I was looking at my copy of the Pixarpedia book again, and noticed that, among the incidental characters listed from “Up,” someone notable is missing: [spoil]Russell’s Mom (aka the Asian woman applauding for him at the Badge ceremony). I know she has only a few seconds of screen time, but they have entries for characters as minor as the Ambulance Driver and “Courtroom Members.” Surely she should have rated a little picture and a mention.[/spoil]
Good eye karly05, I hadn’t realized that. I haven’t looked through my ‘pedia’ lately, but that’s cool that you caught that. I agree, it should be in there, as it’s a pretty important character, regardless of the screentime.
[spoil]Wait, that’s Russel’s mom at the Ceremony? I went this entire time thinking it was Phyllis…I guess I just assumed his mother would be paying a bit more attention to Russel than Dug during the part where he gets her attention.
But I’ll trust you guys on this one, haha. [/spoil]
Mykonos_fan: Wait, what? [spoil]Yeah, that’s most definitely Russell’s mom, Phyllis is a woman that Russell’s dad is in a relationship with instead of his mom,
(“He’s gotta be home sometime” - “Well I call, but, Phyllis told me I bug him too much” - “Phyllis?! You call your own mother by her first name?” - “Phyllis isn’t my mom,…”, Russell calls his dad because he apparently doesn’t live with him anymore, and Phyllis answers the phone, apparently not wanting Russell to talk to his father.)
Also, in the brief moment that you see Russell’s mom, Dug is with her, but she’s looking at Russell, and she claps for him, she never actually interacts with Dug. Just kinda confused me there.[/spoil]
Yeah, my memory is that [spoil]she’s always paying attention to Russell while she’s on screen. I figured they had Dug sitting with her to help us understand who she is.[/spoil]
Detouring for a moment, here’s what I think is going on off-screen before and during the [spoil]Badge Ceremony. Carl, Dug & Russell make it home in time for the Badge Ceremony. Russell is still determined to believe that his Dad will be there for him. Mom may offer to stand up with him - No, no, it has to be Dad. Carl may offer to go up with him - No, NO, my Dad is coming! Carl, Dug, and Russell’s Mom sit together in the audience. Dad doesn’t come. It is now Russell’s turn to get his badge, he’s standing up there staunchly by himself, and Carl says, “That’s it, I’m going up there for him,” and does.[/spoil]
I really hope Pete & Bob explain the whole [spoil]“Dad/Phyllis”[/spoil] dialogue in the commentary track, since there seems to still be a lot of confusion about it. [spoil]I’ve always been in the camp of “Russell’s parents are divorced, Dad now lives with Phyllis, Phyllis doesn’t like Russell calling his Dad, and that’s Russell’s Mom at the Badge Ceremony.” I think that’s one reason I’m dismayed that she’s not in the Pixarpedia, because that would settle one part of it, at least.[/spoil]
Hehe, I love that interpretation karly, I like to think about stuff like that (especially if it puts Carl in the spotlight, I just love his character). I also agree about your point with [spoil]Russell’s mom, and the commentary, I think they will clear that up, but I think we’ve got it. Makes perfect sense the way we look at it.[/spoil]
[spoil]Actually, the commentary only made it more confusing. Doctor said he PURPOSEFULLY left exactly where Russel’s rather is mysterious.[/spoil]
Right, the whole deal with Russell’s situation, Pete said, is left purposefully ambiguous so that it makes the scene seem more difficult for Russell, and Carl understands that he shouldn’t pry. Kind of nice, actually, I really love how it works. If you look through Russell’s feature on the Blu-ray, it talks a bit more about it, especially Russell’s struggling mannerisms throughout the scene. They address that aspect of Russell’s character a lot more than I expected, but I was pleasantly surprised.
I’ve only watched the Russell feature on the blu-ray once, but don’t they say a couple of times in that that Russell’s parents [spoil]are “separated?”[/spoil]