Charles F. Muntz

Charles F. Muntz, also simply known as Charles Muntz or sometimes known by his surname Muntz, is the main antagonist of Pixar's Up franchise. He is an adventurous explorer who is looking for a legendary bird known as a snipe named "Kevin", and he has many loyal dogs at his command. The dogs (Alpha, Beta and Gamma) that he owns wear collars that allow them to speak. However, it is revealed he is actually also a sadistic serial killer, who murders anybody who tries to find the legendary bird before he does. He is also the former master of Dug and the arch-nemesis and former idol of Carl Fredricksen (the film's main protagonist). He was voiced by the late .
==Personality==
Muntz is best described as an explorer who went insane and turned evil, being very evil, secretful, determined, adventurous. Before becoming demented, Muntz was a kind, brave, honest, thoughtful, sympathetic, and persuasive explorer with a genuine passion for discovering new things. When Carl Fredricksen and Russell meet him for the first time, he seems like a benign and charming gentleman as he welcomes them into his company and cares for a group of dogs imbued with speech technology, and he appears to be courteous. However, when the matter of Kevin the bird comes up, they soon discover that his mission with capturing the bird of Paradise Falls has turned into an obsession, unhinged his mind and drove him insane, causing him to lash out against other adventurers. Being an extremely proud man, Muntz is consumed with bitterness, rage and violent paranoia over being expelled from the National Explorer's Society when he was viewed as a phony and will stop at nothing to restore his reputation, even if it means murder. He has no qualms trying to kill the young child Russell for reaching Kevin. Nevertheless, he is completely polite and affable as long as people do not interfere with his plans. He is also very nice and patient with his dogs, taking decent care of them. Muntz's pride and obsession give him a striking similarity to Captain Ahab from the late Herman Melville's 1851 classic novel Moby Dick. He also evidences a genius level of intellect, able to program dogs to talk and build his airship.
==History==
Muntz was an acclaimed explorer who was obsessed with finding the "Beast of Paradise Falls" ever since he was accused of fabricating its skeleton by the National Explorer's Society and stripped of his membership. He then vows to never return from Paradise Falls until he has found the bird and caught it to prove its existence. He traveled in a dirigible called the Spirit of Adventure and had many canine minions who wore collars that allowed them to speak.When the heroes of the story Carl and Russell meet him several decades after he departed to capture the bird, they find out that his sanity has declined over the years and that he is now quite paranoid, to the point of possibly killing innocent people whom he presumed were planning to steal the bird. Soon, after a brief struggle, Muntz finally succeeds in capturing the snipe. Carl then proceeds to fight Muntz, with the two men using a cane and a sword respectively.The blimp is eventually turned sideways, saving Carl. Carl and Russell trick Muntz into following them into the house floating next to the blimp. Before Carl and Russell can escape in the house with the bird, Muntz retrieves his lever-action rifle and begins firing at the two. Muntz breaks into the house, but Carl lures Kevin back onto the Spirit of Adventure with chocolate, Russell and Dug riding on her back. Muntz leaps out of the window after them. However, he is caught midair by the string of some of the balloons that were attached to Carl's house, causing his momentum to stop. The balloons snap due to his weight, and as they were the only thing keeping him afloat, a terrified Muntz plunges out of sight to his death.
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== Up ==
Muntz was a famous explorer and adventurer in the 1930s that Carl and Ellie admired when they were kids. He flew around the world in his flagship airship, The Spirit of Adventure, collecting many rare specimens that are now preserved in the most prestigious museums. He is an avid dog lover and inventor, being able to train them to do practically anything, and has invented devices that translate their thoughts into speech. He is the master of many dogs, including Dug (who is now Carl and Russell's pet), Alpha, Beta, and Gamma.Muntz is first seen in a newsreel titled Spotlight on Adventure when a 9-year-old Carl is visiting the movie theater. It is explained that he has recently returned from a lost land called Paradise Falls, having completed a year-long survey. Muntz is shown presenting his new-found treasure: a skeleton of a 13-foot tall tropical bird, whom he calls "The Monster of Paradise Falls."However, scientists claimed the specimen to be a fake, and as a result, Muntz was removed from the National Explorers Society. Dishonored, Muntz declared in front of an oversized crowd that he will go back to Paradise Falls to get the bird, vowing that he would not return without a living specimen to prove himself right. Nothing was ever heard from Muntz following his departure, and soon he was all but forgotten.Unfortunately, the countless years that Muntz spent at Paradise Falls corrupted him, his obsession driving him into insanity. Muntz became ruthless and paranoid, determined to do anything to obtain the bird and believing that anyone who came to Paradise Falls was after the bird to steal his glory, presumably leading him to kill anyone he met.When Muntz comes across Carl and Russell, he is touched by Carl's admiration and invites them to visit his aircraft, but it doesn't take long before his true nature reveals itself, when he learns that his guests have befriended the bird. He thinks they want to steal it and is ready to kill them to retrieve it.A chase begins, and Muntz succeeds at last in capturing the bird. Russell and Carl attack The Spirit of Adventure, and a battle ensues. In a final fight, Muntz breaks into Carl's house with a Sharps Rifle. Carl lures Kevin out of the house with a chocolate bar and knocks the gun out of Muntz's hands in the process. In the last resort measure, Muntz leaps out of the window after them and tries to grab Kevin's tail feathers.] But Muntz's foot gets tangled in some balloon lines which detach from Carl's house, leaving the explorer to fall thousands of feet below to his death.
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Charles F. Muntz was a renowned explorer and entrepreneur while Carl and Ellie were children. He often traveled in his zeppelin, "The Spirit of Adventure", with his many canine companions. Thanks to Muntz's own ingenuity, he crafted many devices in his dirigible to make his life and his dogs as comfortable as possible. He also created the communicators in their collars later so they could be able to talk to each other.During one eventful return from Paradise Falls in South America, Muntz reveals an astonishing discovery—the skeleton of "The Monster of Paradise Falls". Scientists, however, believed the skeleton was a fabrication, and Muntz was publicly disgraced. He vowed to capture the creature alive and not return to the United States until he captured the creature. Overtime it appears that Muntz, his adventures and disgrace became forgotten on the mainland.For the next 70 years, Muntz's sole focus was to capture the rare bird by any means and bred generations of dogs to aid him in his mission and to take over hunting the bird when he became unable to go after it himself due to his advanced age. He at one point discovered where the bird lives and nests, a monstrous rocky labyrinth, but he himself was never able to enter it due to the labyrinth being a deadly maze able to cause anyone to get lost quickly and he claims to have lost so many of his dogs when he sent them in to capture the bird. The time he has spent alone and concentrating only on his mission made him extremely paranoid and dangerous. It is hinted that he murdered other visitors to Paradise Falls whom he thinks were after "his" bird.Later in the film he meets up with Carl and Russell and invites them over to his zeppelin for dinner, telling them of his search for the rare valuable bird, whom Kevin is a perfect match for his description. After Russell accidentally lets it slip that Kevin is his pet and the bird he's looking for, Muntz becomes convinced that they are out to take credit for the bird's existence, so he sends his dogs after them. Carl, Russell, and Dug manage to escape by getting Kevin to fly over a cliff, but her leg is injured by Alpha.That night, their location is given away by Dug's collar and Muntz captures Kevin in a net just before she can make it back to her babies. He gives Carl the ultimatum of either rescuing Kevin or saving his house, which he has set on fire. Carl rushes to put out the blaze and Muntz easily incapacitates Russell as he gets away with Kevin. Russell, thinking Carl only cares about his home, goes off to rescue Kevin by himself, but is tied up by Muntz and Alpha. Knowing that Carl can't be far behind, he leaves Russell as bait as he returns to pilot the dirigible.Muntz confronts Carl and Kevin and they fight while Russell is left at the house surrounded by three dog-piloted planes that Muntz sent to take them down. Dug saves Carl from Muntz, no longer trusting him as his master. Dug, Russell, and Kevin make their way to Carl's floating house with Charles in pursuit, trying to bring down the house with a hunting rifle. He makes his way into the house and tries to shoot them with his rifle, but Carl lures Kevin out of the house with a bar of chocolate, knocking away the rifle, while Dug and Russell are on her back. When Muntz leaps out of the window after them to grab hold of them and attack Kevin, he gets his right foot caught in the string of some balloons, pulling him back. The strings snap, and Muntz falls thousands of feet to his eventual death.
==Enemies== 
*Carl Fredricksen - Former Guest, Former Fan, Attempted Victim and Arch Enemy
*Russell - Former Guest and Attempted Victim
*Kevin
*Dug - Former Subordinate
==Age==
If Carl was 78 years old by the time of him meeting him, and Muntz was at least 20 years old when Carl was 8 years old, then Muntz could be over 90 years old. When talking to Carl, Muntz talks about being on Safari with Roosevelt. It is hard to tell if he means Theodore Roosevelt, one of Roosevelt's sons or Franklin Delano Roosevelt, as Theodore Roosevelt passed away from a pulmonary embolism on January 6, 1919, at the age of 60, when Charles was only 3 years old, meaning that Muntz was probably born in either 1915 or 1916.An explanation for Muntz's advanced age is in a deleted subplot from Up. It explains that Kevin's eggs act as a sort of fountain of youth that prevents Muntz from aging.
==Quotes==
==Trivia==
*Charles F. Muntz is currently the first and so far the only main Pixar movie antagonist to use a firearm, the weapon being an 1865 Spencer carbine. He uses the gun when storming Carl's house when the latter makes his getaway with Kevin.
*The sword that Muntz uses during his fight with Carl is a medieval Claymore, the same sword that William Wallace famously owned.
*The ultimate fate of Muntz was a work in progress for Pixar as they tried several versions to get him out of the way so the film could get back to Carl and his connection to Ellie:
**First, they tried giving Muntz a chance to redeem himself to the point where it resorted to just him talking with Carl.
**Then they tried an ending that was reminiscent to Jack Torrance's fate in Stanley Kubrick's version of The Shining where Muntz goes after Kevin in the labyrinth and is lost it forever, but it felt more like Muntz's ending than Carl's ending.
**At another point, Pixar decided to place the climax on the Spirit of Adventure and one version had Muntz trapped in the house as it floats away, but it felt wrong due to the house being a representation of Ellie.
**Another version had Muntz caught in a bunch of balloons and floating upwards, but it is left uncertain as to whether if he was killed or not. It was at this point that Pixar decided the best comeuppance for Muntz was for him to get caught in the balloons and fall with them. This is discussed on the DVD extra "The Many Endings of Muntz".
*His name "Charles Muntz" is based on "", whom Walt Disney worked for while making the cartoons, and who took the cartoon from Walt Disney since Universal Studios owned the copyrights.
*Muntz is based on aviator Howard Hughes who was known for his intelligence, eccentricity, ego, and obsession. He also has traits of real-life adventurers, Charles Lindbergh and Percy Fawcett.
*Muntz is a dark reflection to Carl: both elderly men who both suffered terrible tragedies in their lives and became bitter (Carl losing his wife, and Muntz being cast out). When Carl came across Russel, Kevin, and Doug, he first viewed them as a nuisance. Later, Carl viewed them as the family he never had and later redeemed himself, as well as learning to accept the loss. On the other hand, Muntz refused to accept the loss and lived obsessed with his past and was trying to relive it in any way possible. Muntz serves as an example of what Carl would become if he never learned to accept the loss and move on with his life.
*While he's the film's main villain, others have seen a more rational side to the character, as he was cast out from the National Explorer's Society when scientists believed that the skeleton was forged due to the unlikelihood of such a creature existing. Spike.com ranks him #4 in their list "The Top 10 Hollywood "Villains Who Got Screwed". Under the section titled "What People Forget", it says "He never actually did anything altogether evil until the main characters boarded his zeppelin by force and attempted to steal his bird, at which point he tried to throw them overboard.".
*Muntz's voice actor Christopher Plummer died the same year as Carl's voice actor Ed Asner, only six months apart from each other.
==External Links== 
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== Trivia ==
* Considering that Muntz was between 20 and 30 and Carl was 9 at the beginning of the movie, and that Carl is 78 by the time he takes off with his house, Muntz could be about 90 to 100 years old when they meet.
* Muntz's full middle name is unknown.
* His name comes from Charles Mintz, a film producer who had a dispute with Walt Disney regarding payment for his studio's work on Universal Pictures' Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon series (from where the Mickey Mouse character later spawned).
** The name "Carl" is also a Germanic form of the name "Charles", suggesting that both characters are foils of each other and how Muntz represents a side of Carl.
* Muntz's objectives, actions, and fate are arguably very similar or nearly identical to those of Percival C. McLeach, a character in The Rescuers Down Under.
* When talking to Carl, Muntz talks about being on safari with Roosevelt. It is hard to tell if he means Theodore Roosevelt (a well-known explorer and adventurer) or one of Roosevelt's sons or his nephew, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, as Theodore Roosevelt passed away in 1919 when Charles was only 3 years old.
* The ultimate fate of Muntz was a work in progress for Pixar as they tried several versions to get him out of the way so the film could get back to Carl and his connection to Ellie. First, they tried giving Muntz a chance to redeem himself to the point where it resorted to just him talking with Carl. Then they tried an ending that was reminiscent of Stanley Kubrick's version of The Shining where Muntz goes after Kevin in the labyrinth, where he's left to wander forever, but it felt more like Muntz's ending than Carl's ending. At that point, Pixar decided to place the climax on the Spirit of Adventure and one version had Muntz trapped in the house as it floats away, but it felt wrong due to the house being seen as Ellie. Another version had Muntz caught in a bunch of balloons and floating upwards, but it left uncertainty as to whether he was dead. It was at this point that Pixar decided the best comeuppance for Muntz was for him to get caught in the balloons and fall with them. This is discussed on the DVD extra "The Many Endings of Muntz."
** Director Pete Docter indirectly mentioned in the DVD bonus "The Many Endings of Muntz" that Charles F. Muntz represented Carl's side that gave up on sanity after losing his most prized possession (Ellie to Carl, the bird to Muntz). In order for Carl to overcome his grief, his dark side had to be defeated, in other words, Muntz had to die. This commentary indirectly implies that Muntz did not survive the fall.
* Although he dies at the end of the film, he is shown to be still alive in the Kinect Rush: A Disney/Pixar Adventure video game, along with that his dogs are still evil in the game. However the game is non-canonical to the film, as it is established from the start to be a group of kids playing pretend in a Pixar theme playground.
* An Easter egg found in the Blu-ray version titled "The Egg" discusses an idea about Kevin's eggs restoring youth when consumed. The egg is what Muntz goes after in this version and it is not known if he still wants to clear his name. The idea was later abandoned.
* Christopher Plummer, Muntz's voice actor, played Captain von Trapp from The Sound of Music and voiced the Grand Duke of Owls from Rock-a-Doodle, voiced the narrator in the Madeline franchise, and 1 from the Focus Feature film 9 (both were released in 2009).
* Muntz has his own musical theme composed by Michael Giacchino that's the first piece of music heard in Up. It echoes through the film when Carl and Russell meet him 70 years after young Carl sees Muntz in the newsreel at the beginning. A twisted version plays when Carl realizes Muntz's intention of capturing Kevin and killing anyone who gets in his way. Finally, the theme plays against Ellie's theme during the climactic battle between Carl and Muntz.
* Muntz's rifle strongly resembles a Sharps Rifle.
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* Considering that Muntz is in his early 20's and Carl is 9 at the beginning of the film, and that Carl is 78 by the time he takes off with his house, Muntz could be over 90 years old when they meet.
** Originally, the reason why Muntz wanted to find the bird was because its eggs had a magical property that slowed aging. This storyline was eventually scrapped, but by then, it was too late in production to change the fact that he was still alive and well when Carl visited Paradise Falls.
** Director Pete Docter himself confirmed that Muntz is 23 years old at the start of the film while Carl is 9. In the present day, Muntz is therefore 92 years old while Carl is 78; an age gap of 14 years.
* When talking to Carl, Muntz talks about being on safari with Roosevelt. It is hard to tell if he means Theodore Roosevelt (a well-known explorer and adventurer) or one of Roosevelt's sons or his fifth cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, as Teddy died in 1919 when Charles was only 3 years old.
* It is often suspected that his name was inspired by Charles Mintz, Disney's boss during his time animating Oswald the Lucky Rabbit shorts for Universal Pictures. Mintz had a poor relationship with Disney and ended up hiring most of Disney's staff and firing him, leading him and his remaining staff to create Mickey Mouse. However, Pixar has never supported this claim.
* The name "Carl" is also a Germanic form of the name "Charles", suggesting that both characters are foils of each other and how Muntz represents the dark side of Carl.
* The ultimate fate of Muntz was a work in progress for Pixar as they tried several versions to get him out of the way so the film could get back to Carl and his connection to Ellie. First, they tried giving Muntz a chance to redeem himself to the point where it resorted to just him talking with Carl. Then they tried an ending that was reminiscent of Stanley Kubrick's version of The Shining where Muntz goes after Kevin in the labyrinth, where he's left to wander forever, but it felt more like Muntz's ending than Carl's ending. At that point, Pixar decided to place the climax on the Spirit of Adventure and one version had Muntz trapped in the house as it floats away, but it felt wrong due to the house being seen as Ellie. Another version had Muntz caught in a bunch of balloons and floating upwards, but it left an uncertainty as to whether he was dead. It was at this point that Pixar decided the best comeuppance for Muntz was for him to fall to his death. This is discussed on the DVD extra "The Many Endings of Muntz".
** Director Pete Docter indirectly mentioned in the DVD bonus "The Many Endings of Muntz" that Charles F. Muntz represented Carl's side that gave up on sanity after losing what or who was most important to him (Ellie to Carl, the bird to Muntz). In order for Carl to overcome his grief, his dark side had to be defeated, in other words, Muntz had to die. This commentary indirectly implies that Muntz did not survive the fall.
** Muntz's fate in the video game adaptations of Up was similar to the one where he was stuck in the house: after Kevin and Russell jump out of the house, Carl and Dug (who were in an airplane) accidentally popped the rest of the balloons by flying into them, resulting in the house falling off the zeppelin and taking Muntz with it.
** In Kinect Rush: A Disney/Pixar Adventure, Muntz did survive the fall and had several more dogs to assist his pursuit for Kevin, though the game is non-canonical to the film, as it is established from the start to be a group of kids playing pretend in a Pixar theme playground.
* An Easter egg found in the Blu-ray version titled "The Egg" discusses an idea about Kevin's eggs restoring youth when consumed. The egg is what Muntz goes after in this version and it is not known if he still wants to clear his name. The idea was later abandoned because Carl wasn't concerned about being young again.
* Muntz has his own musical theme composed by Michael Giacchino that's the first piece of music heard in Up. It echoes through the film when Carl and Russell meet him 70 years after young Carl sees Muntz in the newsreel at the beginning. A twisted version plays when Carl realizes Muntz's intention of capturing Kevin and killing anyone who gets in his way. Finally, the theme plays against Ellie's theme during the climactic battle between Carl and Muntz.
* Muntz's cameo in Toy Story 4 showed him, Gamma, Beta, Alpha, and Dug in a painting similar to the Dogs Playing Poker series by Cassius Marcellus Coolidge.
* Muntz is alluded to in one of the newspaper clippings seen around Shanghai Disneyland's Camp Discovery, with a League of Adventurers expedition to Antarctica utilizing an aerial drop-off technique to bring a team of sled dogs to Wilkes Station being compared to strategies Muntz himself used.
* If Muntz was ever able to capture Kevin's species, it appears that no one would have even known who he is, as it is hinted that he was quickly and completely forgotten on the mainland. Even Russell does not know who he is upon meeting him, showing that Muntz's achievements and adventures are not common knowledge in the present day or even taught in schools or a notable historical subject. Thus Muntz's alleged fabrication of the bird's skeleton was likely forgotten too and therefore he wasted nearly 70 years of his life trying to clear his name for nothing. However, he might have risen to fame again as he had discovered a new species.
** The fact that he appears to have been forgotten suggests that he made no further contact with the mainland after setting off to capture the bird, which may possibly even have led to him eventually having been declared dead in absentia.
** Additionally, the very methods that disaproved his finding of the bird would end up being disacredited a few years later, meaning that his whole search ended up being in vain.
* Muntz serves as a dark reflection to Carl as both were elderly men who had suffered terrible tragedies and became bitter from them, with Carl losing his wife and Muntz being accused of fraud. When Carl came across Russell, Dug, and Kevin, he viewed them as nuisances, but later viewed them as his family he never had, as well as redeeming himself and accepting loss. Muntz, on the other hand, refused to accept the loss and was obsessed with his past, trying to relieve it in any way possible. If Carl had not learned to accept the loss and move on with his life, he could have ended up like Muntz.
** Another similarity is that should they succeed in their goals, it would be for nothing because Muntz appears to have been forgotten so it would be likely that he would have cleared his name for nothing if he successfully brings back Kevin's species. If Carl would succeed in bringing his house to the exact spot in Paradise Falls, he would be living all alone without basic necessities such as food, water, and electricity in a remote harsh wilderness far from civilization. His old age would also make it extremely difficult if not impossible for him to survive in the wilderness.
* His rifle strongly resembles a Sharps Hunting Rifle.
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*Charles F. Muntz is currently the first and so far the only main Pixar movie antagonist to use a firearm, the weapon being an 1865 Spencer carbine. He uses the gun when storming Carl's house when the latter makes his getaway with Kevin.
*The sword that Muntz uses during his fight with Carl is a medieval Claymore, the same sword that William Wallace famously owned.
*The ultimate fate of Muntz was a work in progress for Pixar as they tried several versions to get him out of the way so the film could get back to Carl and his connection to Ellie:
**First, they tried giving Muntz a chance to redeem himself to the point where it resorted to just him talking with Carl.
**Then they tried an ending that was reminiscent to Jack Torrance's fate in Stanley Kubrick's version of The Shining where Muntz goes after Kevin in the labyrinth and is lost it forever, but it felt more like Muntz's ending than Carl's ending.
**At another point, Pixar decided to place the climax on the Spirit of Adventure and one version had Muntz trapped in the house as it floats away, but it felt wrong due to the house being a representation of Ellie.
**Another version had Muntz caught in a bunch of balloons and floating upwards, but it is left uncertain as to whether if he was killed or not. It was at this point that Pixar decided the best comeuppance for Muntz was for him to get caught in the balloons and fall with them. This is discussed on the DVD extra "The Many Endings of Muntz".
*His name "Charles Muntz" is based on "", whom Walt Disney worked for while making the cartoons, and who took the cartoon from Walt Disney since Universal Studios owned the copyrights.
*Muntz is based on aviator Howard Hughes who was known for his intelligence, eccentricity, ego, and obsession. He also has traits of real-life adventurers, Charles Lindbergh and Percy Fawcett.
*Muntz is a dark reflection to Carl: both elderly men who both suffered terrible tragedies in their lives and became bitter (Carl losing his wife, and Muntz being cast out). When Carl came across Russel, Kevin, and Doug, he first viewed them as a nuisance. Later, Carl viewed them as the family he never had and later redeemed himself, as well as learning to accept the loss. On the other hand, Muntz refused to accept the loss and lived obsessed with his past and was trying to relive it in any way possible. Muntz serves as an example of what Carl would become if he never learned to accept the loss and move on with his life.
*While he's the film's main villain, others have seen a more rational side to the character, as he was cast out from the National Explorer's Society when scientists believed that the skeleton was forged due to the unlikelihood of such a creature existing. Spike.com ranks him #4 in their list "The Top 10 Hollywood "Villains Who Got Screwed". Under the section titled "What People Forget", it says "He never actually did anything altogether evil until the main characters boarded his zeppelin by force and attempted to steal his bird, at which point he tried to throw them overboard.".
*Muntz's voice actor Christopher Plummer died the same year as Carl's voice actor Ed Asner, only six months apart from each other.
==Official Bio==
==External links==
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