La missione speciale di Dug

I really impressed after watching this mini movie... You need to watch Up first and then watch this movie and enjoy!

Based on how my son laughed the whole way through I'll give it a 10/10 as it's aimed at children

As we all know, Dug is the dog that meets Carl and Russell on top of a mountain top while he is on a mission hunting for an elusive tropical bird on the orders of his master Charles Muntz. Well, "hunting" is a bit strong since Dug has been sent on a wild goose chase to keep him out of the way of the main, err, "wild bird chase". This short film are the events that led Dug to be on that mountain top as Alpha tries to keep Dug occupied with a series of seemingly harmless "missions".

In addition to the short film that accompanies the cinematic release of their feature films, Pixar will mostly use one of the characters from the main film to generate another short film that will go on the DVD release of same. In this case I was very happy to find that this was to be the loyal but rather dopey dog Dug since he was one of my favourite characters from the film with both physical comedy and his funny dialogue (essentially the thoughts of a dog "SQUIRREL!"). This short film is well placed within the context of the main events and sees Alpha essentially ditching Dug with pointless missions such as "this is the bird's favourite hole in the ground, stay in this hole until you see the bird". Needless to say Alpha's plans manage to backfire as Dug manages to somehow get in Alpha's way with a mix of innocent cheerfulness and exuberance.

The ways that this happens are funny but they are made funnier by Dug as a character, the dialogue being a match for the film in terms of style and him being funny simply by virtue of being in the scene. Even the jokes that are repeated from the film (SQUIRREL!) are funny here. The ending of the short isn't particularly strong but this is forgivable since it is not really the "end" but rather nicely dovetails into a scene in the main film that we had previously come into from the perspective of Carl and Russell.

Overall Dug's Special Mission is a typically enjoyable DVD short film from Pixar that makes funny use of one the funnier characters from Up to produce a funny DVD extra that sits well alongside the main film.

Being a Pixar fan, I was looking forward to this short film ever since it was announced. Heck, I was eager for it even BEFORE it was announced, because Pixar always includes a second short film on their DVDs. While I can see by the ratings here on IMDb that some people didn't enjoy it as much as I did (I can see why, if they're comparing it to "Up"), I still think that this short film had a number of elements that made it very enjoyable to watch.

All the humor that comes with Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Dug is here, as well as Alpha's "broken collar" joke. However, this film did have a few discrepancies with the feature film it was based on that bothered me slightly. They're mostly anachronisms or continuity errors, but I can forgive them considering that this film is supposedly a representation of how Dug remembers these events, just like the "Married Life" sequence in "Up" was supposed to be how Carl Fredricksen remembered his marriage with Ellie.

This film isn't all physical humor, though. Before I go on, please note that you shouldn't watch this until you've seen the feature film it's based on. Anyway, after Alpha gets fed up with Dug, Dug is (to be brief) very sad and alienated. Pixar does their thing with the emotions, and Dug runs away into some fog-filled rocks. The first time I saw that, I felt sorry for Dug. However, as per his birthday wish (it is his birthday, after all), he finds "a new master": Carl and Russell. What a nice alternate location story!

I saw Dug's Special Mission as I love Pixar and Up is my second favourite of Pixar's films. Plus I wanted to see what this short film was going to be like from Dug's perspective. It was very well done, with a lot of what I loved about Up shown here. As with all of Pixar's work, it is beautifully animated, with character designs that have life and backgrounds and colours that have such a bright and breezy look to them. The music has a uplifting and nostalgic feel to it, the story is cute with a lot of heart to it and while the physical humour is genuinely amusing there is always room for some poignancy as well particularly at the end. The characters do engage, I personally like Dug and I liked what was done with him here, and the other dogs, Carl and Russell are great in support. The voice work is as solid as can be. Overall, very well done, I liked it very much. 9/10 Bethany Cox