As you might have learned from Rob Hunter’s This Week in DVD column this morning, the masterwork known as Pixar’s Up has hit DVD and Blu-ray today. And while my own special report for This Week in Blu-ray is still upcoming (I’m still sifting through the ridiculous amount of special features), I will say this: you should own this title on the most advanced format you can find.
But enough of that. The folks at Pixar were kind enough to send us over a very cool list of 10 facts (as Up is Pixar’s tenth film) from the production of Up that you might find interesting. Check them out below:
- During the production of Up, the Animation Department produced an average of 4 seconds of animation a week.
- Paradise Falls is based on the world-famous Angel Falls in Venezuela. Up’s version is 1.8 miles tall or 9,700 ft., which is almost three times higher than Angel falls which stands at 3212 ft.
- To walk from the location where Carl and Russell first arrive on the tepui to the top of Paradise Falls would require a 14.5 mile trek. It’s about 6.75 miles across to the nearest tepui when they look out across the landscape.
- Pixar had a group of live ostriches come to the studio for reference for Kevin. The ostriches belonged to veterinarian Dr. James Stewart. The Art Department took a field trip to his farm where he also kept zebras.
- There are 10,297 balloons lifting Carl’s house.
- Pixar consulted with an architect to learn about home foundations to make the lift off of Carl’s house more believable.
- All of the crowd dogs were actually a single dog based on Beta, tweaked around in shape and groom to look like a pack of 50.
- The Spirit of Adventure is a dirigible, a rigid airship, and not a blimp, which has no rigid frame. It is much larger than any dirigible ever built.
- The Spirit of Adventure is 3,061 ft. long, which is 3.8 times longer than the Hindenburg.
- The knots connecting Russell’s rope between the garden hose and his backpack on the tether are real usable knots. There is a rolling hitch used to secure the rope to the garden hose, and three-half-hitches connecting the rope to the carabineer on his backpack. Both of these knots would have been something that Russell learned as a Wilderness Explorer.
Are you heading out to buy Up on DVD or Blu-ray today?