Charles Muntz

Charles Muntz
First Appearance	Up
Attractions	Camp Discovery Lamplight Lounge
Actor	Christopher Plummer
Biographical Information
Alignment	Evil
Affiliation	National Explorers Society (formerly)
Pets	His many dogs
Date of Death	C. 2009
Physical Description
Species	Human
Race/Ethnicity	White/American
Gender	Man
Eyes	Green eyes

“Adventure is out there!”

―Charles Muntz' catchphrase

Charles F. Muntz is the main-antagonist of the Pixar film Up (2009).

History

Background

Origins

Charles F. Muntz was a famous explorer and inventor during the 1930s who travelled the world in his airship, The Spirit of Adventure with various loyal trained dogs. Muntz made several claims about encountering rare and exotic animals which he sold many remains of to museums, though his claims may be dubious.

He claimed to have killed an Arsinoitherium in Ethiopia with a shaving kit and kept its skeleton while declaring its bones as, "Dental equipment". He also claimed to have gone on safari with Roosevelt and played gin rummy with him in the evenings where Roosevelt cheated. One of these safaris supposedly involved Muntz killing a giant Solmalian leopard tortoise which he kept in his private museum. At some point he appears to have visited the Lamplight Lounge at Pixar Pier in California and left behind an autographed photograph of himself.

Paradise Falls

While in Paradise Falls in South America, he acquired the skeleton of a large flightless bird dubbed, "The Monster of Paradise Falls", only for it to be declared a hoax by the National Explorers Society who stripped him of his membership. Muntz decided to return to the falls to find a better specimen and clear his name, obsessing over hunting the bird as his white whale for several decades. His main issue came with how the bird's nest is located in a foggy labyrinth of rocks which he could not navigate, and lost many trained dogs within.

While in the Falls, he gave his dogs collars which allowed them to communicate in English. In his madness, Muntz became paranoid that other humans who appeared in the Falls were all after his bird and would murder them. Amongst these were a surveyor making a map, and a botanist cataloguing plants. Muntz kept the helmets of these individuals as trophies.

Up

Around 2009, Paradise Falls was visited by his old fan Carl Fredricksen in a house floating with balloons to move his house there and fulfill a dream which he had with his late-wife, Ellie. Carl was accompanied by Wilderness Explorers boy-scout, Russell, who learned to have the bird follow them with chocolate and named it Kevin. While hosting Carl and Russell in the Spirit of Adventure, Muntz became convinced that the two were also after his bird, so attempted to capture them to use in trapping and killing it. This lead to an air-fight between the Spirit of Adventure and Carl's flying house, where Carl tricked Muntz into getting on his house and having his leg caught in balloons, causing Muntz to plummet to his death.

Appearances

Camp Discovery

The First International News newspaper story, "To the South Pole for Science" mentions how the League of Adventurers repurpose Charles Muntz' dog training tactics for their own expeditions.

Discovery Island

Muntz is indirectly referenced via Russell getting his Wilderness Explorers advanced appliance repair badge by working on Dug's translation collar.

Lamplight Lounge

Image source

There is a photograph of a young Charles Muntz in this restaurant with the message, "ADVENTURE IS OUT THERE!- Charles Muntz".

Trivia

• Charles Muntz and Ernesto de la Cruz from Coco are both Pixar villains who have signed photographs in the Lamplight Lounge.