have no idea. My mother is gonna freak over this. xD

Anyways, wow, short news already? Sweet. 8D

This definitly looks cool. I can’t wait to see what happens. I love shorts that happen simultaneously with the original story! Just another reason to buy the DVD when it eventually comes out. :slight_smile:

I’m going to sound stupid, but who is Ronnie del Carmen? Isn’t he one of the pre-production artists or something?

yeah. Ronnie is kind of a jack of all trades at Pixar (story artist, story supervisor, character designer, illustrator, etc.).

I’m very excited for this short. I thought Dug was great in Up.

So they’re gonna make another movie related short. Sounds amusing. And it probably will be considering Dug is the main character

“Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy” Can’t wait for this!!! I wonder what was he doing before he met Carl, Russell, & Kevin?

I can smell youuuu…

XP

squirrel!

This is gonna be awesome!

I love Dug, and I think this is a great idea. One of the things I really loved about how they presented his character in Up was… [spoil]They let us meet Dug without telling us his backstory. We hear that he’s a great tracker, and his pack has sent him on a special mission - he is obviously very important! Only after that, in the scene with Alpha, Beta & Gamma, do we learn that Dug is the laughingstock, and Alpha has sent him off on a “fool’s errand.” Dug’s line about how he will bring back the bird “and then you will like me” steps awfully close to the point of pathos/pity. We want to like Dug because he’s cute and funny and lovable, not be manipulated into liking him because we feel sorry for him. I just think it’s great they let us meet him and fall in love with him before we know all about his place in the pack.[/spoil]

That said, now that we know him from the movie, it’s going to be fun to see the backstory. I hope they address the comment from the Alpha/Beta/Gamma scene about how [spoil]Muntz is going to be mad that they sent Dug out by himself. I’m guessing there’s an overall rule that no dog goes out alone, because it’s too dangerous, and Muntz, for all his faults, actually does care about the dogs.[/spoil]

looking forward to it. -Squirrel- :laughing:

They released a preview of the short today, (as well as showing the full short at the Ottowa Film Festival, I think Haunt got to watch it, lucky!), here’s the link.

moviefone.com/movie/up/30386 … 4027784001

It’s pretty amusing to say the least. Some of Alpha’s lines are a bit recycled, and his expressions seem a bit dramatic, but it’s great so far. Doesn’t give much away either, I’m really excited to see the whole thing. :smiley:

One thing I noticed though, there’s a plot inconsistency (even from the clip shown). [spoil]Alpha’s voice shouldn’t be high-pitched in the short. The short takes place before Dug meets Carl and Russell, and Beta, Gamma, and Dug don’t notice Alpha’s voice change until AFTER Dug has met Carl and Russell, Alpha even talks to Dug while he’s with them and Dug says, surprised “Hi Alpha, hey your voice sounds funny!” which assumes that Alpha’s collar malfunction is recent. Beta and Gamma are also surprised to hear his voice like that in the same scene, moments ago.[/spoil]

Just an interesting thing I noticed.