Dug Days

For more than a decade Pete Docter’s Up reached a rarified status in the Walt Disney Company portfolio – it was such an unimpeachable classic that the thought of sequels or spin-offs (save for two home video shorts and some pre-release marketing pieces) was forbidden. This was, after all, only the second animated feature to ever be nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, and the winner of two trophies anyway. You can hear Michael Giacchino’s score while walking down Main Street, U.S.A. at Disneyland. The “Married Life” sequence is still heralded as one of the most thoughtful and devastated pieces of modern animation (and rightfully so). Up is an unimpeachable work of art, plain and simple.Dug Days Season 1 Download

So, sure, the idea for the movie to be spun off into a series of Disney+-exclusive short films is somewhat alarming. Thankfully Dug Days doesn’t try to recapture or reinvent Up’s magic; instead, it casts a spell all its own.In some ways, Dug Days is a straightforward follow-up to Up. The opening credits depict Carl Fredrickson (once again voiced by the incomparable Ed Asner, now 91 years young) selling the zeppelin that he and Dug had called home since the end of the feature. They search for different houses before settling on a modern suburban retreat. He adds a weathervane of Kevin and her babies up to. (Later on its implied that they either live next door or in the same neighborhood as Russell, voiced by Jordan Nagai probably via archival recordings.) The subsequent episodes following Dug around on various adventures – one sees him squaring off against a persnickety neighborhood squirrel (his constant foil), another finds him struggling with the arrival of several puppies Carl is fostering for an afternoon, and one dramatizes Dug’s intensified sense of smell as he struggles to pinpoint a new, wholly different, odor.