Today\u2019s Pixar Heroines installment is a special 10th anniversary tribute to Ellie Fredricksen! Both Simoa and Joanna have plenty to say about this adventure-loving superstar.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ellie is full of spirit, confidence, and love<\/h2>\n

[avatar user=”Elliefredricksen” size=”thumbnail” align=”right” link=”https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/author\/elliefredricksen\/” \/]
\nI loved Ellie almost immediately. It was when she took off her pilot helmet and all that unruly hair leapt out before getting flattened again. Then she smiled that goofy, toothy smile of hers. I just knew from those few seconds that I would love her. And in that short bit of time, we know that she\u2019s a rambunctious extrovert, but she\u2019s not totally wild. See the way she gently takes Carl\u2019s hand and leads him to his balloon – foreshadowing!<\/span>
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Daniel Lopez Munoz (The Art of Up)<\/p><\/div>
\nEllie\u2019s introduction is one of the best I\u2019ve ever seen. From the way she pilots the house when Carl first sees her, to the way she ripped a page right out of a library book. It\u2019s rule breaking that\u2019s so specific to little kids; daring and innocent at the same time. Ellie\u2019s daring, her unclouded belief that she can one day follow in her hero\u2019s footsteps, are qualities I wish I had. She, like little kids all over, believe in the impossible and don\u2019t fool themselves into being realistic. When Ellie demands that Carl take them both to Paradise Falls, I believe that she\u2019ll get them there. More foreshadowing! And even as Ellie grows up, she never loses that spirit; not when life doesn\u2019t go the way she planned and not even when tragedy strikes.<\/span>
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Albert Lozano (The Art of Up)<\/p><\/div>
\nOur time with Ellie is so brief, but the magic of <\/span>Up<\/span><\/i>\u2019s \u201cMarried Life\u201d montage is that we believe she spent an entire lifetime with Carl. Not only that, but Ellie\u2019s limited screen appearance still made audiences fall in love with her. I fell too, if you couldn\u2019t already tell! She is my favorite Pixar character, even if she only has a few lines and dies so early on. But it\u2019s her spirit that permeates <\/span>Up<\/span><\/i>. The film does get criticized for its wacky and absurd second act, which a lot of people think doesn\u2019t live up to its first ten minutes. Talking dogs, a chocolate loving bird, flying a balloon powered house to Paradise Falls, who would\u2019ve loved that? Young Ellie, who pretended the dilapidated house she was playing in was a plane, and who used a steering wheel that would later inspire Carl\u2019s own steering apparatus when he got his house off the ground (foreshadowing). And also Older Ellie, the woman who became a zookeeper! And her spirit resides in Russell too. There are little moments that clue us and Carl into his wife\u2019s presence. What would <\/span>Up<\/span><\/i> be without her? She\u2019s always there even when we can\u2019t see her anymore. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhile Ellie is alive, our color palette is heavily saturated. She brings color into Carl\u2019s life. When she\u2019s gone, the palette is desaturated to shades of gray. When Carl blows up the balloons to begin his journey, we bring back the memory of Ellie through those saturated, beautiful colors. Generally, we show Carl in the dark while Russell is in the light. Russell brings all of Ellie\u2019s color back into Carl\u2019s world.\u201d – Ricky Nierva, production designer (<\/span>The Art of Up<\/span><\/i>).<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Don\u2019t we all want to be like Ellie? And if we can\u2019t be her, have her in our lives? I honestly do get bummed out that I can\u2019t actually hug Ellie because she feels that real to me. And it\u2019s easy to imagine more of her story past <\/span>Up<\/span><\/i>\u2019s first ten minutes. <\/span>
\nI love that Ellie sees life as one big adventure with the people we love and care about. I love that she makes me believe that adventure is not only out there, but all around, right here.<\/strong><\/span>
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Ernest Nemesio (The Art of Up)<\/p><\/div>
\nI would be remiss to not include more Ellie artwork! Two of my favorites are by Ronnie del Carmen. Imagine her as an aviator?! <\/span>Swoon<\/span><\/i>. Becoming a pilot is an ambition of mine, so let\u2019s just say that Aviator\/Pilot Ellie means a lot to me.<\/span>
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Ronnie Del Carmen<\/p><\/div>
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Ellie is an adventurer, and an adventure!<\/h2>\n

[avatar user=”Joanna” size=”thumbnail” align=”right” link=”https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/author\/joanna\/” target=”_blank” \/]
\nThe audience may only see Ellie for the first 10 minutes of Up, <\/em>but she still manages to be unforgettable. She is one of, if not the, <\/strong>most important character in the film. And while the audience only physically sees her for that painfully brief time, her presence is unmistakeable throughout the entire movie.
\nEllie drives the story of Up, <\/em>with Carl always looking to her for reassurance and comfort, both during their marriage, and after her death. Pixar even devoted the colour magenta to her, so that each time you see it fade in or out on the screen you\u2019re reminded of her significance. The magenta slowly disappears at Ellie\u2019s funeral, and we\u2019re quickly met with a very faded, desaturated sequence of Carl\u2019s life as a widower. And when Carl bravely sets forth on his journey to Paradise Falls, the balloons are lit up with magenta hues that cast magenta shadows and lights over the buildings and fields below. Carl\u2019s journey is powered by Ellie\u2019s spirit: the spirit of adventure!
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\nThe fact that Ellie is so memorable and inspiring is not only a testament to the strength of Pixar\u2019s storytelling, but also to the strength of her character. Ellie is fearless, creative, loving, and confident. She\u2019s an adventurer, and she\u2019s an adventure. <\/strong>She is everything a young wilderness explorer should aspire to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor performing above and beyond the call of duty, I would like to award you the highest honor I can bestow: The Ellie Badge.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Fun Facts<\/b><\/p>\n

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• Pete Docter\u2019s daughter, Elie Docter, voiced young Ellie and even drew the childhood art in Ellie\u2019s adventure book! <\/span><\/li>\n
• According to Elie, Ellie nursed wounded pigeons after they were hit by boys\u2019 slingshots, which is \u201creally something only a kid would do.\u201d (Take note that Carl and Russell would never hit birds with slingshots!)<\/span><\/li>\n
• Ellie, like Charles Muntz, was shaped like an exclamation point when she was young because she wanted to be an adventurer. \u201c…sort of light on her feet and lifting up into the air.\u201d – Albert Lozano, designer <\/span><\/li>\n
• The Ellie Badge is one of the Easter eggs in <\/span>Toy Story 4<\/span><\/i>!<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Today\u2019s Pixar Heroines installment is a special 10th anniversary tribute to Ellie Fredricksen! Both Simoa and Joanna have plenty to say about this adventure-loving superstar. Ellie is full of spirit, confidence, and love avatar user=”Elliefredricksen” size=”thumbnail” align=”right” link=”https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/author\/elliefredricksen\/” \/ I loved Ellie almost immediately. It was when she took off her pilot helmet and all …<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":7155,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[217,7],"tags":[293,236],"yoast_head":"\n