Underlying Discrimination Factors in Movies: Specifically Up

The Disney/Pixar movie Up possesses underlying discrimination issues against the elderly and the adolescent generations. The movie’s antagonist, Carl Fredrickson, is constantly stereotyped because he has reached the senior citizen stage in life. Mr. Fredrickson is perceived as a nuisance to society and too fragile to live alone by other characters in the movie. Along with Mr. Fredrickson, Russell, a young wilderness explorer, is stereotyped to be overweight, irresponsible, friendly and have a speech impediment. Up displays how society views senior citizens as similar in their appearance and interests. Up also displays how society views the adolescent generation as ill developed in a physical and mature way. This manipulates the audience to view the elderly as fragile human beings, and it implies that the elderly regularly need help and lose their independence over the years as well as implies that the adolescent generation is out of shape and immature.

In the first scene of living alone, Carl Frederickson starts his day early by putting on his glasses only to view his reflection of wrinkles and gray hair in the mirror.  Mr. Fredrickson gets properly dressed in a fancy suit and bow tie that makes one believe he has somewhere important to go. He is disabled and cannot walk up and down steps, so he is forced to use a stair lift. Mr. Fredrickson then slowly walks to the kitchen, with his four ended cane, lined with tennis balls, to eat breakfast. He eats breakfast alone in a dark shaded house. The routine continues from there by Mr. Fredrickson fixing his tie and walking to the front porch, and sitting in a chair to watch construction. The excitement of Mr. Fredrickson’s average day consists of walking about 25 feet to his mailbox to retrieve the mail or perhaps Russell, the wilderness explorer, visiting his house. Mr. Fredrickson lives his life in slow motion and alone.

            Aside from Mr. Fredrickson’s daily routine being the opposite of exciting, he does not possess desirable habits. He has no friends and often talks to his late wife and acts as if she is still alive. Mr. Fredrickson also has a less than desirable attitude towards others. The construction workers attempting to purchase Mr. Fredrickson’s house probably wish they never asked to purchase it, after Mr. Fredrickson uses a bull horn to tell them to go back to the city because they will not get his house until he is dead. Generally, Mr. Fredrickson does not smile or laugh, and is never in a very ecstatic mood. Mr. Fredrickson does not have any hobbies either, with the exception of possibly sleeping while attempting to watch television. Stereotypically, Mr. Fredrickson’s life remains dull and he has developed a temperamental attitude.

            Other characters look at Mr. Fredrickson as if he is unable to do anything on his own. For example, when one of the construction workers asks him if he needs help with his mailbox, the construction worker displays how others view Mr. Fredrickson’s need of assistance. Another typical example occurs when Russell, the wilderness explorer, knocks on the door and asks Mr. Fredrickson, “do you need help crossing the street, or your porch or your yard?”, as if he were incapable. Mr. Fredrickson’s mail has displayed how the elderly reach a certain age and begin to get mail from nursing homes such as Shady Oaks. This displays how other people view the elderly and treat them differently than people who are in the adolescent stage.

            Russell, a young wilderness explorer, tries to help Mr. Fredrickson, but the film portrays him in a bad light. Russell is seen as being perseverant in a way that also displays him as stubborn and nosey. While he is at Mr. Fredrickson’s house, Mr. Fredrickson shuts the door, but Russell places his foot within the door, in another attempt to help Mr. Fredrickson. Russell then proceeds to enter Mr. Fredrickson’s house, where he drops his backpack and touches everything. He does not understand the word no, and does as he pleases. This exposure of Russell portrays the adolescent age as being ill mannered and a nuisance.

            Russell, a short boy, with a chubby appearance is out of shape, and gets tired very easily on his adventure. Aside from Russell being overweight, he also cannot speak clearly. Russell has a speech impediment and often spits.  Today’s adolescents are seen as being more and more out of shape, even though this is not true for all adolescents. It is also stereotypical for younger people to speak with a lisp or impediment which is also not true of all adolescents. The portrayal of Russell as overweight and unable to speak clearly is stereotypical. Children of society should not be influenced by these aspects of Russell, and find it okay to be overweight or keep a speech impediment.

            A positive aspect of Russell is that he is friendly and other characters in the movie feel more comfortable establishing a relationship with him rather than with Mr. Fredrickson. When Kevin has to befriend someone, he picks Russell, who is often talkative and friendly as opposed to grumpy like Mr. Fredrickson. This is stereotypical of the younger generation to be friendlier than senior citizens.

            There is combined stereotypical evidence within Up that is not displayed until the end of the movie. Russell is seen as friendly and Mr. Fredrickson is seen as cold hearted, but both of them are alone. Up displays that a friendship can be found between someone very young and someone very old. Today, this is not common among two generations of people who do not know each other at all. Many people within society, whom are alone, are alone because they want to be alone. This makes it hard to believe that two people who know nothing about each other could become each other’s best friends when they are many years apart in age. This is where Disney/Pixar also tries to manipulate the audience into believing in sugar coated relationships, opposed to real life relationships.

            Different age groups are stereotyped within Up to create an image for the public. When someone thinks of the elderly, most commonly they think of white hair, glasses and grumpy. When someone thinks of a younger generation, they may think of immature, loud and nowadays obese. People may think this because this is how these different age generations have been portrayed in the media. People also always expect a good ending after a problem is resolved within the movie, which may result in a flawed ending. What this means is that Disney/Pixar has established a relationship that is not common within society, but rather what society wishes it was like. Up displays how the elderly are often displayed as helpless, and how adolescents are displayed as immature which in turn shows that they need each other to learn lessons, but in reality this often is not negotiable.