Pinoy filmmaker reveals those heartbreaking scenes in Pixar’s ‘Up’ were inspired by his father

Oscar-nominated Filipino filmmaker Ronnie del Carmen has revealed that he was the person behind one of the iconic and heartbreaking sequences in the Pixar film “Up.”

According to an industry news report by Cartoon Brew on Wednesday, Ronnie, the head of story of “Up,” handled one of the film’s most famous moments: when old Carl sits alone in his house, goes through his adventure book, and reveals his life with his late wife Ellie.

Ronnie said this fragile moment was inspired by none other than his father. He said Bob Peterson, the film’s co-director, simply gave him one page that described the moment and instructed that it be a wordless scene.

“This was early in the movie’s story development, so nobody knew how it was going to work,” Ronnie said.

“In my personal life I had something going on in the back of my head: my father was now in a hospice and could not speak anymore. His years of being in and out of hospitals and surgery had taken its toll. He only had his face to show us if he was feeling good or not,” he said.

“So I’d sit on his bed and tell him I was working on a movie where the hero is an old man with a head full of white hair, just like him. He also wore dark rimmed glasses. I showed him my storyboards on my laptop. He’d see Carl and his eyes would ‘smile’ and he’d attempt to speak but nothing would come.”

Just like his father, Ronnie said old Carl’s thoughts and emotions could only be seen through his face and eyes.

“I pitched him the sequence of Carl leafing through the pages of the adventure book ... same with my dad—I tracked his eyes. His eyes told me he liked it,” Ronnie said.

“I used that wordless sequence to feature my father as the inspiration to tell Carl’s story where he remembers a life through pictures.”

Aside from working on “Up,” Ronnie is also the co-director of Pixar’s “Inside Out.”

He is now with Netflix, where he is developing an animated film based on Philippine mythology. – Kaela Malig/RC, GMA News