Disney Pixar’s “UP” is out on Blu-ray and DVD! To celebrate we are posting the sixth section of an interview with the co-writers and directors of “UP,” Peter Docter and Bob Peterson. You can check out the fifth section of the interview here.

Q: Other than the trip to South America, what inspired the story of “Up”?

Bob Peterson: Various things, including the lives of our own grandparents. For example, I had a grandfather who always wanted to go west from Ohio, but never got the chance. I had the foresight to videotape my grandparents’ home after they had passed 20 years ago. There are the side by side chairs – one soft and one hard which absolutely paralleled who they were as people. Many of our life experiences with our wives and children were put into play in the script, and of course living with our dogs gave us great insight into dog behavior!

Q: Who came up with the idea to cast Ed Asner as Carl?

Bob Peterson: Once Pete and I had arrived at the idea of doing an old man movie, the thought of Ed Asner came fairly early on. Good casting at Pixar is an exercise of balance. Woody in “Toy Story” could have been perceived as unappealing when he was jealous of Buzz if we had the wrong voice for him, but Tom Hanks brings such a natural appeal that he balanced any of Woody’s negatives. The same with Ed Asner. Ed’s soulfulness balanced his curmudgeon side. When Ed saw the small statue of his character when he came in to read for us he said, “It looks nothing like me!” We knew from that, that Ed was the perfect voice for Carl.

Q: My favorite scene was Carl’s montage at the beginning. It seems like such a simple idea, but I’m sure it was complicated. Can you explain the process of how the montage evolved?

Pete Docter: That was probably the scene I’m most proud of in the film. It came into play early as we developed the story of this guy floating away in his house, and we asked ourselves, “Why is he doing that?” We figured there was some sort of loss or unfulfilled dream that he was trying to make right, and so we came up with the back-story of Carl and his wife. We initially constructed it as a compressed series of small short scenes, with dialogue and sound effects. Little snippets of life. When Ronnie del Carmen started to storyboard it, we felt like it would be nice to reduce it, simplify it, and take the dialogue out. My parents shot a lot of super 8 movies of our family growing up. Watching them now, there’s something really emotional about not having any sound. That allows, I think, the audience to participate more actively and kind of imagine, “What are they talking about there?” Or “what happened right before this moment? ” And that feeling was all part of what went into the scene…these really beautiful, little, real-life moments showing the highs and lows of life. Carl’s true adventure was their relationship together.

Q: Both of you are animators, does it help to have that background to be a good director on a film like this?

Bob Peterson: Pete is the gifted animator between the two of us. I hail more from the world of storyboarding and cartooning with a bit of animation experience (I worked on Sid in “Toy Story”). The great thing that Pete possesses, partly from being an animator is that he is a good student of movement and entertaining physical actions. Being a cartoonist, I spent a lot of time with staging, drawing appeal and dialogue. It’s great that we bring different strengths to the table. That said, Pete is a great writer and story man and our skills blur. So to really answer your question, it does help.

Q: How did Michael Giacchino come to the project? How was working with him?

Pete Docter: Michael had worked with Brad Bird on “The Incredibles” and “Ratatouille” and of course did a great job on those. He’s a true collaborator. We started out talking through the film conceptually, discussing the things we were looking for — like paying homage to the films of the 40s and 50s, the Disney films and Frank Capra and films like that. We wanted to evoke that kind of a feel. And then we went through sequences shot by shot sometimes and talked about the construction of the scenes and what I was hoping to achieve musically. Not necessarily like arrangements or anything like that, but more like, “Okay, it should start really low here, sneak in, and then build to this point…. and then jump out at us!” We’d talk more emotionally like that and then I’d leave it to Michael to write the music. He would play us these demos and we’d listen via teleconference, and anytime we’d have thoughts or suggestions, he would make changes, sometimes right on the spot. He was very open to whatever the film needed. He’s a filmmaker. He really thinks about the storytelling and how music communicates to people. He’s got range that a lot of film composers either don’t have or don’t utilize. His “Ratatouille” score doesn’t sound like the “Up” score, which doesn’t sound like “The Incredibles” or “Star Trek.” Amazing.

Q: I absolutely adore the character of Dug, who’s vocalizations are both very funny and a pretty accurate reflection of what Man’s Best Friend actually thinks – what was the inspiration for this character?

Bob Peterson: I really enjoyed playing that character and creating his dialogue. Pete and I have always had dogs and they serve as the great inspiration for this character. My dog, Rosy, is a huge fan of squirrels. Also, I love to fool my dogs into thinking that I see something interesting for them. They’ll be sitting around panting, and I’ll join in, and then pretend I see something, suddenly, stopping the panting. They stop. Then I go back to panting. They go back. I love dogs!

Q: Were you concerned at all with delivering such an emotional gut-punch so early in the first act?

Bob Peterson: We weren’t concerned as much as we were vigilant. We knew that we were traversing deep emotional terrain early in the film and we wanted to keep that thread of emotion alive as the film progressed. The reason we went so deep was because we wanted the audience to buy that Carl would lift his house and go on such an audacious adventure. We wanted to keep Ellie alive in the second and third acts, as if she were along for the journey, and so we created a few “talismans” to do so – objects with symbolic meanings – such as the adventure book, the house itself, the colorful sash on Russell (and his Ellie-like sense of adventure) and the colorful bird. At the end of the second act, when Carl reads the adventure book, Ellie is there to give him the wisdom to keep going. It was our hope that in keeping Ellie’s spirit alive throughout the film, her passing earlier would be more poignant.

Q: “Up” became the first animated film to open the Cannes Film Festival. Do you believe animated features are becoming accepted as a more serious artistic platform?

Pete Docter: We were very honored to be the first animated film to open the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. Walking around there, I kept picturing Hitchcock, Coppola, Truffaut; these big time directors… and US?!?! It seemed like some sort of mistake! But we do look at our work as filmmaking, just like any other film. And it’s nice to see the world looking at it that way as well.

Have you picked up your copy of “UP” on Blu-ray or DVD yet?

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment

• Interview With “UP” Writers And Directors Part 3
• Interview With “UP” Writers And Directors Part 2
• Interview With “UP” Writers And Directors Part 1
• Interview With “UP” Writers And Directors Part 5
• Interview With “UP” Writers And Directors Part 4
• Roundtable with Up’s Ronnie del Carmen
• Disney Pixar “UP” Blu-ray and DVD Review
• UP The Movie New Trailer
• Disney Pixar’s Computer Animated Movies
• “Tinker Bell And The Lost Treasure” Question And Answer Session Part 4
• Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Minnie’s Bow-tique DVD Giveaway