By Akshay Raja
Many people have fantasised about Carl and Ellie Fredericksen’s house from the 2009 movie Up. One family in America even live in an exact replica of the cartoon home.
Well, not quite exact. Unfortunately, this version cannot fly. It does mirror other admirable features though, like the multicoloured pastel exterior, retro light switches and mantelpiece, above which there’s a painting of the house set upon the edge of the fictional Paradise Falls, in South America. The construction company also commissioned custom-made furniture to resemble that in the film.
Bangerter Homes built the replica in Utah in 2011 as a tourist attraction after it received exclusive rights from the Walt Disney Company. The house was then purchased by the Hamblin family for $400,000. As well as living there, they allow short free visits by the public and longer ones for a fee for photoshoots and occasions such as engagements and birthdays.
Although I would not go to quite such extreme lengths, I empathise with the Hamblins’ love for the property. Its transformation throughout the film epitomises the character with which a home can be imbued.
The house is dilapidated when we are introduced to it. There, Carl and Ellie first meet as young children. Leaving much to be desired structurally, the house acts as a canvas for their imaginations. In the following years, the couple transform the rundown building into a colourful home, replete with antique furniture and photo frames filled with memories.
Having moved from Manchester to London when I was a young child, I often think about the memories left behind in my earlier home. I still recall the garden decking under which I hid my toys, and the nooks and crannies that fulfilled varying roles depending on which game I was playing. While leaving my home at a young age means it is still embedded in my mind with these youthful dreams, the house in Up serves as an indication of how those perceptions might have grown with me.
As Adam Bangerter — designer of the real-life replica — said, “[The house] illustrates what home ownership really is, and it’s not an investment.” Rather, he highlights the value of nurturing and improving a property, of making it part of your family.
Throughout Carl and Ellie’s renovations, the house keeps its charm. The same cannot be said for the neighbourhood. After decades of modernisation, the home is next seen surrounded by construction sites of multiple high-rises. Against this backdrop, its beauty is accentuated. What the new builds have in their sleek and modern design, the Fredericksen’s house makes up for in individuality. Take, for example, the mailbox — still covered in Carl and Ellie’s painted handprints.
Over the almost two decades I have spent in London I have seen local areas drained of their character, as they are transformed by investment. The Fredericksen home withstands these forces of modernisation. When the elderly widower Carl unleashes a hoard of balloons and the house sets sail, he escapes from the ensuing destruction of his neighbourhood.
The property appeals to ideals which seem unattainable in everyday life. As the house comes to resemble that in young Ellie’s adventure book, the film highlights how central our homes are to the grand visions we form in childhood. From an abandoned building claimed as a child’s playground, to a family home set inside a white picket fence, to a flying vessel where a grieving husband keeps a promise to his late wife, the home epitomises the beauty of growing older in one property.
Photography: Walt Disney Co/Everett Collection/Alamy; Shutterstock
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