Pixar's Up House Gets A Charming Building Brick Makeover From LEGO
Kicking off part of the big Disney 100 celebrations this year, LEGO is releasing a series of building brick playsets and items inspired by the movies of Walt Disney Animation and Pixar. Along with a series of minifigures inspired by over a dozen Disney and Pixar favorites, LEGO has also brought fans a buildable version of Carl's house from Pixar's animated adventure movie "Up."
The charming yellow house from "Up" is immediately recognizable, not just because of the bright, vibrant pastel colors that make it stand out from your average home, but because there's quite the collection of balloons hanging overhead, allowing it to make a quick getaway from being demolished. So how does the LEGO version of Carl's house measure up? Thankfully, the building brick company was kind enough to send the new playset to /Film, and yours truly pieced it together. The good news is that it's a charming build worthy of a nice little spot on your pop culture display shelf. The bad news is that it feels somewhat incomplete, even if it's still a delight to build.
How's the build?
Clocking in at just 598 pieces, this is far from an expert-level creator LEGO set. Though the house measures 11 inches high (with the balloons adding a good amount of height), it's only around 5.5 inches wide and roughly 2.5 inches deep. This is not a full modular LEGO set that recreates the entirety of Carl's house. Instead, it's more of a facade or diorama kind of set where you build the front part of the house, and a small section of a few rooms within. While that does make it perfect for being displayed on the shelf, it does make it a little bit of a disappointment for anyone hoping to position the minifigures inside the building.
Ethan Anderton
However, the interior of the house does hold some adorable Easter eggs and references to the Pixar movie. For example, you'll get the LEGO version of Carl & Ellie's little adventure book. But if you're looking for accuracy, you might be a little frustrated that the book itself doesn't open up length-wise. That's because the set uses LEGO's usual book pieces, which are created to represent a normal book orientation rather than the wider set style of the adventure book from the movie. Another little detail that's missing is having a decorated mailbox with Carl & Ellie's name and handprints on it. While it might have required the mailbox to be a bit bigger, it would have been a nice touch.
Ethan Anderton
Other details inside the house include a vintage television with a sticker showing the old school adventure reels where Carl followed the adventures of Charles Muntz. You'll use stickers to create round picture frames with minifigure imagery of young Carl in his pilot cap, Carl and Ellie on their wedding day, and an elderly Ellie before she passed away. The bed cleverly uses small smooth square pieces to create a plaid comforter pattern. There's also a tiny jar with a graphic on it that says "Paradise Falls," though you won't be able to fit any LEGO coin pieces inside.
Ethan Anderton
The exterior of the house is beautiful, perfectly capturing the pastel color scheme in all the right places. The one issue that I have with the structure of the house itself is that the two sides of the tallest roof of the house don't actually connect, which makes that area of the house feel a bit flimsy. Several times while shifting the house during the building process and after completion, the roof would shift and result in the weather vane coming undone. It's not a huge problem, but I wish there was a way to make the roof feel a little more secure in that area.
How about the minifigures?
Along with the LEGO version of Carl's house from "Up," the set features a handful of minifgures who come with the set. Of course, it wouldn't be a proper "Up" LEGO set without Carl Fredricksen. Since Carl is a short, elderly man, his minifigure legs are of the shorter variety to better match his character size. His legs can still be moved slightly, but they're just not as long as your average LEGO minifigure. Carl also comes with two facial expressions, one looking a bit grumpy, and the other smiling ever so slightly. The walker sits a little awkwardly because of the orientation of the minifigure roller skate use to make the bottom, but it's still effective in its appearance.
The set also includes everyone's favorite Wilderness Explorer, Russell. Since Russell is a kid, his minifigure is also of the shorter variety. However, unlike Carl, the leg pieces on Russell cannot be maneuvered, which creates a bit of a problem if you want Russell to stand on his own without reinforcing his feet on a LEGO stud. That's because part of putting Russell together also includes building his Wilderness Explorer outfit. All of the pieces that form Russell's backpack are too heavy for Russell to be able to stand up without situating him firmly on a LEGO stud (in the image above, he's propped between the house and the yard piece). That wouldn't be a problem if there was more yard space for Russell to stand on in front of the house, but because the build is limited in that capacity, it's a bit of a shortcoming.
Joining Carl and Russell are singular animal minifigures that don't require building. There's Dug the talking dog, who looks quite cute, and there's a tiny squirrel to distract him. But again, unless you situate the LEGO "Up" house on a larger plate for display, there's only a small patch of grass with a balloon take and partial picket fence to situate them on.
Cute but somewhat incomplete
Overall, the LEGO "Up" house is a solid little playset. It'll satisfy the more casual LEGO fans who have an affinity for the Pixar movie, but it may leave the more dedicated LEGO fans wanting something a little more detailed. Personally, I would have preferred a full modular version of the house that could sit alongside other LEGO Creator buildings like the Palace Movie Theater or Downtown Diner. At the very least, having a full yard in which to properly place the minifigures would have been nice. In fact, having a roster of minifigures that included younger versions of Carl and Ellie, both as adults and children, would have been great.
Ethan Anderton
But even with those shortcomings, putting this LEGO set together was fun, and I'll happily display it on a shelf alongside other Pixar paraphernalia. Maybe one of the LEGO Master Builders out there will come out with a list of parts for a modification that will make this a little more friendly to LEGO Expert specs.
You can buy the LEGO "Up" house right now from The LEGO Shop online for $59.99 or keep an eye out in retail stores.