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| “ | Adventure is out there! | „ |
| ~ Muntz's famous catchphrase before going insane. |
| “ | They called me a fraud, those... (exhales). But once I bring back this creature, my name will be cleared. Beautiful, isn't it? Oh I've spent a lifetime tracking it. Sometimes years go by between sightings. I've tried to smoke it out of that deathly labyrinth where it lives. You can't go in after it. Once in, there's no way out. I've lost so many dogs. And here they come these bandits and think the bird is theirs to take! But they soon find that this mountain, is a very dangerous place. | „ |
| ~ Muntz revealing his obsession to Carl and Russell right before turning against them - also his most famous quote. |
Charles F. Muntz, more commonly known as just Muntz, is the main antagonist of Pixar's 10th full-length animated feature film, Up and the overarching antagonist of its short film Dug's Special Mission.
He was an adventurous explorer who went looking for a legendary bird known as a snipe named "Kevin" in order to clear his name when he fell under scrutiny by naysayers in the scientific community. He has many loyal dogs (Alpha, Beta and Gamma) at his command, which wear collars invented by Muntz that allow them to speak. However, his obsession with finding Kevin over decades to no success eventually drove him insane, killing anybody who he believes will try to find the legendary bird and take credit before he does. He is also the former master of Dug and the former childhood idol turned arch-nemesis of Carl Fredricksen.
He was voiced by the late Christopher Plummer, who also played The Grand Duke of Owls in Rock-A-Doodle, General Chang in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Ralph Nickleby in Nicholas Nickleby, Commodus in The Fall of the Roman Empire, Barnaby Crookedman in Babes in Toyland, Mr. Caruthers in The Clown at Midnight, 1 in 9, King Herod in The Star, and Arthur Case in Inside Man.
Biography[]
Up[]
Muntz was an acclaimed adventurous explorer who flew across the world during the 1930s in his airship, the Spirit of Adventure, collecting many rare specimens to be exposed in museums. One of his travels took him to Paradise Falls, from which he returned with the skeleton of a giant tropical bird he called the Monster of Paradise Falls. However, scientists claimed the specimen was a fake build from other animal bones and, with no way to refute those claims, Muntz was removed from the National Explorers Society. Humiliated, Muntz vowed to go back to Paradise Falls with his army of dogs and capture a living specimen.
However, the labyrinth where the monster's nest was located made it impossible for Muntz to hunt it down, and the years he spent trying to bring it out of there turned into decades. As such, that hunt turned into an obsession that slowly droved Muntz insane, to the point of murdering other explorers that would wander into the area, believing they were also planning on capturing the bird.
In the present, a new pair of explorers were captured by Muntz's dogs and brought to his airship: elderly man Carl Fredricksen and young boy Russel, who were on a mission to take Carl's floating house to Paradise Falls to honor his deceased wife's dream. Amused by the many balloons attached to the house to make it fly, Muntz was initially friendly to them and invited them for dinner, but quickly became hostile when Russel mentined having tamed the Monster of Paradise Falls, naming it Kevin. Confirming Russell's claims when Kevin showed up above Carl's house, Muntz tried to capture them, but they managed to escape with Doug, one of his dogs who had grown closer to them. Using the tracking device on Doug's collar, Muntz easily tracked down Carl and Russell and finally captured Kevin after setting Carl's house ablaze, forcing him to abandon the bird to put out the fire.
The next day, Muntz's airship is attacked by Carl, Russell and Doug. Carl manages to free Kevin while Russell pilots the floating house to distract Muntz's forces, but Muntz eventually discovers Carl and fights him, easily overpowering him with a sword despite his old age. However, Doug accidentally flips the airship while running from Muntz's dogs, giving Carl and Kevin a chance to escape to the outside of the blimp to be picked up by Russell. Muntz however, is unreleting in his pursue, this time with a rifle, and manages to get inside the house to shoot Kevin, having become willing to kill the bird despite his initial promise to capture it alive. However, Carl calls Kevin to jump out of the house with Russel, and when Muntz tries to go after them, his foot gets tangled in some balloon lines that, after detaching from the house, cause him to fall to his doom.
Dug's Special Mission[]
After Alpha, Beta and Gamma's numerous attempts to capture Kevin end in failure due to Dug's interference, Alpha contacts Muntz and reports that Dug has constantly thwarted them, while also calling him a "bad dog". When Dug spots Muntz's blimp, he runs off in dismay, leading a bridge for him to eventually meet Carl and Russell.
Personality[]
| “ | You know, Carl, these people who pass through here, they all tell pretty good stories. A surveyor making a map; a botanist cataloging plants; an old man taking his house... to Paradise Falls. Now, that's the best one yet, I can't wait to hear how it ends... | „ |
| ~ Muntz revealing his true nature after years of being in Paradise Falls and the numerous amount of innocent explorers he killed.
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Before becoming demented, Muntz was a kind, brave, honest, thoughtful, sympathetic, and persuasive explorer with a genuine passion for discovering new things. When Carl Fredricksen and Russell meet him for the first time, he seems like a benign and charming gentleman as he welcomes them into his company and cares for a group of dogs imbued with speech technology, and he appears to be courteous. However, when the matter of Kevin the bird comes up, they soon discover that his mission with capturing the bird of Paradise Falls has turned into an obsession, unhinged his mind and drove him insane, flushing away his benevolent personality as a ghost, causing him to lash out against other adventurers.
Being an extremely proud man, Muntz is consumed with bitterness, rage and violent paranoia over being expelled from the National Explorer's Society when he was viewed as a phony and will stop at nothing to restore his reputation, even if it means murder. He has no qualms trying to kill the young child Russell for reaching Kevin. Nevertheless, he is completely polite and affable as long as people do not interfere with his plans. He is also very nice and patient with his dogs, taking decent care of them. Muntz's pride and obsession give him a striking similarity to Captain Ahab from the late Herman Melville's 1851 classic novel Moby Dick. He also evidences a genius level of intellect, able to program dogs to talk and build his airship.
Relationships[]
| Allies |
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| Enemies |
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Victims[]
- Unnamed Surveyor - Killed by Muntz off-screen.
- Unnamed Batonist - Killed by Muntz off-screen.
- Several Unnamed Explores - Killed by Muntz off-screen.
Quotes[]
| “ | I promise to capture the beast alive! And I will not come back until I do. | „ |
| ~ Muntz vows to find the bird |
| “ | You came here in that? | „ |
| ~ Muntz looking at Carl's house |
| “ | Now attention, everyone! These people are no longer intruders! They are our guests! | „ |
| ~ Muntz to his dogs |
| “ | You really must stay. I insist. We have so much more to talk about. | „ |
| ~ Muntz trying to stop Carl and Russell from leaving |
| “ | It's here. | „ |
| ~ Muntz seeing Kevin on top of Carl's house |
| “ | GET THEM! | „ |
| ~ Muntz ordering his dogs to stop Carl and Russell after seeing them run off |
| “ | Get away from my bird! | „ |
| ~ Muntz stopping Carl and Russel from taking Kevin to her babies |
| “ | Careful. We'll want her in good shape for my return. | „ |
| ~ Muntz seeing the dogs taking Kevin away |
| “ | And they wouldn't believe me. Just wait till they get a look at you. | „ |
| ~ Muntz talking to Kevin |
| “ | Muntz: Where's your elderly friend? (*Russell blows the leaf blower in his face*) Russell: He's not my friend anymore. Muntz: Well, if you're here, Fredricksen can't be far behind. |
„ |
| ~ Muntz to Russell |
| “ | Russell: WHERE ARE YOU KEEPING KEVIN!? LET ME GO! Beta: Scream all you want, small mailman... Gamma: None of your mailman friends can hear you. Russell: I'll unleash all my wilderness explorer training! Muntz: (Sees Carl's house coming towards his blimp) Alpha! Fredricksen is coming back! Guard that bird. You see the old man, (pulls lever) you know what to do. Russell: Hey! Where are you going?! I'm not finished with you! Muntz: Nice talking with you. |
„ |
| ~ Muntz realizing Carl is coming back and also preparing to kill Russell |
| “ | Where are you, Fredricksen? | „ |
| ~ Muntz looking for Carl while piloting his airship |
| “ | Muntz: Any last words, Fredricksen!? Come on, spit it out! (Carl spits his teeth out at Muntz) Carl: Come on! Muntz: ENOUGH! I’M TAKING THAT BIRD BACK WITH ME, ALIVE... OR DEAD!! |
„ |
| ~ Muntz's villainous breakdown and last words while trying to pursue to kill Fredericksen, Russell, Dug, and Kevin. |
Trivia[]
- Charles F. Muntz is currently the first and so far the only main Pixar movie antagonist to use a firearm, with the weapon being an 1865 Spencer carbine. He uses the gun when storming Carl's house when the latter makes his getaway with Kevin.
- The sword that Muntz uses during his fight with Carl is a medieval Claymore, the same sword that William Wallace famously owned.
- If Carl was 78 years old by the time of him meeting him, and Muntz was at least 20 years old when Carl was 8 years old, then Muntz could be over 90 years old. When talking to Carl, Muntz talks about being on Safari with Roosevelt. It is hard to tell if he means Theodore Roosevelt, one of Roosevelt's sons or Franklin Delano Roosevelt, as Theodore Roosevelt passed away from a pulmonary embolism on January 6, 1919, at the age of 60, when Charles was only 3 years old, meaning that Muntz was probably born in either 1915 or 1916. An explanation for Muntz's advanced age is in a deleted subplot from Up. It explains that Kevin's eggs act as a sort of fountain of youth that prevents Muntz from aging.
- The ultimate fate of Muntz was a work in progress for Pixar as they tried several versions to get him out of the way so the film could get back to Carl and his connection to Ellie. This is all discussed on the DVD extra "The Many Endings of Muntz":
- First, they tried giving Muntz a chance to redeem himself to the point where it resorted to just him talking with Carl.
- Then they tried an ending that was reminiscent of Jack Torrance's fate in Stanley Kubrick's version of The Shining where Muntz goes after Kevin in the labyrinth and is lost forever, but it felt more like Muntz's ending than Carl's ending, distracting from the focus of the main character.
- Ironically, at one point during the film itself, Muntz compared Paradise Falls to a "deathly labyrinth" while he's hunting down Kevin.
- At another point, Pixar decided to place the climax on the Spirit of Adventure and one version had Muntz deluded into chasing an inflatable animal balloon mistaking it for Kevin, and locked in the house with his dogs as it crashes off the dirigible. The filmmakers ruled this out, justifying that it felt wrong due to the house being a representation of Ellie.
- Another version had Muntz caught in a bunch of balloons and floating upwards, but it is left uncertain as to whether he was killed or not. It was at this point that Pixar decided the best comeuppance for Muntz was for him to get caught in the balloons and, in classic tried-and-true fashion, plummet 10,000 feet to his death.
- His name "Charles Muntz" is based on "Charles Mintz", whom Walt Disney worked for while making the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons, and who took the cartoon from Walt Disney since Universal Studios owned the copyrights.
- Muntz is based on aviator Howard Hughes who was known for his intelligence, eccentricity, ego, and obsession. He also has traits of real-life adventurers, Charles Lindbergh and Percy Fawcett.
- Muntz is a dark reflection to Carl: both were elderly men who suffered terrible tragedies in their lives and became bitter as a result (Carl, for losing his wife; Muntz, from becoming disgraced). When Carl came across Russell, Kevin, and Doug, he first viewed them as nuisances. Later, Carl viewed them as the family that he never had, and later reforms himself, as well as learning to accept the loss. After that, it makes him keep in touch with Ellie. On the other hand, Muntz refused to accept the loss, and lived obsessively with his past, which is none other than his glorious fame. He was also trying to relive it in any way possible by hunting Kevin. Muntz serves as an example of what Carl would've become if he hadn't learned to accept the loss of Ellie, and moved on with his life.
- Another similarity is that should they succeed in their goals, it would be for nothing because Muntz appears to have been forgotten so it would be likely that he would have cleared his name for nothing if he successfully brings Kevin and her kind. If Carl would succeed in bringing his house to the exact spot in Paradise Falls, he would be living all alone without basic necessities such as food, water, and electricity in a remote harsh wilderness far from civilization. His old age would also make it extremely difficult if not impossible for him to survive in the wilderness.
- While he's the film's main villain, others have seen a more rational side to the character, as he was cast out from the National Explorer's Society when scientists believed that the skeleton was forged due to the unlikelihood of such a creature existing. Spike.com ranks him #4 in their list "The Top 10 Hollywood "Villains Who Got Screwed". Under the section titled "What People Forget", it says "He never actually did anything altogether evil until the main characters boarded his zeppelin by force and attempted to steal his bird, at which point he tried to throw them overboard". However, this completely ignores the fact that he murdered several explorers long before he met Carl and Russell.
- Muntz's voice actor, Christopher Plummer, died the same year as Carl's voice actor, Ed Asner. They died 6 months apart from each other.
- In the Nintendo DS video game adaption of the film, Muntz himself serves as the final boss while in all the other platforms of the video game, his blimp serves as the final boss, prompting players to destroy the blimp's engines.
- Even if Charles did succeed in capturing Kevin and taking her to USA, no one would have even known who he is, as it is hinted that he was quickly and completely forgotten about due to the passage of time. Even Russell does not know who he is upon meeting him, showing that Muntz's achievements and adventures are not common knowledge in the present day or even taught in schools or a notable historical subject. Thus, Muntz's alleged fabrication of the bird's skeleton was likely forgotten too. Therefore, he wasted nearly 70 years of his life trying to clear his name for nothing. However, he might've risen to fame again, as he had discovered a new species.
- The fact that he appears to have been forgotten suggests that he made no further contact with the mainland after setting off to capture the bird, which may possibly even have led to him eventually having been declared dead in absentia.
- Additionally, the very methods that disapproved his finding of the bird would end up being discredited a few years later, meaning that his whole search ended up being in vain.
- In Dug Days, the episode, "Science", features Russell manufacturing several of Muntz's translation collars and using them on numerous animals in Carl's neighborhood, including the squirrel and the blue jay. Eventually, Russell releases them once Dug's disputes with the squirrel and the blue jay are resolved.
- Muntz is the 1st Pixar villain to have been a protagonist's idol, followed by Ernesto de la Cruz from Coco.
External Links[]
- Charles F. Muntz on the Disney Wiki
- Charles F. Muntz on the Pixar Wiki
- Charles F. Muntz on the Unpublished Villains Wiki
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