Up! and Media Marketing

Up! was nominated for best picture for the 82nd Academy Awards, while winning two awards for Best Animated Feature and Best Score. The film features 78-year-old Carl Fredricksen, a recent widow and his adventure with a young wilderness explorer, Russell. The film follows these two unlikely friends on Carl's life long dream of visiting South America. Of course the movie wouldn't be a Pixar movie if there weren't tears or laughs and this movie definitely delivered on both.

 The movie does a fantastic job of tackling different issues such as life after loss, and finding unlikely friends, however it doesn't do justice in the Multiculturalism area.

Russell, the young wilderness explorer is of an Asian decent, however there is no time in the movie given to Russell's back story and culture. The reason this is important to discuss is because Russell is the first Asian-American to star in a Pixar film. This would have been a great opportunity for Pixar to get some great media marketing for different cultures and backgrounds.

Assimilation is a big issue that is represented in this movie, assimilation is when a persons language and culture come to resemble those of another culture.

Pixar portrayed Russell as an Asian-American that had completely assimilated into American culture and didn't bring anything from his Asian culture, the movie also never specified what Asian decent Russell was from, which can change a lot about the culture and background that he had.

The reason this is important to discuss is because movies like Up! can make such an impact on society and the way people view different cultures. By only touching the surface of Russell's characterization, Pixar missed a big opportunity to make an impact on the Asian-American population and the world by showing different characters an backgrounds in their movie.